All the right-wing reactionary weirdos in my area are all the same guy. Old, bearded, white, "Realtors". Every single one of them. I'm convinced that becoming a Realtor is a sign of your desperate attempt to escape the class shift from petite-bourgeois to proletariat. Getting your license isn't that hard, from my understanding.
Often they have failed businesses they are propping up with their Realtor day job. You'll find them worming around in public comment on municipal zoning code. Sometimes they come in different flavors, maybe they're the right wing 2A style, perhaps they're a Christian Evangelical brand, or they're a disgruntled "veteran" (gotta check their credentials on that stuff) motif. I have one in town who is all three, a figurative scoop of Neapolitan style reactionary garbage (all three flavors in one tub!).
The way capitalism squeezes these people, often forces them into this little Realtor mold. This isn't some profound analysis, but I bet if we did some qualitative investigating, we'd find they're all very similar.
Realtors eventually become vampiric landlords and house flippers whose only function is hoarding value they themselves had no part in creating
The only person I have known who became a realtor said openly that he was doing it to "become a slumlord." 😳
That was the final straw for that friendship, and the fact that most of that social circle were amused and encouraging made it the final straw for the wider group.
So many of them grew up poor and dealt with horrible landlords!! ?!?! What the fuck??
The one who became a realtor grew up in a trailer and only went to university because his tuition was free because his mom had worked an office job there for decades, and he was very offended when I suggested that perhaps he wasn't as "self-made" as he wanted to believe.
So many of them grew up poor and dealt with horrible landlords!! ?!?! What the fuck??
When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to charge $500 in pet rent for each guppy or molly
Yup, most of them are landlords, and the ones who are not will probably be landlords soon.
Love having to pay a guy 10.000 buckaroos so he can stand there in an ill fitting sports coat and answering every question with "I'll have to check back with the owners" and then also never do that.
Im a plumber in the south. I deal with Realtors every day of the workweek. Here st least, its a mixed bag. There are lots of white boomer males who are realtors. There are also a lot of younger Millennials and older Gen Z (im not sure what the cutoff is, im an old fart more or less). Lot of the younger crowd are POC.
I fkn hate realtors. Especially when they go to great lengths to explain to me incorrectly in great detail about how there really isnt an issue with the plumbing. Even had two in the last six months whove asked me to fudge hydrostatic tests for the buyer to help move a sale along. Realtors are a scourge and should be dealt with just the same as Mao treated the landlorb.
Although anecdotal, this would suggest to me is that the demographic is aging out, and being replaced by people in slightly different economic situations. If the Median age of a Realtor is 60, but the average age is 49, that would suggest to me a huge rift in age. It isn't a smooth curve but more like a sharp drop. While the old try desperately to maintain their lifestyle after decades of being crushed by capitalism, the young seek out this low barrier role in hopes to escape the gravity of the late-stage capitalism they were born into.
As the small business owners are vaporized, from their ashes rises the Realtor, ready to serve the property speculators and big business owners.
Have you ever seen a house without some plumbing issues?
Every house and apartment I've ever lived in seems to have something.
Lol no. Theres always something wrong with the plumbing. Fkn always.
It's a relatively high-potential sales job with little barrier to entry, and it doesn't sound like just sales. The "attempt to escape the class shift from petite-bourgeois to proletariat" makes perfect sense.
One interesting thing I learned is that the majority of Realtors are women. The average age of a Realtor is 49 while the median age is 60. The majority of them do not have degrees and almost all of them are independent contractors. Given the age, demographic, and level of education, it also sounds like Realtors could be the wives of failed "businessmen" picking up their husband's slack to maintain their lifestyle. They are out of the "stay at home mom" age range, but because the husband was putting their upward mobility ahead of their wives' financial independence, these women exit motherhood with no marketable skills. Realtor work, being low entry, makes it an easy transition back into working life.
This comment and the one you’re replying to really has me wondering how many fail. It’s a bit like “anyone can trade stocks and shares”, don’t something like 70% of them fail?
I'm seeing failure rates of 80% to 90% according to some stats I'm seeing after a quick google search. Reddit is full of failure stories and speculation.. The low bar keeps the pool of potential Realtors high and keeps the churn high as well. It's also a path that is FULL of hustle and grind culture. The structure is also predatory as well. A real estate agent can sell homes and get a commission, but a real estate broker does the same, and can employ other agents. The broker gets a cut of the commissions of agents who work for them. These internal contradictions are likely what drive the high failure rate of real estate agents. If you can't make it yourself, you need to become a broker and employ many agents under your name. You employ these agents as independent contractors, of which you get a cut of their commission. You have almost no payroll, and you don't even have to sell a single house.
