Real estate can be a fruitful career, exciting, and interesting career. If you learn real estate, you open up doors to earn money as an investor, real estate agent, or savvy homeowner looking to profit from each home you buy. Here are some places to get started in your new real estate career.
Learn Real Estate by Reading Online
Like with nearly anything these days, you can get a basic understanding of real estate online. Reading through the archives of Agent Harvest offers plenty of information for a curious future agent or investor.
You can also learn real estate by visiting sites like Wikipedia, where you can read the extensive articles on real estate topics and visiting real estate specific blogs like Zillow and Realtor.com News. You can keep up with current events through Yahoo Real Estate News, Wall Street Journal Real Estate, and similar dedicated real estate sections on major online publications.
Learn Real Estate By Reading Books
If you can’t get your fill online, you can real full length books on real estate. Beware when you try to learn real estate from a book that not all books are created equally. The real estate industry is full of “get rich quick” marketing, but the reality is that learning real estate takes time and effort. Getting rich is not a guarantee, and it can take decades to do.
You can find great titles at your local bookstore, or browse Amazon for real estate books by category or real estate best sellers.
Take a Real Estate Class
Sometimes you need to stop reading to learn real estate. You might have good success taking a local class or seminar. Again, beware people who make any guarantee or say that you can get rich with little investment. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.
Search online for local real estate classes or courses. You can also find reasonably priced courses at most community colleges.
Follow Local Real Estate Market News
In 2008, you could hardly avoid real estate news if you tried. These days, you might have to do a little more hunting for quality articles, but there is plenty going on worth reading about.
People trying to learn real estate can follow the same stories as veteran agents and investors. This gives you a leg up when you are ready to get started, as you are already familiar with current market conditions.
Popular topics to follow include news on interest rates, new home sales, existing home sales, and local development and sales prices trends.
Earn a Real Estate License
The ultimate badge of expertise in real estate is a license that allows you to act as your own agent, or an agent for someone else, when buying and selling property.
Earning a real estate license is hard work and there are costs for classes and license fees, but the payoff can be huge. If you are serious about learning real estate, this is the single best option, if you are willing to put in the time and effort.
If you are buying or selling a house and are looking to hire a successful real estate agent to help you through the process, take a look at AgentHarvest's list of top-ranking local Realtors in your area. We found these agents by examining their sales track records, awards, rankings, client testimonials and by conducting personal interviews.