Perhaps you’ve been working as a real estate agent for a handful of years now, or you haven’t yet broken into the industry but are considering it. Either way, it’s helpful to know that selling houses (I.e., being a real estate agent) isn’t the only way to earn an income in the South Carolina real estate industry. In fact, there are at least four other occupations that might interest you, especially if you don’t think you’re cut out for direct selling.

Each type of real estate job has its own license or certification requirements. It’s important to carefully research each category, so that you know what to expect if you decide to venture into a particular niche. Each of the four jobs mentioned in this post require a certain amount of pre-license education as well. You’ll also want to look into what type of curriculum and programs the real estate schools in your area have to offer.

Property management might be the real estate career for you

Even if you don’t particularly care for the idea of selling houses, you might still be a “people person” who enjoys interacting with others during the course of an average day on the job. If you also have good management skills, including the ability to perform executive duties in an organized fashion, as well as problem-solving and negotiation skills, you might be interested in learning more about the property management side of the real estate industry.

As a real estate property manager, your duties typically include things such as filling vacancies in a rental property, collecting rent, addressing requests for maintenance and other issues. In short, you would manage property for an owner who either lives too far away to take care of such issues or simply does not want to focus his or her time and effort on direct management of a property.

You can be a home inspector or home appraiser

Two more aspects of the real estate industry that don’t involve direct sells are home inspections and home appraisals. Both are integral components to the home purchase process. If you prefer to work independently and not have as much direct contact with clients, this type of career might suit you better than sales or management.

If you’ve been an agent long enough, you can obtain a broker license

While all real estate brokers are licensed agents, not all real estate agents are licensed brokers. A broker oversees the transactions of sales and purchase activities on a home. As a broker, you would have a higher level of real estate education than a licensed sales agent. You would also earn a commission on every sale that closes through the agents working in your brokerage.

Look into South Carolina real estate laws before choosing a career

Each of these career options is available to those in South Carolina who want to work in the real estate industry but don’t want to be directly involved in listing homes or acting as a buyer’s agent. It’s important to learn more about the education and license requirements of each career before determining which might be the best fit for you.

When you start selling homes in South Carolina, you’re going to meet a lot of people throughout the course of an average work week. In fact, if you’re a “people person,” the idea of crossing paths with lots of people, different personalities, needs and goals, etc., might be part of what attracted you to the real estate industry. It’s only natural that you’ll want to help your clients make their home-purchase dreams a reality.

It’s imperative for you to be knowledgeable about various features on the properties you’ll be showing to your clients. Of course, if someone asks a question that you don’t have an answer for, you can tell him or her that you will do your best to find out, then tap into any and all available local resources to find the answer. There are certain features and issues that are usually quite important to a potential buyer.

Location is always at the top of the list for home buyers

If you’re working with a buyer, he or she may undoubtedly place a lot of importance on a particular home’s location. The more you learn ahead of time about the surrounding area of a home you plan to show, the better. Buyers will want to know things like how accessible a home is to the nearest interstate, what the crime rate is in a neighborhood or information about local schools.

Age of a home may be a factor for many buyers

As you become more experienced in the real estate industry, you’ll find that the age of a home is a key feature that’s important to many buyers. Some people prefer to live in older homes, especially if they are artistic. They might want a home with older architecture or brick or a classic-style front porch or attic. People who purchase homes with the intention of renovating, then “flipping,” or re-selling are often interested in buying older homes.

For other buyers, a home older than 10 years might not be of any interest to them at all. These buyers like all things to be modern. Such buyers might only want to take a look at an older home, if other key issues, such as location, price, local conveniences, etc., make it worth their while.

How much maintenance with the home and property require?

If your client is retired and looking to down-size and slow down in life, he or she might not be interested in touring homes that require a lot of maintenance. A person in this stage of life might want to buy a home in a community where yard maintenance is taken care of by professionals.

As for the interior of a house, some homes simply need a lot more attention and work than others. You might have clients who don’t mind making repairs or upgrades on a home. There will likely be others, however, who want to stay as far away from maintenance as they can.

