In California real estate agents make between $22,430 and $97,320 annually, the average being $52,280 ("Real Estate Sales Agents"). This is a pretty good amount of money considering the average American makes $42,693 a year (“Per Capita Personal Income by State”). Real estate is anything but average, since agents are paid on commission. How you perform and how well you network will determine a lot of things in real estate such as your income. As long as you 're actually selling houses and making deals you 'll be making money. Some real estate agents such as my parents make well over $100,000 a year.
Jobs where you 're paid on commission are much different than jobs where you have a salary. There are many benefits and disadvantages to these kinds of jobs; one off the top of my head would be that you have no boss breathing down your neck every day. The main disadvantage of course would be that if you don 't sell real estate you make no money. Although that is only true to a certain extent because there are many different facets of real estate as a career, some of them bringing you passive income.
Now passive income is income that you don 't have to work for more or less. The IRS describes it as income “in which you do not materially participate. “(“Topic 425 - Passive Activities – Losses and Credits.") That 's why it 's called passive, it works for you. An example of passive income in relation to real estate could be leasing real estate to tenants and hiring a property manager to handle the rest. Now in theory that sounds great, although the disadvantages to that is you need enough money upfront to not only put down the initial payment for the mortgage, but to also hire a property manager if you don 't want to do that work yourself.
Another big topic in researching Real Estate is degrees. Well, the great thing about real estate is you do not need a massive amount of formal education akin to most jobs. Since you 're paid on commission
Cited: "Per Capita Personal Income by State." Bureau of Business & Economic Research. n.p., Mar. 2013. Web. 07 Aug. 2013. "Real Estate Sales Agents." California Career Zone. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Aug. 2013. "Requirements to Apply for a Real Estate Salesperson License." Bureau of Real Estate. n.p., n.d. Web. 7 Aug. 2013. "Topic 425 - Passive Activities – Losses and Credits." Irs. n.p., 01 Apr. 2013. Web. 7 Aug. 2013.