Full time RN- Part time Real Estate agent?

[Pawl]

Hello everyone!

My name is Paul, and I am a full time RN in CA. I have 2 years of experience on a telemetry floor, and I currently work 7p-7a. I am next to go to days on my unit, and January is looking promising as two nurses are moving into the ICU. Working nights has been tough, and I cannot wait for the day that I get offered a day-time position. Anyway, to prepare for the future, I will have more time, and I wont always be tired once I move to days. I would like to become a real estate agent. Real estate is something that has always fascinated me, and I would love to earn some extra money working in the field. I have already signed up and started my classes for real estate. I would just like some insight from those who have already ventured down this path. What kind of money can you make doing real estate (and I mean really trying not just half-a$$ing it)? Working 3 days a week as an RN, would I be able to sell homes? How has being an RN and a real estate agent been for you?

Thank you all in advance. All answers correlating to my question are greatly appreciated.

Best,

Paul

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[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I have a friend who's a Social Worker who did it but she now does it as her full time job and doesn't work in Social Work anymore.

Presumably you have a weekend requirement and open houses are usually on weekends. How would that work for you as a seller's agent? Do you think clients are going to want to work with a real estate agent who can only show their home every other weekend?

I worked as a staff nurse when I bought my home so had time during the week to house hunt but many people house hunting work 9-5 and want their agents available to them on weekends.

[caliotter3]

A coworker became a real estate agent and left nursing. He was not successful and went to another business venture that his wife obtained for him through her connections. A shame because he was one of the best nurses that I ever met on the job.

[Pawl]

So he left to do it full time? Why did he not go back into nursing?

[caliotter3]

As far as I knew he had had it with nursing mainly from working in LTC (after working as a nurse in the military). He had a family, two children. I imagine that his wife may have put her foot down since she stepped in to provide him a job when he couldn't cut it as a RE agent.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

It is hard to do real estate part-time, it is pretty much a full-time job. You might find you prefer it over nursing, though. Good luck.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Try working full-time days for a while to get a feel of how much free time you will have available.

[LovingLife123]

Real Estate agents need to be available all the time. It's hard to do part time and be successful. Those that do it part time, are usually still available all the time, they just don't take on a lot of clients.

I think it would be very difficult.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

LovingLife123 said:

Real Estate agents need to be available all the time. It's hard to do part time and be successful. Those that do it part time, are usually still available all the time, they just don't take on a lot of clients.

I think it would be very difficult.

I agree. Even when you're not actively showing houses, your clients still expect you to respond to their emails essentially immediately. When I was buying my house, I would say my real estate agent responded to my emails within 20-30 minutes. That won't work during a 12 hr shift.

[rzyzzy]

I did really well with a real-estate license - I got licensed during the crash & invested my own money into houses to rent. When values recovered, I used the license (and the knowledge of my market) to sell the rentals for top dollar. I wouldn't rent houses in California due to your eviction laws, and I wouldn't buy anything in this market because the rent vs buy math just doesn't work in this economy - I consider my success in real estate to be a once in a very long time aberration.

What you see as "half-xxxing" is actually rational behavior on the part of commissioned salesmen- buyers ready to buy after seeing 3 houses in one day are profitable clients. Buyers who insist on looking at 95 houses over a six month period are not profitable clients. The industry rewards those with short attention spans & grinds up enthusiastic "hard workers", much like nursing.. ;-)

[Golden_RN, MSN]

I know too many unsuccessful agents in CA.

Your time is better spent making money hourly as an RN.

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

I used to sell real estate. Now I'm an RN. I'll echo others sentiments: even if real estate agents work part time hours, they're available full time to clients.

However, I've heard of agents using their work job connections to secure real estate clients.