Hello all,

         I am new to being a broker but not new to having a passion for real estate.  I would first like to explain how/why I got my real estate license.  I have always had an interest in real estate.  But, as it usually goes, I graduated college with a finance degree and went to work for a large company as a corporate accountant.  I worked my way up the ladder for several years until the opportunity arose to transfer to North Carolina and a branch manager.  My wife went to work as a office assistant for a friends RE company.  They paid for her to take her pre-licensing class.  She told me about how great her instructor was told me that he had another class starting in a couple weeks.  I said to myself, "this is a sign".  This is my chance to do what I want to do.

       Now understand, that at this point, the company I work for started making changes as the economy worsened.  The cheifs of the company were making decisions that did not sit well with me, putting ALOT more work on their branch managers, while cutting their pay.  They even laid-off a couple of my employees.  I started saying to myself, "Why am I working myself to death, and getting paid less for it?". 

     I am a VERY driven individual.  I made the decision to start working on a career change.  I want my earnings to be a reflection of how hard I work.  I signed up for my pre-licensing class, scored the highest in the class on the exam, and passed the state exam.

Now comes the question!!

I still need to keep my full-time job.  Like many people, I can not go without income for a month.  I need to have health insurance as I have a 5 year old and a new 6 month old.  My wife works Weds-Sun evenings so obviously I am going to need to start off work my business part-time.

I have a good general knowledge on how RE works, how lending works.   What I don't have is the years of experience.  I am not afraid of hard work, but I don' want to work my behind off doing the wrong thing.   I am of the opinion, as are many others of you out there from what I have read, that buyers and the REO/Short sale avenues are were my focus should be. 

All of us were new in the business at some point.  Would anyone like to offer up some tips/tricks of the trade for a new agent trying to provide a better life for his family?

All replies welcome!!

David Ritchey NC Broker/Realtor (R) Keller Williams Ballantyne Charlotte NC