How Hard Is It to Be a Real Estate Agent? An Honest Look at What It Takes

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Yes, being a real estate agent can be hard, especially when you’re first getting started.

But after more than 20 years in real estate and working with and coaching agents at just about every stage of their careers, I’ve found that how hard real estate feels depends a lot on what you’re bringing into the business with you.

If you already know a lot of people, you’re comfortable promoting yourself, you have sales experience, you don’t mind picking up the phone and talking to potential clients, or you’re willing to join a team and work leads consistently, you may have a much easier time getting your business off the ground.

The real estate course and licensing exam are only the beginning. For most new agents, the bigger challenge comes afterward: Where are your clients going to come from, and how are you going to support yourself while you build a steady stream of business?

Those are the questions I think every aspiring real estate agent should consider before getting licensed.

Quick Takeaways

• Real estate is hard at the start, but the license isn’t the hard part. Finding clients is.
• How hard it feels depends on what you bring: a strong network, marketing skills, comfort with the phone, or a team that feeds you leads. You need at least one.
• Income is unpredictable, and the commission on a sale isn’t what you take home, so build a financial cushion first.
• Follow-up is the habit that separates agents who build a business from those who stall.
• Before paying for a course, answer one question: where would your first five clients come from?

Getting Your Real Estate License Isn’t Usually the Hardest Part

When you’re researching a career in real estate, it’s easy to focus on the licensing process. How many hours of classes do I need? Is the real estate exam hard? How much does it cost? How long will everything take?

Those are all valid questions, but getting licensed is actually the more predictable part of the process. Your state gives you a list of requirements, you complete them, take your exam, and work through the remaining steps required to activate your license.

Building a real estate business isn’t nearly as predictable.

Once you have that license in your hand, no one automatically hands you a list of people who want to buy or sell homes. That’s when the bigger question becomes: Who is going to hire me? And, more importantly, what are you going to do every week to make sure there are new potential clients entering your pipeline?

For most of the agents I’ve worked with over the years, that’s the part that determines how hard their first year in real estate will be.

My Start in Real Estate Wasn’t Exactly Easy

When I got my real estate license, I was still working in corporate America at IBM. I didn’t immediately quit my job and announce that I was a full-time real estate agent. I was WAY more cautious than that.

For about two years, I essentially worked two full-time jobs. I put in roughly 40 hours a week at IBM and another 40 hours building my real estate business. It was exhausting at times – most of the time – but I wanted to make sure I had some financial security and a solid footing in real estate before walking away from a dependable corporate paycheck.

Eventually, I felt ready. I left IBM, and because things were going well, I even bought a home that was roughly twice the price of the home I’d previously owned.

And then, about a month later, the real estate market crashed.

Hello, 2008.

Suddenly, everything changed. Before the crash, I was typically selling homes in the $300K range, but almost overnight it seemed that a majority of the homes were foreclosures or short sales, so the average price dropped to the low $100K range (eeh!). The business I had spent years carefully preparing for looked completely different… and so did my bank account.

It was certainly not the transition from corporate America I had planned, but it taught me one of the most important lessons I’ve carried with me throughout my real estate career: You can prepare carefully and do everything right, and the market can still change.

Interest rates change. Inventory changes. Economies slow down. Buyers disappear. Transactions fall apart. Markets that were booming can cool off surprisingly quickly. That’s why I think financial preparation is one of the most overlooked parts of becoming a real estate agent.

Inconsistent Income Can Be One of the Hardest Parts of Real Estate

One of the biggest adjustments for anyone coming from a traditional job is getting used to unpredictable income. You might have three closings one month and none the next, or spend weeks working with a buyer only to have the transaction fall apart.

I’m not going to tell you that every aspiring agent needs exactly three months, six months, or a year of expenses in the bank. Everyone’s situation is different. You may have another job, a spouse with a steady income, savings, or relatively low monthly expenses. But I will say this: the more financial breathing room you have, the easier it is to build your business without feeling like every potential client has to turn into an immediate commission.