Be prepared to discuss these and other issues

In addition to the issues mentioned in this post, the buyers you work with will be interested in numerous other features or topics when searching for a home to purchase. Always be prepared to discuss things like square footage of living space, floor layouts, appliances, number of bedrooms and more.

If you establish yourself as a go-to for information on the houses you show, you increase the chances that your clients will be satisfied with your service and may even go on to give you referrals when their friends or family members are in the market for a new home.

If you’ve been focused on raising a family at home and have been out of the workforce for a while but are planning to jump back in there by obtaining a license to sell real estate, congratulations! Good for you! The real estate industry is very family-friendly when it comes to building a career. You’ve no doubt already considered the benefits of being able to have a lot of control over your own schedule and deciding just how many hours you’ll put in each week.

Many parents, especially those who are moms, launch new careers in real estate either to supplement existing income or to start fresh in life after being at home for many years. It’s possible for moms to become profitable real estate agents while continuing to provide for the temporal needs of their family. It can be tricky to find a peaceful balance between career and family life, however. This post contains several helpful ideas to keep stress to a minimum and success at its full potential.

Use your Mom sphere of networks to generate leads

One of the most important factors to building a new real estate business is networking and generating leads. The good news for moms is that you don’t have to take tons of time away from your family to go out and hunt down leads. You’re a mom – you interact with a ton of people on a regular basis! As a new real estate agent, you can be hopeful that using your mom-connections will help you generate leads.

For instance, do you volunteer at your child’s school? Are you a member of the PTA or a similar organization? Do you help out with sports teams, scouts or other local groups? Moms are often on a first-name business with the cashiers at the checkout of their local grocery stores, receptionists at doctors’ offices, school crossing guards and more. Chances are, there are leads out there for you in real estate.

Don’t hesitate to block out time for “family only” during the week

As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest benefits for moms regarding a real estate career is the ability to have a greater amount of control of your personal schedule than you might have in another career. However, there’s always more work to be done in real estate, meaning you could theoretically work 24/7 if you wanted to. But of course you don’t, especially because you have a family who needs you and wants to spend time with you.

One way to create balance between your real estate career and family life is to block out time for your family each week. During this time, be committed to NOT scheduling showings or meetings with clients, etc. Whatever time you block out becomes a boundary between work and home life. This time is for your family. It doesn’t even have to be the same time every week. Doing this from the start helps you to quickly form the habit.

The brokerage you choose can help you balance work and family life

You might want to think twice before joining a brokerage where the broker-in-charge and team members are all single and have no children. Instead, try to find a brokerage that is family-friendly where with at least several team members who are parents and understand that unexpected issues might arise where you’re needed at home.

Working with a broker who strives to balance career and family life in his or her own live helps balance your own. Work with a brokerage you can count on for support to help you build a successful career and family life. Remember, balance doesn’t mean perfection. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Just be the best mom and the best real estate agent you can be. Your best is good enough! And, who knows? Perhaps you’ll partner with one of your children in real estate some day!

When people are in the market for a new home in South Carolina or elsewhere, they often have specific lifestyle, location or budgets needs they’re hoping to meet. Finding a home that best fits their needs is part of a buyers’ agent’s job. If you’re helping a client search for a new home, he or she might also be looking for certain special features and may even be willing to up an offer to get them.

Buyers might offer more than the list price on a home if one of more of these special interior features are included. It’s helpful for a seller to learn more about these features and to consider upgrading a home to include some of them before putting it on the market, especially if it’s a hot feature that will garner above-list-price offers, in which case, a seller might be able to recoup the investment of adding the feature while still making a nice profit on the sale of the home.

Special interior features that might spur a bidding war

The following list includes trending special features that many buyers are willing to go above and beyond in price to get:

• Central air conditioning
• Kitchen island
• Stainless steel kitchen appliances
• Hardwood floors
• En suite master bathroom
• Granite countertops
• Walk-in closets
• Walk-in pantry
• Ceiling fans

If a home has more than one of these special features, it’s likely going to attract a lot of attention and may even garner a lot of offers.

