Laid Off-Next Move? Needing Advice
Hello,
I got laid off from my W2 job unexpectedly this past Thursday. With this being my first time being laid off, it definitely knocked me down a few notches this weekend. I've always wanted to get into real estate ever since I graduated College in 2017. Before I started this W2 job earlier in 2022 I was on track to get my real estate license in KY. Passed the classes and right when I was going to take the exam I got a call offering me the job. I planned on taking the exam this fall. The plan was for my wife and I to work our full time time jobs and for me to do RE part time and to try and buy our first investment property.
I keep reading articles and seeing videos of people saying the housing market is on its way to a collapse. My question is, with everything going on with the economy and interest rates going up is it a good idea for me to finish up my license?
Maybe getting laid off was a good thing? Maybe this was God's way of closing one door and opening another?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Most have been there. I sure have.
Get back to work and get your license done. Those are not mutually exclusive options. Even in a down housing market there are people buying and selling houses. Don't give up the w-2 gig until you and the market are stabilized for you to make a career move. Don't ditch a w-2 life until it is a liability.
Hey @Seth Botner - I've been in the same shoes back in 2019. Got fired before Christmas holidays.
If you don't already have a stable amount in reserves setup, your only focus right now should be getting another job. You can use an offer letter from your new job towards your mortgage underwriting (same thing I did, didn't have to wait until I had a history of paystubs)
-
Broker New York (#10401359681)
- 929-349-8042
- http://www.ClosedByMo.com
- [email protected]
First off, sorry to hear about the lay off. I think you should continue to get your RE license, it's inexpensive and just requires time. That said, I would strongly recommend getting another W2 job. Home sales are declining quickly due to the rates (as you stated). Seems that the RE industry is over-saturated with realtors as well. A ton of agents and fewer sales due to the market conditions is not a good recipe for success as new realtor.
I think your initial plan was solid and that you should get another job and continue toward that goal.
Just my .02
Great answer @Greg R.
Being a realtor is tough and highly competitive. But you will get some opportunities to buy and sell homes from your circle of people you know. It will take a while to make good money doing it full time. You could join a team of realtors that have the lead flow to keep you busy in the short term.
I would get my license and have that and see what the W2 world brings to the table and go from there.
@Seth Botner, sorry to hear about your situation. Why do you want to get licensed in the first place? If the reason is so that you can save on commission by buying a deal or two a year then this was a mistake and waste of time. Being a real estate agent means running a full-time business. Yes, there are some successful part-time agents but they are rare. As others have mentioned, I would seek W2 employment asap. Hope this helps!
Quote from @Michael Dumler:
@Seth Botner, sorry to hear about your situation. Why do you want to get licensed in the first place? If the reason is so that you can save on commission by buying a deal or two a year then this was a mistake and waste of time. Being a real estate agent means running a full-time business. Yes, there are some successful part-time agents but they are rare. As others have mentioned, I would seek W2 employment asap. Hope this helps!
No, that is not the case. I want to get a license to pursue it as a career. Not to necessarily save on commission or find a good deal. Trying to weigh full time vs part time with a W2 job. I appreciate the input!
Getting laid off sucks. I'm sorry to hear that. I may be able to speak to your situation at a personal level because I've been in real estate for about 2 months now. Here's a few questions/comments that you may want to consider:
1. Do you have sufficient reserves? Is your wife's job enough to cover rent/ other bills? If you have enough reserves to get you through the lean times, you could do well. This is going to be a stressful time. You will be digging into your savings and you will not like it. Startup costs will also bite into the savings as well. I've been told it takes 1-2 years to really start earning good money.
2. Are you in the town you grew up in or have you spent a good amount of time in the area that you have a good number of connections? If you have friends and parents of friends that are willing to spread the word for you, that will significantly shorten the months it takes to get going. There are a lot of contacts you can tap that you wouldn't normally think of.
