Career in the Property Industry

[Purple Property]

Wanting to get a bit of background on people that transferred to working in the property industry after owning a few properties.

Can be people that are real estate agents, property managers, mortgage brokers, etc. Tell us a bit about what you do and why you switched over once you began investing into property.

[Tan]

I spent a year as a salesperson many years ago, before I started investing in property. It opened my eyes to the bargains no-one wanted which were staring me in the face! I left that job due to the after hours & weekend work conflicting with family life.

Since then I have always been interested in property so figured I'd work in it. As my background was admin, I did that for a commercial property company and loved it.

When I moved to Oz I temped all over Perth to get myself up to speed with how things were done here & to update my skills after 7 years in my last job. I now work in property management doing house inspections and love it. The most frustrating thing is seeing property managers who are not landlords with a casual attitude to their job in potentially very costly situations - eg not working hard enough to make a speedy turn around of tenancies.

I work with property because it is my hobby, and who wants a boring job? I love talking to the owners about various ideas and even the tenants here (Karratha) are often landlords elsewhere so I enjoy putting their minds at rest when they are feeling like lower class citizens, renting after years of living in their own place. I could ramble on about property forever!

[andyp2010]

I was a cycle mechanic and did a stint cleaning, nothing flash, picked up a few books like most people here have and gave it a go.

I'm in a really amazing position at the moment working for someone who's far more experienced and knowledgeable as an investor than I am and that's really speeding things up. Today I was pulling nails out of a floor for 9 hours, some days I'm looking for new buys, some days I'm organising a new build. It's the full experience top to bottom. Why wouldn't I switch to that? Only downside is when the market turns I'm double screwed.

Are you feeling a career change purple?

[Purple Property]

Are you feeling a career change purple?

Yes, feel like I can achieve a whole lot more if I'm on my own schedule, doing my own thing.

Used to think my career I'm in currently was what I wanted to do but a bit frustrated.

[Tan]

I found in NZ there are not many property managers. In Oz there are heaps. Karratha is approx the size of Te Puke which has I think single figures of PM's. Karratha has over 50. I have no idea what I will do if/when I return as I have been out of the admin loop for too long. Maybe I'll try to get back into commercial which pays a lot better.

[ScottSI]

Just be aware that if you don't have employment (that being wages or salary) banks see you very differently. They look at self employed people with a whole set of other rules.

If you are requiring financing to continue to invest I would discuss your ideas with some lenders before taking the plunge.

[Frezzinghot]

I love property, could do it for a day job definitely, have thought about being a REA but do not like the weekend work! A trader would suit me better I think but would need to get at least 100k per annum before I could leave the JOB. If your passion is property just need to find a way to make it happen.

FH

[PTILoveYou]

If you become a real estate agent, you will be working on someone elses' schedule, ie the buyer's schedule, ie working when others aren't.

[princess]

I'm wanting to make that move too Purple... but REA hours suck when part of my motivation is to spend more time with my kids. Unfortunately in this hot market in Auckland, no-one needs the skills that i think i have - zhuzhing up tired houses to make them more appealing to their buyers! And the prospect of buying such tired houses (i have cash, no need for banks to see my payslips) is nearly non-existent as even first home buyers are just grabbing whatever they can under the kiwi saver threshold of $550k.

Anyone else got suggestions? Is flipping actually possible still??

[Purple Property]

If you become a real estate agent, you will be working on someone elses' schedule, ie the buyer's schedule, ie working when others aren't.

Always been the reason I've given why people have left the profession also.

[PTILoveYou]

Always been the reason I've given why people have left the profession also.

Also you have to put up with the junk the buyers give you...

[Bluekiwi]

I spent a year as a salesperson many years ago, before I started investing in property. It opened my eyes to the bargains no-one wanted which were staring me in the face! ................!

Thats a very interesting statement.

How exactly did being an agent open your eyes to bargains no one wanted.

And what kinds of bargains, properties were these ?

[Tan]

These were good houses in good locations with bad street appeal mainly, one I can think of was an almost new house with weeds up around the windows and people (tenants) sleeping all over the place every time I took someone through.
It really surprised me that buyers could not get out of there fast enough, after all, they were not buying the tenants and long grass can be trimmed.

[Bluekiwi]

These were good houses in good locations with bad street appeal mainly, one I can think of was an almost new house with weeds up around the windows and people (tenants) sleeping all over the place every time I took someone through.
It really surprised me that buyers could not get out of there fast enough, after all, they were not buying the tenants and long grass can be trimmed.

Yep I get really excited when I see ugly stuff like that which is so easy and in-expensive to fix.

And I have to keep reminding myself how things that seem minor to me, and I can fix easily, can be major stumbbling blocks to home buyers.

[Purple Property]

What is life like as a property manager?