Great paying jobs that isn't sales?
I want to do something with real estate but I hate the sales aspect of it. I feel like its a lot of high stress work that isnt worth it since your battling for every commission check. Is there a way for me to stay within the industry and still make good money? By good money, I would say 80k+ salary within a few years. In California
[{"id": "czeyalh", "text": "inspector? ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "czf032l", "text": "Manager. Get your ACoM\u00ae and CPM\u00ae from IREM\u00ae and you'll be in that range shortly.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "czf1h83", "text": "Appraiser.  \n\nI started when I was 26 and I had your required salary withing my first full year.  I work from home in my jammies and travel every so often to inspect sites...saw four in Maine yesterday.  Training is an investment of time, but pays off in the long run (at least in my neck of the woods).\n\nLet me know if you have more questions, happy to help.", "replies": [{"id": "czf4bl7", "text": "How did you get started though? I hear CRE appraisal positions are few and far in between.", "replies": [{"id": "czfg5u6", "text": "It's definitely a chicken/egg paradox.  You need a job to train, you need to train to get a job.  Here's what I did:\n\nI took the three most basic courses: Principals, Procedures and USPAP (which are the rules that appraisers follow).  Total investment was 74 hours and about $1,000.  I knew I wanted to be an appraiser and would need to take these classes to start with, so the gamble was minimal.  Once I took these classes, I did a mass mailing to every MAI (a designation from the Appraisal Institute), in my area, of my cover letter and resume.  Having personally invested in the career before getting a job showed prospective employers I was serious.\n\nThe problem with landing a gig is that you're minimally productive at first.  You can't really produce reports and there's someone coaching you using time that should be spent writing their reports.\n\nIt's all about persistence and networking.  Getting your name around and talking to more people will eventually get you what you're looking for.", "replies": [{"id": "czfl8gg", "text": "As someone who is 2 months into working for an CRE appraisal shop, can confirm the minimally productive part.\n\nI update budgets/actual's, look at comps and have completed the USPAP course. Just got assigned my first \"client\" (Not soley, I just help out with the workload).", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "czfavx4", "text": "Would be interested to learn more about what a day in the life is like. I currently work in sales and usually ignore calls from appraisers. Sounds like a nice gig if you can work from home. ", "replies": [{"id": "czfgmyy", "text": "The daily life is pretty sweet.  I'm a contractor, so YMMV if a position is as an employee within an actual firm or you go to work for CBRE/Cushman &amp; Wakefield or the like.  I work for a firm that's 45 minutes from my house.  I go to the physical office about twice a year.  \n\n\nI wake up, have a quiet morning with my wife and two sons (1 y/o and 3 y/o).  I'm usually to my desk around 7:30 where I take care of clerical shit (read Reddit).\n\n\nI tend to any emails from the prior day I may have ignored and then set my office staff up with things I may need from them throughout the day.  I like these requests to be waiting for them when they get to their desk in the morning.  The office staff consist of a secretary and a researcher, both of whom support three appraisers.\n\n\nThen I'll start in on whatever report I'm working on.  My goal is to do 7 assignments a month.\n\n\nI'm often interrupted with calls/emails which is a good break from the report writing.\n\n\nI take mental breaks every so often to play a video game, roughhouse with my boys or call a friend.  Every time I get a glass of water or food, I get to see my family (my wife stays home with the kids).  Not having a \"social\" aspect of an office is a bit of a trade-off from my prior career.\n\n\nSome days I eat dinner at my desk since we eat early (around 5 cuz of the ankle-biters) or I quit around 5 to eat with the family.  I work a few weekend hours here and there.\n\nAbout once a week or so, I travel to do site inspections.  I just drive around, meet people and look at properties.  Yesterday I looked at a Dollar General and three convenience stores in Maine.  This will set me up with about 2-3 weeks worth of work from home, during which time I won't have to travel.\n\nAll in all, I got it pretty good and am very lucky to have landed where I am.  Let me know if you have more questions.", "replies": [{"id": "czn768q", "text": "What does the training entail? I work for an estate sale company. While appraising items in a home is different from the actual property, I'd assume there are some similarities.. \n\nDid your company train you? Did you have any previous experience?", "replies": [{"id": "czngf11", "text": "I can really only accurately speak to real estate appraisal, sorry.  The training for a commercial real estate appraiser is 300 course hours and 3,000 hours of \"experience\" which has some definitions as to what applies toward experience and how many hours specific assignment types are worth.  Residential appraisers require half, 150 hours of classes and 1,500 experience hours.  These hours can not be accrued in less than 30 months (15 months residential) to prevent people from \"fast-tracking\".  The course hours are very specific in the courses you have to take, with about 30 hours (15 residential, I think) worth of electives.  I went through the Appraisal Institute and I spent a fortune, but received a very solid education.  After course and experience hours are complete, a state exam is the last step in licencing.\n\nAs far as \"training\", this came informally through my 3,000 hours of experience.  More or less just \"hands on\".  Everything I did daily at work was reflected in my course work, and vice versa.  To say that my company \"trained me\" is certainly accurate.  You need to earn your experience under a \"trainer\" and you are the \"trainee\".  The stipulations behind this vary by state.  \n\nWith respect to experience, it's sort of the chicken/egg or smoke/fire paradox.  You need a job to get experience, you need experience to get a job.  I took three courses and did an unpaid \"internship\" for a month as a means of showing prospective employers I was serious about the career path.  I was 26 at the time, so they knew they weren't training someone who was on the brink of retirement.  \n\nNow, how all this applies to valuing \"items in a home\"...no clue.  I assume you're area of appraisal would be art/antiques/collectibles.  I do know that all individuals who represent themselves as \"appraisers\" (be it real estate, equipment, antiques, etc.) must follow a set of guidelines called USPAP ( [Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Standards_of_Professional_Appraisal_Practice) ).  When I took my USPAP course there was someone training to become a farm equipment appraiser.\n\nI hope this circuitously answered your questions...and then some.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "czf289i", "text": "Commercial RE Underwriter - way more analytical and technical vs sales based. You'll probably start as a loan processor or analyst and work your way up to underwriter.  ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "czf4ufx", "text": "Research. \n\nHonestly, the technical skills can be acquired fairly easily. Masters degree in business or some other field like real estate or urban planning will help, but not a requirement. Once you get some experience, differentiate yourself by becoming a subject matter expert in something like labor force trends or industry clusters to demonstrate broader market knowledge.\n\nYou won't get \"broker rich\" but the work is interesting and most firms pay quite well starting at a young age. ", "replies": [{"id": "czfbu3o", "text": "where can I look for firms that do this in my market? ", "replies": [{"id": "czfusyq", "text": "Google search: company name, office, research, city. If they have a research department, it will come up. Try jll, Cushman Wakefield, colliers to start.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "czhvbsz", "text": "As iwanttheknife said, look to the major firms like JLL, Cushman, CBRE, Colliers, etc. It's a great way to learn the industry and break in. I would take some online classes or tutorials to get good at tools like Access, Excel, Tableau, etc.\n\nAlso, try to look up and go to networking events with organizations like NAIOP or ULI. If your region has Bisnow events, try to attend those. Networking is very important in commercial real estate (obviously), even if you're in research. It's hard to even get an interview without some kind of internal referral. But you'll find most people in the industry like to talk and network, and if you can come with some kind of knowledge or talking points on the market, you'll easily keep someone's attention, so just read some quarterly market reports or listen to podcasts or anything like that. \n\nHope that helps and good luck!", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "czf9ei4", "text": "Asset Management.\n\nAn asset management analyst with three years of experience including deep knowledge of excel and Argus can expect a starting salary of around what you're looking for.", "replies": [{"id": "czfbuis", "text": "with a developer? ", "replies": [{"id": "czfc6bv", "text": "With an owner of commercial real estate (could be a developer but most developers only hold for a short period so they have little need for AMs). Try this book if you need a better understanding of the full spectrum of careers, it helped me when I was starting.\n\nThe Inside Track to Careers in Real Estate https://www.amazon.com/dp/0874209544/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_RnLQwbH12ZHTX", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "czfljz7", "text": "No usually someone like Wells Fargo, AIG, big investment companys with ties to real estate. Although, from my experience they want the cream of the crop and will waste your time if you aren't their flavor of snuff (read that as \"must have high gpa and makings of a banker\" type flavor. Although that isn't always the case I am sure) ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "czfiuk2", "text": "You are going to have a tough time making a lot of money in Commercial Real Estate that doesn't involve sales on some level.  Its where the money is because without it transactions don't happen.  Heck even attorneys have to sell on some level to get clients.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "czfrrsz", "text": "Stick to analysis. Real estate brokerages, lenders, PE firms, all need analysts. But don't be afraid of commission. In a good market, well trained analysts are making a windfall as support for high producing brokers. 100k+ within 2 years. Most analysts who know what they are doing structure their compensation so they take on a low salary but take points (a percentage) on the commission fee their brokers earn.\n\nOh and in case it wasn't clear....analysts underwrite deals. Whether its a transaction or capital placement for debt and equity. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "czfwn2x", "text": "Commercial RE Underwriters at least in banking usually get paid a little bit more than Business \"C&amp;I\" underwriters when the market is good. I think depending on the location you can expect a CRE analyst/underwriter to command a $10,000 to $20,000 premium over a C&amp;I guy right now. This means that if you are willing to pay $70,000 to someone with 5 years of experience in C&amp;I, the CRE guy could probably negotiate $80K. \n\nThe problem is that when the market is down like in 2009 to 2012, those departments shrank by 50% and you could not get a job. I managed an 8 person C&amp;I team and whenever I lost someone and we advertised a position all we would get where applications of CRE underwriters out of work. I tell this to everyone looking for an analyst position. This is something to take into consideration since the current market has been running strong for a couple of years and we are due for some cooldown in the next couple.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]