I even know an attorney who got his real estate license to earn extra "vacation money" for his family.
Doing a few transactions each year doesn't require a lot of time, but it can yield a lot of extra money.
If you help someone buy/sell a $300,000 house, and your brokerage makes 3% of the commission (which is customary), that's $9,000 you get to split with your broker. That's $4,500 extra if you split it with your broker 50/50. Quite a bit of extra vacation money or whatever else you might want to use it for!
You can probably find a broker that offers more generous commission splits, or even better, find a broker that does away with commission splits altogether & just charges a flat fee (the BEST & something I recommend here).
The only requirement is you or your spouse need to get your real estate license.
And it's much easier than you think.
I've seen people get it in a month just working on it a few hours during the evenings. It's a very simple process.
The first step is to figure out where you're going to get your license. And you have multiple options.
Option #1: Attend in-person classes
This is the route my wife took. They sent her material ahead of time to study. Then, she went to a real estate training center from about 8-5pm every day for a week to finish the class. Last, she studied & took the final exam. This exam is proctored at a testing center & is required to get your license.
If you call the Realtor Association in your area (just Google "Realtor Association [Your City Name]"), they can give you the phone number of the people in your area who offer in-person classes.
This option tends to be the most expensive and requires you to devote some significant in-class time to complete it. I'm sure there are places that also offer night classes or classes at other times.
Option #2: Take the classes online
This is the route I took. I wanted to go at my own pace & do it on my own time.
In this format, most online course platforms have slides you read (or PDFs you download) & quizzes you take at the end of each section. Then you have tests you take to complete each of the courses required. And finally the major exam that is proctored at a testing center to get your license.
Here are some of the online course sites I've either used or know others have used with success (keep in mind that real estate licensing is administered at the state-level, so some of these sites may not support your state):
Aceable Agent - this is where my sister completed her licensing requirements (see below for discount code)
Real Estate Express - this is where I completed my licensing requirements years ago
360 Training - this is where I have completed my continuing education
I'm sure there are other great training companies out there as well.
Here's a pro tip: Look for coupons!
They can save you a lot of money. The main reason I went with Real Estate Express was because I got on Groupon and signed up for a big promotion they were offering. For a few hundred dollars, I was able to purchase all the courses I needed to get my license.
Because Aceable Agent has been increasing in popularity, I recently worked with them to negotiate a discount for Tentmaking Pastors followers (often a larger discount than what you'll find on Groupon). Just use the coupon code "tentmaking" at check-out (https://www.aceableagent.com/) & it will apply the 40% discount (they even pay me a small referral fee for sending you — yay!! win/win). You can use the code “tentmaking” to purchase pre-licensing material as well as continuing education material.
Option #1 & Option #2 are both great. Make your decision based on your preferred method of learning & your budget.
