Real Estate/Travel Agent

reneeisorym

I'm sorry to aggrivate you about my life choices all of the time. You guys just always give the best advice. You understand and don't look down on me for being a little behind in my career due to being a JW until I was 23.

So I'm like the rest of you with a high school diploma only because of that stupid religion.

I am not in a position to go back to school for several reasons -- the main one is that the colleges in town are private and have huge tuitions. Their scholarships require you to live on campus and I can't do that either. I hate debt and can't imagine borrowing money to go either. (To the tune of 100k for 4 years) I can't move because my husband has a great job here. The other is that financially I can't be out of work for the next 4 years. The last is that I need to get something going because my biological clock is ticking. (I don't want to go to school for 4, start a career, and then wait until the career is settled and find myself about 33 and still with the desire to have 3 kids). I know that technically any of these obsitcles could be overcome but it just seems to be too much for me.

So I found out that my job has ceased retirement for those who have not begun to contribute yet (been with the company less than 5 years). I know now that I have to change jobs. I am thinking that I might as well make it big. I've had some thoughts.

Real Estate. If I save for the next 2 years, I could have a good 10k saved to help make the first year of being a real estate agent not so bad. I'm hoping that the market will get better in two years. If not, I'll still have 10k in the bank and I can't see how that's bad.

I've thought about being travel agent as well. I love to travel and I especially love to research things. I like detail oriented, self motiving jobs.

I'm asking this: Does anyone have any experience with being a real estate agent or a travel agent they could share?

Thank you guys so much for your help in the past.

kwintestal

I sold real estate for a year. I did well, but as I worked I looked around the office and seeing people who had been doing it for 20 years working just as hard as I was to make a go of it. On call 24/7 wasn't for me so I gave it up. Prepare to give up your life if that's they way you're going to go.

Kwin

reneeisorym

I sold real estate for a year. I did well, but as I worked I looked around the office and seeing people who had been doing it for 20 years working just as hard as I was to make a go of it. On call 24/7 wasn't for me so I gave it up. Prepare to give up your life if that's they way you're going to go.

That's the kind of stuff I need to know. I need to make an informed choice.

hillbilly

Sales have always been were the money is. Question... how do you handle rejection? Real estate agents get turned down often... listings, folks who dont show at closings etc.

From those I know of who are good at realestate I see a real ability to organize and work every day.

Travel agent? I have to ask, can anyone in your town afford to travel? I'd think that online tickets and such have made it hard for traditional travel agents to make money... especially in low and middle income areas.

Jeff

wha happened?

I'm a licensed loan officer. Most of the people who jumped in the last 5 years are gone. The older wiser and more experience guys are still in it. I got in 3 years ago and I'm fine. I'm in California.

Loan officers don't get calls at all hours like agents do. They really have no life of their own. I get occasional calls on the weekends.

reneeisorym

Sales have always been were the money is. Question... how do you handle rejection? Real estate agents get turned down often... listings, folks who dont show at closings etc.

I was a JW for how many years? I think I can handle rejection .. LOL ...

From those I know of who are good at realestate I see a real ability to organize and work every day.

I am very organized. I think the hardest part for me would be resisting the urge to sleep until 9 and then work all night.

Travel agent? I have to ask, can anyone in your town afford to travel? I'd think that online tickets and such have made it hard for traditional travel agents to make money... especially in low and middle income areas.

There are quite a lot of travel agents already here. I don't know if that means there are too many and there is no need for them or if there is really a big demand.

I'm a licensed loan officer. Most of the people who jumped in the last 5 years are gone. The older wiser and more experience guys are still in it. I got in 3 years ago and I'm fine. I'm in California.

Loan officers don't get calls at all hours like agents do. They really have no life of their own. I get occasional calls on the weekends.

I did try being a loan processor for a bank. I did enjoy to it an extent. I liked being busy. I liked experiencing that nervous joy of closing on their homes. I have to admit that sitting behind a desk staring at legal paperwork all day got old. Working on weekends and late nights was the only time I could get ininterruped peaceful work done.

Awakened at Gilead

I tried sales for a year or so (since as a witness I had no career...) I did pretty well but I didn't like it, so I left.

A suggestion for you... If you want to go to college, try going online. I have posted about my colege before. I have obtained a BA in about a year and 2 months for under 10k (once I add in financial aid, tax breaks, and other assistance I break even).

Tuition is only 2k per semester. Its online and half the work is discussion boards a la JWD. You'll have a degree in no time flat!

www.cuny.edu/online

Check it out.

A@G

Seeker4

I have a friend who had his own travel agency - he went out of business because of the Internet. Most people today make all their own arrangements online. I know I do - and I can find better deals than I got going through an agent.

Real estate. The market is shit right now, but I know some people with great success. I've thought of it as a career at times myself! If you love dealing with people, and can do it openly and honestly, you can really do well right now. There are some serious changes occuring in the real estate field, and it could be pretty exciting.

But, if you've got some time to prepare, really give this some thought.

About 12 years ago I was working in my JW business - cleaning offices of course! - and hated it. One evening at work I just asked myself, "If I could change my life and do one thing I'd really enjoy, what would it be?"

I'd always wanted to be a writer, that was an absolute passion since I was a kid, and I always had a huge interest and curiosity about people. Right off the answer came back, "I'd love to spend my working life writing about and telling the stories of people who have a passion for what they do." My wife and I walked away from the cleaning business, I took a job working nights and wrote days, got hired by first one local paper, then by the state's biggest and best daily, and today I'm a newspaper editor and magazine writer, who also does photography to go with my articles, another interest of mine. I have to write and edit a lot of stuff of minimal interest, but the majority of writing I do is exactly what I told myself I would love to do.

Don't hesitate to really open this up and give it some thought. Good luck!

S4

reneeisorym

One evening at work I just asked myself, "If I could change my life and do one thing I'd really enjoy, what would it be?"

That's kinda how this came to be.

I just stopped and asked myself, "What do I like to do?" And I decided that I like to research, do detail oriented things, and am very nurturing to people. I do not like routine or having a fixed 9-5 schedule with no wiggle room. (I do have an office job now but my boss will let me go out to eat lunch with people and leave early here and there. .. The last job I had required a written form to be filled out and sent in to the president just to leave early for a doctor's visit .. I hated that!) I also do not like greet people and talk with them for less than a minute and be expected to have great customer service in that time (a lot of sales jobs are like that). I like to have a relationship with my customers.

Thanks for the advice. I am also interested to see how technology changes the real estate hunt and transactions.

digderidoo

I wouldn't have thought that real estate would be a wise move the way the market is in your country at the moment.

Paul

Real Estate/Travel Agent

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