3. You will want to find a solid brokerage to work with. You learn what you need to in order to pass the state exam and that will get you part of the way but there's still a lot you don't actually know. What are the legal requirements for ____? You will want to find a broker that supplies a lot of support and training if you plan to give it the ole college try.
4. When I was thinking of going into real estate, I asked the same question "is the market oversaturated with agents?" The answer I got was "it doesn't have enough good agents." If you seek to be good or great, you'll do well in the industry. My office has also been saying that typically, we have a lot of people that are going to drop out when association dues come up. With this shifting market, there's going to be a lot more than normal. This will be your opportunity to learn in the tough times to become a great agent. Then, when the good times come back, you'll be making money hand over fist. You'll have built a solid reputation.
5. Sales could be down but that doesn't mean that buying and selling has completely stopped. Some people would have loved to buy in the last 2 years but have been unable to. There are a few different possible reasons for this. They may need to repair their bad credit. They might not have had a good down payment. Like I said, there are a lot of reasons. If the market truly does crash, you and a bunch of other investors will swoop in and snag a lot of property at a really good price. Additionally, I've heard that out of the last 5-6 recessions (I could be wrong on the number), only saw a significant decrease in home prices. All other recessions had prices stay kinda level. Additionally, we had a large pent up demand and super low interest rates. That would cause a frenzy at any point. IMO, we're going to see a return to normalized prices.
Quote from @David Van Singel:
Getting laid off sucks. I'm sorry to hear that. I may be able to speak to your situation at a personal level because I've been in real estate for about 2 months now. Here's a few questions/comments that you may want to consider:
1. Do you have sufficient reserves? Is your wife's job enough to cover rent/ other bills? If you have enough reserves to get you through the lean times, you could do well. This is going to be a stressful time. You will be digging into your savings and you will not like it. Startup costs will also bite into the savings as well. I've been told it takes 1-2 years to really start earning good money.
2. Are you in the town you grew up in or have you spent a good amount of time in the area that you have a good number of connections? If you have friends and parents of friends that are willing to spread the word for you, that will significantly shorten the months it takes to get going. There are a lot of contacts you can tap that you wouldn't normally think of.
3. You will want to find a solid brokerage to work with. You learn what you need to in order to pass the state exam and that will get you part of the way but there's still a lot you don't actually know. What are the legal requirements for ____? You will want to find a broker that supplies a lot of support and training if you plan to give it the ole college try.
4. When I was thinking of going into real estate, I asked the same question "is the market oversaturated with agents?" The answer I got was "it doesn't have enough good agents." If you seek to be good or great, you'll do well in the industry. My office has also been saying that typically, we have a lot of people that are going to drop out when association dues come up. With this shifting market, there's going to be a lot more than normal. This will be your opportunity to learn in the tough times to become a great agent. Then, when the good times come back, you'll be making money hand over fist. You'll have built a solid reputation.
5. Sales could be down but that doesn't mean that buying and selling has completely stopped. Some people would have loved to buy in the last 2 years but have been unable to. There are a few different possible reasons for this. They may need to repair their bad credit. They might not have had a good down payment. Like I said, there are a lot of reasons. If the market truly does crash, you and a bunch of other investors will swoop in and snag a lot of property at a really good price. Additionally, I've heard that out of the last 5-6 recessions (I could be wrong on the number), only saw a significant decrease in home prices. All other recessions had prices stay kinda level. Additionally, we had a large pent up demand and super low interest rates. That would cause a frenzy at any point. IMO, we're going to see a return to normalized prices.
1- Yes, we have 6 months worth of monthly expenses saved up. my wife's job will cover about 80% of our monthly expenses as well.
2-Yes, we live in my hometown. My family has owned a business since the early 60's so our name is known around our area.
3-I've also looked into this as well. We have about 6-8 different brokers in my area. I have a friend that is a realtor and he talks about how well his broker supports his education.
4/5-That is a good point, I've never thought of it in that way. Thanks for the input!