Exterior special features that often go for top shelf prices

In addition to special features in a kitchen, bathroom or other interior space, many buyers are willing to up their offer for a home that includes one or more of the following outdoor features:

• In-ground swimming pool with deck
• Full-equipped outdoor kitchen
• Two-car garage
• Screened deck
• Patio
• Roof less than five years old
• Prime location
• Lightscaping
• Front porch

The South Carolina climate is perfect for outdoor entertaining year ‘round, which makes exterior special features, such as a pool or screened in living space a hot ticket item on the real estate market. A prime location with access to interstates, top-ranking school systems or lots of local outdoor amenities is likely to attract a lot of buyer-attention as well.

Help your clients refine their home search

To be a successful (and profitable) buyers’ agent, you must be a good listener. It’s important to get as much detail as you can from your clients regarding what types of special features they’re looking for in a new home. But you have to do more than listen. You must also keep their needs and preferences in mind when scheduling home tours.

The more you learn ahead of time about special features or other preferences, the better able you’ll be to refine your search so that your clients have several prime options to choose from instead of wasting their time looking at a bunch of homes that won’t be of interest to them. Do your homework and schedule showings for homes that include as many of your clients’ requested features as possible.

Many people who decide to earn a license to sell homes in South Carolina work their way through real estate school while holding down a full-time day job and juggling obligations and responsibilities in their family life. One of the benefits of starting a career in real estate is that you typically gain more flexibility in your schedule.

This makes it a good fit for parents, retirees, recently graduated college students or people who are looking for ways to supplement their existing incomes. If you’re currently employed or have family obligations, then time management is going to be critically important to your success in real estate school. There are several things to keep in mind as you set out to accomplish your new career goals.

Goals get accomplished faster if you make them a priority

In South Carolina, you have several years in which to complete your pre-license education program, then pass your final exam and apply for your real estate license. However, if you don’t make your new career goal a priority, chances are, the years will pass, and you still won’t have your license in hand.

Successful time management includes prioritizing the goals you are trying to achieve. When such goals require you to go to real estate school, you might have to turn down offers for social gatherings or go to the gym less times per week, etc., in order to focus on your studies. When you make your studies a priority, you’ll be ready for your state exam before you know it!

Block out a minimum study time each day

If you’re working a part-time or full-time job or have children at home who need your attention, finding time to take real estate classes and study for your final exam can be challenging. To manage your time more effectively, consider blocking out a total amount of time during which you will commit to studying each day.

The time doesn’t have to be consecutive. For instance, you might block out one hour per day to study. However, your other obligations might necessitate breaking that hour up into increments, where you study 20 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes at night.

Always work ahead when you are able

When you put good time management habits into practice, don’t be surprised if you start to find yourself with more time available to study. When a homeowner makes a double mortgage payment in a month, it can take years off the life of the loan. Effective time management works in a similar way, except it creates more time, not less.

In other words, when you manage your time well, you get a lot accomplished and wind up having more time available to do whatever needs done. If you get your studying done earlier than you initially planned or find yourself with some free time on your hands, always try to work ahead in your study plan. Just as overpaying on a mortgage shortens the life of your loan, the more you study, the sooner you’ll complete the program.

Why it’s so important to reach out for additional support as needed

As you work your way through real estate school, you might encounter certain concepts that you struggle to understand. Students who hesitate to reach out for additional support are at risk of wasting a lot of time. Understanding the concepts of the course is a key factor to passing your final exam.

To manage your time effectively, it’s best to ask for help as soon as an obstacle arises in your studies. At Real Estate School for Success, our instructors are dedicated not only to providing the information and course work the state requires for licensing but to go above and beyond to help students become profitable real estate agents.

When you first obtain your license to sell homes in South Carolina, you’ll likely be so excited that you just want to “sell something – anything.” As time passes, however, and you have a few closings under your belt and become more experienced in the industry, you might decide to refine your sales plan so that a specific niche is the central focus.

When you focus your business within a specific niche, it can help maximize your time and efforts. It also helps you establish your brand. The more deals you close within your niche, the more you become known as a “go-to” agent in your region to serve clientele with similar needs. There are several categories in real estate that can be top-earning arenas for motivated sales agents.

