How To Get A Job In Real Estate?

If you’re looking into how to get a job in real estate and arrived at this page: congratulations; you’ve just made a big step toward your first real estate job!

Not only because this article on how to get a job in real estate is, in itself, very informative; but because RealEstateAgent.com will become your best friend from now on. Both as a bottomless pit of resources with countless articles and glossary terms for you to check whenever you doubt something, and as the premier place for you to advertise yourself and get new clients via The OFFICIAL Real Estate Agent Directory ®. Yes, join now and take advantage of the best online tool to connect with home buyers and home sellers.

However…

The fact that you’re searching how to get a job in real estate doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a real estate agent; you could be just looking for a job within the industry, right? As a photographer, an appraiser; a secretary, even! Fear not; we’re here to help.

The truth is that, regardless of the position you’re in, if you want to know how to get a job in real estate, we would highly recommend you looking for internships in real estate. Internships are the first step on the road to consistently land real estate jobs, whether you’re a real estate agent, a home inspector or whatever it is you wish to do in our industry. Why? Because by finding an internship at a real estate company, you’ll be able to meet people from this industry that are on various different stages of their success ladder’s climb. One of those people could be your future boss or a good referral for another job. Imagine a coworker goes to another company and that company is in need of a person just like you; he might say nice things about you and you get promoted to your first actual gig! Plus, in the end, the same principles of the internship search apply for job searching.

But how to get an internship, then?,  you ask.

It’s all about getting out of your comfort zone. The first step is reaching out to job sites like indeed, ZipRecruiter or even regular headhunter companies. Those are the easiest to apply because they have companies that are so much in need of people that they are promoting on external websites. However, they are the hardest in the sense that competition is high and there’s no way of “securing” at least an interview.  But do it because a lot of times it’s enough to land you the gig.

The second step is being more active than reactive: go to websites like LinkedIn, search for real estate companies and professionals and reach out to them. Call them; maybe even knock on their office door! Don’t be shy; you’ll cold call and show up unannounced to a lot of places once you get hired so it’s better to start now. Produce also a sort of cover letter saying you’re just out of real estate school and you’re looking for a real estate job. Tell him (or her) that being a fan of the company – do your research and even if you don’t know much about them prior to that, write something nice that they’ve done – you’d like very much to learn and contribute to their continued growth. And, finally, ask if they have any openings and/or any advice for you to start your career. Here’s why this second part – the advice part – is important. Sometimes they truly don’t have any position available or they just don’t like doing that kind of stuff without actually knowing the person – a lot of crazy people appear normal via e-mail. In both cases, it becomes a similar advice from the one we have in the how to make cold calls article: what you’re really searching here is to get a response, a second interaction that makes the power sort of shift. The more you get to talk with the person, the less the person will consider you a stranger. So, leave it open for them to either remember “that nice feller that sent that nice e-mail” once an opportunity arises, or for them to convince themselves halfway through the conversation that you are a nice prospect that should be interviewed for a position within their company.

Speaking of cold calls… In a lot of ways, this job hunting process shares a lot of similarities with the day to day life of a real estate agent. For instance, one of the reasons why real estate agents fail and get out of business is because they don’t follow up, and, hopefully, you will learn early on, while looking for real estate jobs, the importance of following up. If two weeks have passed by since you’ve applied for the position, or a week since the deadline they gave you… follow it up. Call them, send the e-mail. Sometimes they’re just caught up with a lot of work, and if you reach out politely, showing you’re very interested in it still, they might move you up on their preference list.

Also, this might seem stupid, but it’s still very important when trying to figure out how to get a job in real estate, to ask family and friends if they don’t know of someone in the real estate industry they could introduce you to. Not even to get you a job, but just for some advice. That’s the thing about job hunting in any industry: the most important thing is movement, putting yourself out there, available, and interested. Not necessarily saying “hey, get me a job, please?” but being in the mix, exchanging information and having a nice time with people involved with the business you wish to work with. By doing that, a job will naturally follow as a consequence of you being so well-connected and willing to learn and make things happen.

Finally, the most important part of how to get a job in real estate is to, independently of the route you take, go for it in a passionate yet humble way. No one owes you anything, so be grateful for the time of day people give you.