When I was in rehab a realtor threatened to punch me in the face because I told him to stop misgendering people. Normal guy, had kids too, yeesh.
One in my area keeps listing the same micro condo for more than I pay for my mortgage. He's also a democrat in the state legislature and was recently like second in command on our state housing comity. He's just "trying to run a business" according to him. He's also a drunk and I think is getting divorced. You wouldn't know it by looking at his nice family photo on his profile.
Most of the realtors I've dealt with are young women. No idea why. All very invested (as it were) in the necessity of their job, at least when I've talked to them socially, and always on the side of the landlord in any dispute. Would not know how to even start that conversation
https://www.reddit.com/r/realtors/comments/td0dfb/so_why_why_did_you_become_a_realtor/
Look at this thread. I feel like all our analysis here rings true in these comments.
Hit rock bottom by jumping into an oil based labour position right out of highschool that gave me zero transferable skills by the time they laid be off in my late 20s due to a huge slowdown in the industry.
On one side of the coin, you will see the "rock bottom, no skills" Realtor path. On the other side of the coin you will see the "Retiree, Lifestyle maintainer" Realtor path.
Ex-developer turned Realtor here. Learn JavaScript and React. It's never been easier and the market's never been hotter. Currently contemplating jumping back into dev as the full-remote market has exploded salaries.
While not directly related, a reply, how is that hot market looking now, two years on? Anyway
Through the early years of our marriage, my wife and I worked through a handful of different things for her to do for employment/income. One such endeavor: She had tried her hand at real estate licensing coursework but decided halfway through it wasn’t what she wanted. The binder of education material (it was 1998/9) lived on my bookshelf for a long time. I had been working in the automotive industry fixing cars, was at the time working for a towing company, tired of being dirty and smelling of diesel, and hungry for change. [...] I hungered to own my own business, but wasn’t creative or experienced enough to overcome the startup costs of starting something more traditional. [...] 2008 rolled into town and we were decimated financially due to some poor decision making on my part combined with an economic collapse. Sold everything and started over. Got a degree. Moved out of state. Got my license again in 2015 and am now currently back to fixing cars and selling real estate. Having fun, making 150k a year while generally goofing off and making friends in the community. I feel very lucky to be where I am.
A wife seeking financial independence. Dreams of being a small business owner. A profiteer of the collapse of the housing market. Note that they were able to "Sell everything" and then "move out of state" and "get a degree". Sure, I may be reading between the lines here, but it's clear everything they sold contributed in some way to this development. Also note, though, back to fixing cars, and back to selling property, despite the degree.
I want to be my own boss and I want to connect and help people. I used to sell cellphones, made a 100k, was not rewarding at all. I used to sell cars, my customers who I worked very hard for were never appreciative and always thought they were getting scammed even though we were super legit. I've finally found that helping people by a home is the most rewarding thing ever, the customers WANT to work with you and know about your guidance and opinions. I love it so far.
Another dreamer. I am not sure how one makes 100K selling cellphones, but maybe this was in the early 90s when they were business commodities. A car salesman, another role in the capitalist market of high repute, they thought they were getting scammed for a reason surly.
I was a flight attendant making $25k a year in a super HCOL area and I fucking hated it. Miserable job. Needed something that wasn’t a 9-5 and I’ve always been an entrepreneurial based individual. I don’t do well with having a boss, just not my vibe. I wanted something that required some level of brain power, had a weird schedule to match the lifestyle I’m used to, and could allow me to be free. Came up with realtor. I freaking love it. Every time I have to go to a showing, do an open house, interact with clients, prospect in a new way, I legit realize more and more how right the decision was. I feel like I was made to do this. I 100% love it.
The entrepreneur, a motif that implies a creative spirit, but in reality, is just a huckster of another person's wears. Seeking to maintain their lifestyle, or at least gain the "lifestyle" they imagined. A lifestyle of "freedom".
Started investing in real estate as part of my retirement portfolio. Had friends asking me about it and was advising them about how to do the same. I knew areas, how to run numbers, construction materials & costs, and enjoyed negotiating. Found out I was decent at it, I may as well get paid for it.
What about the time you have to dedicate to be successful? How is your work-life balance? What if you want to take a vacation for a few weeks?
I learned to have a decent work/life balance a long time ago. I've always worked to live, not lived to work. I'm not a "top producer" nor do I ever want to be. I work enough to support my lifestyle and help people. I'm at a point where I dedicate very little time to "being successful". I provide value and good service to clients and they refer more business to me.