Real estate niches categorized by property type

As you build your brand and establish yourself as a real estate agent within a particular niche, you might want to consider focusing on a specific property type. The following list shows the most common types of property included in this niche:

• Commercial properties
• Historical homes
• Single-family residences
• Condominiums

In addition to the property types mentioned here, there are several others that can be included in this niche. A logical question to ask yourself ahead of time is whether any of these property types are plentiful in your area. You’ll also want to do some research to determine how often the properties within your chosen category are going up for sale.

You can choose real estate niches by types of buyers

You might want to focus your real estate sales business on a specific type of client, such as first-time buyers or luxury home buyers. Other categories within this niche include real estate investors and commercial property buyers. The latter is often comprised of small business owners in your community who are seeking a place to run their operations.

You can also choose a niche as a listing agent

Working within a certain niche in real estate isn’t just for buyers’ agents. As a listing agent, you may want to gear your services toward a specific type of seller, such as those listed here:

• People who are home-flippers for a living.
• Investors who purchase homes in order to rent them to others.
• People selling their homes to offload assets.

Some listing agents also focus their efforts on sellers who are attempting FSBO (For Sale By Owner) sales. It’s not uncommon for FSBO sellers to eventually realize that hiring an agent would be a better way to go.

A real estate niche isn’t set in stone

If you choose to devote your time and efforts to a specific real estate niche, it doesn’t mean that you can’t generate leads or secure deals in other categories. It also doesn’t mean that you must continue focusing on a particular niche, especially if you determine that it isn’t as lucrative as you’d hoped it might be or you simply want to try your hand in another category.

One of the greatest benefits of earning a real estate license is the flexibility you gain with your new career. You are literally at the helm of your “real estate ship,” and you can adapt and adjust your schedule, your budget or your focus to meet your immediate needs and long-term business goals.

Whether you’re a newly-licensed agent or have been working in real estate sales for years, you can never have “too much” networking or “too many” ways to boost your business. Advanced technology provides speed and convenience to various aspects of the business that, long ago, either would have taken a long time to complete or wouldn’t even be possible. Social media is a valuable tool that you can use to your advantage in many ways as a real estate agent.

In this post, we’ll focus on three specific ways that you can boost business by being active on major social media platforms. One of the greatest benefits to using any type of social media to promote your real estate business is the ability to customize your posts and marketing campaigns to provide a personal and unique experience for your audience. Keeping these three ideas in mind may help increase organic traffic and generate leads.

Use your social media platforms to promote your selling region

While most real estate agents use social media to help establish their personal brands and advertise their businesses, it’s also a good idea to use your Instagram, Facebook or other platforms to promote your community. In order to have a booming real estate industry, people have to want to live in the area, right?

What better way to attract attention to your selling region than to promote its amenities across your social media platforms? You can do this sharing photos and information about local festivals, businesses, schools and more. Think to yourself: what are the best features, services and experiences my town has to offer? Then, create social media posts around those ideas. This article provides suggestions for community guides as well as additional tips on how to create a successful real estate website.

Establish yourself as a go-to for real estate info on social media

In addition to captivating posts about the special features and amenities of your community, you can also use your social media platforms to provide information and educate potential clients. When people realize that they can go to your Instagram page or Facebook business page to find answers to questions they have about selling or buying a home, they’ll bookmark your page, like and share your posts, etc., which establishes you as a go-to for real estate info.

Post photos and info about actual homes for sale or homes you have sold

Your real estate business is all about buying and selling homes. Therefore, at least part of your social media campaign should also include photos and information about specific homes, either those that are currently for sale in your area or those you’ve sold in the recent past.

Featuring homes on your social media pages also encourages audience engagement, which is a key factor to expanding your reach and increasing visibility for your business. If your pages are getting comments, always be sure to respond and interact in some way, especially if someone asks a question.

Don’t give up if numbers are low at first

It can take several years to build a successful social media campaign with the purpose of advertising and marketing your real estate business online. If you don’t feel equipped to handle these tasks on your own, you can hire someone to do it for you.

