May 1, 2023

SO, YOU WANT TO “GET INTO REAL ESTATE?"

Spring is in the air, and so are the career hopes of numerous school graduates, as well as seasoned professionals who come from various socio-economic backgrounds. Whether it’s a college graduate looking for a job or a seasoned business person wanting to know how to “get in to real estate,” we get the calls.

The partners at TriStar are asked to mentor and guide many people, and it begins with similar questions. Our backgrounds range from property management, asset management (yes, they are different), appraisal, brokerage, investments and development. We have been a part of or have experienced real estate legal matters, negotiated loan documents and worked with architects and engineers to be knowledgeable about everything that touches real estate. We have seen the brilliant practitioners and those who struggled to do it right in these various areas. We’ve learned over the years that it’s important to understand what one thinks “real estate” is and what “getting in to it” means to them.

Without sounding too jaded, many people see the appeal, fame and fortune that can come with a real estate career, but they have no idea what they want…they just want to be in it because it’s where “the money is!” Fair enough! So how best guide the novice?

Skill Sets, Interests and Career Alignment

Real estate has many areas that will provide a good living for those committed to hard work (like any other profession). Success is finding out where your natural skill sets exist and putting them where they can be applied successfully. In a broad, sweeping statement, real estate is a numbers game, and if you are not comfortable with numbers, accounting and the like, there are spots for you in real estate but they will be limited. Hardly an area of real estate doesn’t have to deal with budgeting, or finance which comes with the capital intense world of real estate. Are you comfortable with numbers? , go to the next paragraph.

Personality Type

When recruiting for brokerage/sales teams in a past career, we used a screening tool called a DISC test. There are many variations of this aptitude test but in simplistic terms, it gives a read as to a person’s core traits/skills, so we could see where best to place them in a large organization. Mind you, everyone has all of these traits, but most lean toward one quadrant or two. In simplistic terms the traits are as follows:

D = Dominant. This measures the proclivity for one to be in charge. These are natural born leadership skills, and people high in this score get things done.

I=Influencer. This dominant trait is found in your salesperson. They are the extrovert, the life of the party. They are the tip of the spear to make their way into an organization, to get an audience, to warm people up to a new idea, a sale.

S= Steady. Strong personality marks here mean that you are reliable and can be counted on to get things done. The detailed implementer. You are an analyst who loves precision and would rather be behind a screen than out front with people.

C= Conscientious. Your teammate with a high C is your moral compass. They will be the one wanting everyone to be happy, to do the right thing and to clean up messes made by others, and gladly doing so out of a sense of duty. They are more of the sensitive type in the bunch.

All of these traits can work in real estate, but not all are best suited for all areas. As an example, sales will have a lot of rejection as one will get turned down in their pursuits. A personality trait with a heavy C or S might not be a good fit for a sales job.

Risk Tolerance



Most of those who come to me want the money that comes from being in real estate. There is a direct correlation with money and risk. See the graph below in its simplest form:

To interpret the graph, the left side is more risk adverse and as you move right, you find more compensation and higher risk.

A salaried employee has a relatively safe compensation, and the amount of money is commensurate with skill sets and experience. Toward the left side are great professions that pay well but will see limitations set by the large corporations that pay them their salaries. The commissioned person puts it all on the line…the harder they work, the higher the compensation. A commissioned broker lives for the deal and are well compensated to be on the hunt for deals all the time. There is great money to be made here, but you may make a few sales a month or one giant one a year…depends on where you want to specialize.

The ultimate money makers have the highest risk…the investors and developers. You’re not making any money and working to create value by buying or building a structure. You are signing loans, and personally guaranteeing millions of dollars’ worth of real estate. You risk (just to name a few) economic cycles, bankrupt tenants, interest rate increases, regulatory dysfunction, and lawsuits from 1-800 lawyers that can make your life hectic. Your investors love you when you perform and will lambast you when you do not. Loan defaults are always a possibility, and the wealthiest developers I have known have been bankrupt a few times before they finally have the yacht in the Caribbean.

So, you wanna be in real estate?…