Another lifestyle maintainer. What kind of lifestyle do these folks all imagine, I wonder. One where you are not working a wage job, I bet.
[...] I thought I could help people through the complex process (especially first time homebuyers) while making money. [...]
This sits at the heart of the Realtor I feel. They are the Shepard of a "complex process" one whose complexity is by design, and the social relations it manifests begets their own role. A simpler process of housing people might be a genocide of the Realtors, which they will resist at all costs. What are they, then, if they can no longer decipher the arcane process of "buying shelter".
[...] One day we were walking out of an open house and my wife remarked, “you know, you could be doing that. You’re good with talking to people and enjoy seeing houses.” But I was in graduate school, and thought it would be crazy to quit my program to pursue a career with no guaranteed income, yet the idea stuck with me.
Fast forward a few years, I have my first contract gig working in an archive after getting my Master’s in Library Science and I’m miserable. I’m by myself most of the day creating metadata and digitizing items. I spend my breaks looking at listings and studying my local market.
“Remember when you said you could see me being a realtor? Well, I just signed up for classes and told my boss I won’t be renewing any contract.” She just shook her head and was like, “you just better make some money!”
The Risk and the Reward. This is the Coat of Arms of the House of the Small Businessman. Another casualty of the broken education system, seeking a way out. Thanks to this low bar for entry, they were able to pivot into selling shelter. Born into capitalist hell, you either earn a profit or die. One can hardly fault the choice. Library Science likely creates more social value than the "value" generated from the exchange of properties.
money and freedom
This comment I feel like is the Markov Chain that results from the distillation of all the other comments.
No job is going to pay me that much money for the amount of hours I work and flexibility I have with my associates degree
So I didn’t have to get a real job (half kidding)
Here we see two commenters who have identified the issue with wage labor, and have rejected it in favor of... independent contract labor.
Got a job in a grocery store as a courtesy clerk. Ike up 10 years later as a journeyman meat cutter and the wage ceiling was just too low. Whether I did a good job or not, my wages were the same, and didn’t meet inflation.
Commissions linked to home prices felt like a better way for me to earn a fair wage. Also, I have customer service skills and enjoy using them
An interesting analysis of inflation and wages. It's clear that a commission on a market that historically is inflationary only results in a wage that keeps up with inflation.
mother is a realtor, so she had me get my license at 19, currently 20 with no sells but also a full time student and work part time. Right now i’m just trying to get to know more people so by the time all my friends can afford a house they will come to me.
A mother escapes the bonds of economic patriarchy and passes this skill to their child. The child dreams of cannibalizing their friends, jokes on them though, they'll never be able to afford a house.
I honestly have huge respect for people that are able to feed their family off of being a realtor full time! I started out as a landlord, I added maintenance/contracting for extra money. Then I got my real estate license for extra cash. Real estate is the least reliable of all of the occupations. I’m studying for the brokers license at the moment. But props to everyone who is able to start from nothing and able to put food on the table.
How one "starts out" as a landlord is a question of inheritance, I believe. A strong spawning point like this will naturally only lead to good things.
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Yeah I've definitely noticed this too. Realtor seems to be the career of choice for the fail children of my town. And thanks to their parents' connections they're all working in expensive towns making bank.
I tried working with a realestate agent who was a crakkka in it's final form that whined about other people being lazy, odd because nobody brought up that topic, then when it was time to show me the house, she was awkwardly reluctant to do the normal house showing. We got a real sense of not-being-taken-seriously by this person, who we explicitly knew was aware of the importance of not being the last person to put an offer on the house.
This is the time when the market was generally already bad for buyers, but summer was around the corner so every day delayed brought us closer to peak worst-market-and-worst-time-of-year-for-buyers. I went with the first non-crakkka realestate agent who was willing to do the bare minimum, show us the house, which ended up being the first random person we tried, and we went ahead and bought the house.
when i bought my house, neither I nor the seller had a realtor. we just decided not to try and fuck each other over, so he named a fair price and I agreed contingent on inspection and loan approval. boilerplate offer contract from the internet. some cosmetic issues that any realtor would snidely chisel to justify their fee, but the really big expensive components and critical elements were all in great shape. went through my credit union for the loan/appraisal.
anyway, saved a shit ton. and the icing on the cake is telling any realtor in a hot market that I don't see why anyone pays them a dime, because being plainspoken and able to look shit up on the internet removes all the perceived mystery and complexity of what is a fairly common and routine exchange.
