Is there potential to starting out as a real estate agent, and what can you expect right off the start line?

I am leaving the military in May, and want something that allows me to deal with and help people, and yet gain experience in an investment field at the same time, hence why I am looking at being a real-estate agent I know the market is down right now, but maybe I could use that to my advantage? I have a friend who had to quite and get another job cuz he wasnt making any money, and I know another person only an hour away who is making alot of money. What are some things I should expect, and what is the potential of it, as far as financially, socially, etc.?

Wow all this negative talk about being an agent. It is not nearly as bad as these people make it out to be. It all about what you put into it. If you go at this business half assed, and wait for business to come to you well then yes you will starve and be in the majority of agents. If you go out there and take the bull by the horns, you can make more money then doctors, lawyers, and ceo's. I take my business very seriously, and my income shows it. I am in that 10% that the guy above me is talking about. He is right, 10% of the agents make 90% of the money earned in this business. That means the other 90% are splitting the lousy 10% left. But who's to say you can't be in the top 10%? Its not going to happen over night, but if you start off strong and keep it that way, you will be fine in 3 months. Its the people who are in this part time, or half hearted that are unsuccessful.
As far as not having free time well that鈥檚 up to you. At first it may be hard to take time off, but once your going you can work like everyone else mon-fri 9-5. I do, and have no problems. When you are a top producer you are not needing to be at people's beck and call, they want to work with you cause your the best, so they will do it on your time. If not, you refer it out, take the referral fee, and move to the next. When you are not dying for the next sale, you don鈥檛 need to be a slave to you clients. Remember, this doesn鈥檛 mean that they don鈥檛 need excellent service, that is the only way to get repeat business.
Screw all the nay Sayers on here, they are just bad agents.
RE Agent,
Remax

Unless you have other means of support for at least a year this is not such a hot idea. The average agent sells 1 house a year. Most of the home sales in any given area are done by only 10% of the agents. It will be hard to get started and you will actually be negative with office fees, MLS fees, board fees for at least 12 months.

You also sound very young, which does not work in your favor. People risking their money want help from agents with some life experiance as well as investment experiance of their own.

Some areas are still doing fantastic although many people will tell you otherwise. I am a lender so I know the actual, tangeable truth that many agents are doing very well even in terrible areas. Tell you what, go to http://activerain.com/action/referrals/r... and dig around a bit. You'll learn more about the condition of the market from other active agents than in any school, newspaper or comment on this website!

There鈥檚 no such thing as a good time to get started in this field. At minimum the first year is rough, and even long after, you鈥檙e constantly fighting for business. Your biggest obstacles will always be that 1) many people think your job is incredibly easy therefore, your commission is way too high and they can do it all themselves and 2) that it can be tough to explain to a potential client what makes you better than the other thousands of agents in your city.

My husband is an agent, and it took me some time to get used his non-traditional schedule. Unless I claim them weeks in advance, his weekends are often booked. The phone rings constantly, and more times than I care to remember, he鈥檚 had to work deals until 9 or 10 at night. One of his problems is remembering to schedule days off. It鈥檚 not uncommon for him to work 2-3 weeks straight without a day off.

Have you looked into career opportunities with USAA? They do a lot with mortgages and relocation and your military experience should help you get in with them.

You can expect to eat very little at first, even with help, your not going to go in and start making deals, not with today's market, it's a sellers market, not a buyers.

When I went into business I gave it two years, my spouse supported us for about eight months and then, we started to break even. After about a year, I saw something coming my way. The after two years, we were doing well.

I retired after twenty years with a high six figure income.