And remember, the commission you see attached to a home sale isn’t necessarily what ends up in the agent’s pocket. Brokerage splits, team or mentor fees, referrals, business expenses and taxes can all affect what you ultimately earn.

NEXT READ: How Much Does a Real Estate Agent Make on a $300,000 House?

The Big Question: Where Will Your First Clients Come From?

If someone told me today that they were thinking about getting their real estate license, one of the first things I’d ask is:

If I handed you a real estate license tomorrow, where would your first five clients come from?

You don’t need to give me five actual names. But I would want you to have some kind of answer.

Over the years, I’ve seen agents get started successfully in many different ways. You don’t need every possible advantage, but having at least one realistic way to start generating opportunities can make the transition much easier. Here are four of the most common:

1. You Already Have a Strong Network

This was a big advantage for me when I got started. If you’ve lived in an area for years and have built genuine relationships there, you may already have the beginnings of a great real estate network.

Maybe you’re involved with your kids’ school, a church, book club, neighborhood group, sports league, professional organization, or simply have a large circle of friends and family. Those people aren’t automatically going to become clients just because you get your license, but you’re also not starting from scratch. They already know and trust you—and in real estate, that matters.

GET THE GUIDE: Sphere of Influence: The No-Nonsense Guide to Building and Growing Your Network

2. You’re Comfortable Promoting Yourself

Maybe you don’t know half the town, but you’re comfortable putting yourself out there and have some familiarity with marketing. That’s another big advantage.

You might already understand social media, email marketing, video, websites, community events, open houses, or even just how to get your name in front of the right people.

You don’t need to become an expert in every type of real estate marketing. You need to find one or two ways to consistently remind people who you are, what you do, and how you can help them.

START HERE: Lead Generation for Real Estate Agents

3. You’re Willing to Pick Up the Phone and Prospect

You may not have a large network or know much about marketing, but if you’re willing to pick up the phone, start conversations and hear “no” without letting it ruin your day, you have another path.

Sometimes you really do just have to smile and dial. Cold calling isn’t the only option—you can follow up with leads, host open houses, reach out to people you’ve met, network, or work a neighborhood consistently.

The important thing is that you’re willing to create conversations instead of waiting for someone to call you.

4. You Join a Real Estate Team That Provides Leads

For someone without a strong network or much marketing experience, joining a productive real estate team can make the transition considerably easier. A good team may provide leads, training, systems, support and opportunities to start working with buyers fairly quickly.

The trade-off is usually that you’ll give up a larger portion of your commission. But especially in the beginning, getting hands-on experience showing homes, writing offers and navigating real transactions can be worth that trade-off.

A team isn’t right for everyone, but don’t judge the opportunity based solely on the commission split. Look at what you’re getting in return… and be sure to check out our article about the pros and cons of joining a real estate team (and important questions you need to ask).

Real Estate Is Harder If You Don’t Like Follow-Up

You don’t need to be a stereotypical salesperson to succeed in real estate. Some of the best agents I’ve known aren’t pushy at all. But you do need to be willing to communicate with people, initiate conversations, ask questions, stay in touch and occasionally ask for someone’s business.

And you absolutely need to follow up. I’ve coached enough agents over the years to see how many opportunities quietly disappear because someone meets a potential buyer at an open house and never calls them, a website lead gets one text and nothing else, or a friend mentions that they’re thinking about moving next year and the agent never checks in again.

Successful agents aren’t necessarily the people who meet the most prospects. Often, they’re simply the ones who consistently stay in touch with the opportunities they already have.

If the thought of following up several times makes you uncomfortable, that’s a skill I’d start working on early.

Real Estate Offers Flexibility, But That Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Work

The flexible schedule is one of the things that attracts a lot of people to real estate, and it absolutely can be a wonderful benefit. You aren’t necessarily sitting at a desk from 9:00 to 5:00 every weekday. You can often schedule personal appointments during the day, attend your child’s school event, work from different locations, or organize your week in a way that would be impossible in many traditional jobs.

But flexibility doesn’t mean you simply work whenever you feel like it. Your buyer may only be able to see houses after work, a listing appointment may need to happen Saturday morning, an offer may need to be written tonight, or an inspection may be Wednesday at 10:00 AM.