@Seth Botner David’s post is exactly what I was going to say. Only thing I would add is don’t expect to make too much money in your first year. If you go into it with that mentality then you’re going into it prepared. Your first year should be focused on learning, building your business like a house with the foundation first, setting up all your systems (marketing, prospecting, figuring out what works for you, etc), working on branding, and not focused on a check. If you do your first year right, you can expect a decent income in your second year. Then after that the sky is the limit.
Everyone is saying get a W2 but I disagree, if you have the reserves you need to jump in full throttle and give it 100% if you really want a successful career as an agent. I mentor new agents in my office and I rarely see any “part time” agents make it past the first year. This is a career that you really NEED to want and be passionate about. If it is then you’ll do great.
Another main thing as well to consider is your spouse, she needs to be on board and support this 100%. You’ll have to have a talk and explain that there may be some hard times ahead in the next year but if you can make it past that mountain it will be worth it.
Quote from @Seth Botner:
I got my license in 2010, which is when the market really slowed down in my area. Everyone said it was a terrible time to get into real estate. I said, "I'm barely making anything with my current job, so why not barely get by doing something I like?"
I trusted God would provide no matter what, and He has.
There's been a huge increase in the number of agents the past 3-4 years, primarily because the sales market has been so strong. I suspect a lot of those agents will disappear over the next 2-3 years as the market changes, but there will still be houses to sell and the agents that hustle and fight it out will survive.
Just my two cents coming from someone who's started in real estate investment and private property management and then got my real estate license and have been helping people with real estate needs over the last 3 years.
Being a professional real estate agent is essentially running a business. You have to enjoy working in the process of constantly making new friends, helping strangers (hopefully they become royal clients in the process) with their real estate needs, doing lots of free work upfront for 3-6 months and eventually close a deal and get a big paycheck for a starter. It's a profession that get you paid for helping people doing real estate transactions. The more you do, the more you get paid. There is no safety net, if you do zero, you get paid zero (traditional way in the retail market).
The reason I'm saying that is BP is really a real estate investing platform, most people here because in some way or another, into grow wealth via real estate investment. You don't need to be a real estate agent to make money from real estate. You only need the license if you want to help others to do real estate. If your goal is just to make money and build wealth using real estate as a vehicle, there are many other ways to do it other than becoming a real estate agent. I do wanna say that having a real estate license helps a lot with both understanding the nuts and bolts of the transaction (real estate laws and contract laws) and also grant you access to the MLS (if you paid) and you get paid a commission even if you do deals for yourself (a little cash bonus).
#2 Managing Your Property Contributor
- Property Manager
- Royal Oak, MI
- 3,639
- Votes |
- 7,028
- Posts
#2 Managing Your Property Contributor
- Property Manager
- Royal Oak, MI
@Seth Botner unless you are part of the 5% of people that are EXTREMELY self-motivated and will succeed no matter what, you probably want to focus on getting another job, while finishing your license.
Quote from @Seth Botner:
Hello,
I got laid off from my W2 job unexpectedly this past Thursday. With this being my first time being laid off, it definitely knocked me down a few notches this weekend. I've always wanted to get into real estate ever since I graduated College in 2017. Before I started this W2 job earlier in 2022 I was on track to get my real estate license in KY. Passed the classes and right when I was going to take the exam I got a call offering me the job. I planned on taking the exam this fall. The plan was for my wife and I to work our full time time jobs and for me to do RE part time and to try and buy our first investment property.
I keep reading articles and seeing videos of people saying the housing market is on its way to a collapse. My question is, with everything going on with the economy and interest rates going up is it a good idea for me to finish up my license?
Maybe getting laid off was a good thing? Maybe this was God's way of closing one door and opening another?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
@Seth Botner sorry to hear about your situation. I think you're in the right path. Get another W2 job then get your realtor license. You will need a stable flow of income and the W2 will give you that, while you're hustling selling houses as an agent. This will be a grind but if you do the hard work and good mindset and partnership with your wife, you will be successful. Good luck!