You control a lot of your schedule, but your clients and transactions control part of it too.

That’s especially important if you’re planning to start in real estate while keeping another full-time job. It can absolutely be done—I did it for two years—but you need to be realistic about the time commitment and how you’ll serve clients when your two schedules collide.

NEXT READ: Can You Be a Part-Time Real Estate Agent?

Who Has the Easiest Time Getting Started in Real Estate?

After working with so many new agents, I don’t think there’s one personality type that’s destined to succeed in real estate. You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room, have thousands of social media followers, love cold calling, or know everyone in town.

What does help is having at least one meaningful advantage you can build upon.

You may look at that list and realize you already have more going for you than you thought. Maybe you hate cold calling, but you’ve lived in your community for 20 years and seem to know someone everywhere you go. Great—build around that.

Maybe you just moved to town and barely know anyone, but you’ve worked in sales for 15 years and have no problem picking up the phone. That’s an advantage. Or maybe you’re more introverted and don’t particularly enjoy networking events, but you know how to promote yourself online. You have a path too.

You don’t need every advantage. You need to identify the strengths you already have and build a business model around them.

What If You Don’t Have a Network, Sales Experience or Marketing Skills?

You can still become a successful real estate agent, but I would go into it knowing that your learning curve may be steeper. If you don’t have an established network, don’t know how to promote yourself, have never sold anything, don’t enjoy picking up the phone, and have no idea where your first client will come from, getting the license itself isn’t going to solve those problems.

That’s when I’d put even more emphasis on choosing the right brokerage, finding good training and mentorship, and potentially joining a team. Instead of simply asking which brokerage offers the highest commission split, ask: Who’s actually going to teach me how to build a business?

After all, a fantastic commission split isn’t particularly valuable if you’re not closing any transactions.

RELATED:

• 20 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Real Estate Broker
• How to Find a Real Estate Mentor (Without Joining a Team)

Is Being a Real Estate Agent Worth It?

For me, it absolutely was. Real estate gave me opportunities, flexibility and a career that I probably couldn’t have imagined when I first started juggling my IBM job with clients and showings. But I’ve also worked with plenty of people who discovered that real estate wasn’t what they expected.

I don’t think the difference always comes down to intelligence, charisma, or some mysterious “sales personality.” A lot of it comes down to expectations and preparation. If you understand that you’re building a business, have a realistic plan for finding clients, can handle some inconsistency, are willing to follow up and can keep going when someone tells you no, you’re starting from a much stronger position.

And if you understand those realities and you’re still excited about the opportunity, real estate can be an incredibly rewarding career.

My Advice Before You Get Your Real Estate License

Before you spend money on a real estate course, I’d sit down and honestly answer a few questions:

• Where could my first few clients realistically come from?
• How long could I manage financially if my first commission takes longer than expected?
• Am I willing to promote myself, pick up the phone, network, or find another consistent way to generate business?
• Would starting on a real estate team make my transition easier?
• Do I have enough time to treat real estate like a real business?
• Am I willing to follow up consistently and deal with rejection?

You don’t need perfect answers, and you certainly don’t need your entire five-year business plan figured out before enrolling in a real estate course. But thinking through these questions now will put you in a much better position than getting licensed first and asking “Okay…now where do I find clients?” afterward.

If you’ve made it this far and you’re thinking, “Yes, this still sounds like something I want to do,” that’s a pretty good sign. Your next step is figuring out exactly what your state requires to become licensed.

Frequently Asked Questions

So, How Hard Is It to Be a Real Estate Agent?

Real estate is hard, particularly in the beginning, but it’s not equally hard for everyone.

Someone who enters the business with strong relationships, financial breathing room, marketing or sales experience, a willingness to pick up the phone, or a supportive team already has something they can build upon. If you don’t have those things yet, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t become an agent. It simply means you’ll want to be more intentional about how you’re going to develop them.

After more than 20 years in this business, that’s probably the biggest thing I’d want an aspiring agent to understand:

Don’t just have a plan for getting your real estate license. Have a plan for what you’re going to do with it once you get it.

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