Overall, thoughtful and strategic use of social media can help you get the word out about your business when you become a licensed real estate agent in South Carolina. It can also help generate leads and develop a loyal following, which is likely to lead to referrals – all of which can help you boost business!

If you’ve decided to pursue real estate sales as a career and haven’t yet done so, you’ll soon be enrolling in pre-license education classes to begin working your way to the final exam, which is the portal to obtaining a license to sell homes in South Carolina. As with all new business endeavors, you’re likely to experience ups and downs throughout your education process.

You’ll no doubt encounter challenges in the course of your career once you earn your license to start selling homes. The key to rising above these challenges during pre-license study is to tap into available resources for support to help you master whatever concept it might be that you’re struggling to understand. While the knowledge you gain in real estate school will be with you forever, you don’t have "forever" to take your final exam. There are several important things to know regarding “time” when preparing for your real estate test.

You have 5 years to pass the final exam after completing pre-licensing education

In South Carolina, you’re required to complete a total of 90 hours of pre-license educationfrom a source that has been approved by the South Carolina Labor Licensing Regulation Department. How long it takes to accomplish this depends on numerous factors, such as whether you’re devoting full time or part time toward the effort. Many people attend real estate school in addition to working full-time jobs, so they have less time for studying and completing coursework than someone who is able to focus solely on their classes.

Once you complete your coursework, you must pass the South Carolina real estate exam within the next five years. If you don’t pass the final exam the first time around, you are permitted to take it again, as many times as needed, in accordance with certain time and eligibility restrictions.

Eligibility to take the final exam expires after 1 year

While you have five years in which to pass your real estate exam after completing the 90 hours of pre-license education required in this state, before you take the exam, you must apply for examination eligibility. Once the Commission grants you eligibility, it remains valid for one year. You must be eligible to sit for the real estate exam. If you don’t pass the test, you may retake it as long as you’re still eligible.

If your eligibility has expired, you can reapply, provided five years have not passed since completion of your pre-license education course work.

Earning a passing grade on the real estate exam

To obtain a license to sell homes in South Carolina, you must score a 70% or higher on your real estate exam. At this point, you will have already put a lot of time and effort into completing your pre-license classes and acquiring the knowledge and experience you need in order to pass the test. However, it’s also important to study well for the exam.

Because you have five years in which to pass the final exam, weeks, months or years might pass from the time you complete your coursework to the time you sit for the final examination. Chances of being able to walk in there and pass without studying first are rather small. The sooner you acquire good study habits, the greater chance you have of earning a passing grade on your final test!

There are many perks to a career in real estate sales. One of them is “flexibility.” When you earn a license to sell homes in South Carolina, you immediately gain control over your own schedule. That alone is a perk; however, it’s definitely not the only one. Another reason many people choose real estate sales as a career is the ability to adapt your business to full-time or part-time work.

You might start out working part-time in real estate, then decide to switch to full-time or vice versa. It’s something to think about before you start listing houses on the market, and it’s often best to explore your options while you’re still taking pre-license courses. This way, you can have a plan in mind and set goals for your future business, and when you finally have a license to sell in your hand, you’ll be ready to go full force, no matter which option you have chosen to pursue.

Pros and cons to working full-time in real estate

If you’re earning a license to sell homes because you want it to be your full-time job, there’s no question that you’ll have your work cut out for you. This is typically the more challenging option of the two. As with most career choices, there are pros and cons to working full-time in real estate, several of which are included in the following list:

• One pro is that working full-time gives you an edge over competitors who are working part-time.
• Brokers are more likely to consider training full-time workers because it’s more worth their time and effort.
• Full-time work increases your chances for referral because you’ll no doubt connect with and interact with more people than you might if you’re only working part-time.
• A possible downside is that you’ll have less free time, even if you’re in control of your own schedule.
• If you’re working with a broker, you’ll have to share your commissions.

It’s logical to assume that putting full-time work and effort into selling homes increases your chances of generating leads and getting contracts that go to closing.

There are legitimate reasons for working part-time in real estate

Earning a real estate license to work part-time is a great benefit to many people in certain stages of life. For instance, if you’re a mom who sacrificed an initial career to stay home full-time and raise a family, you might want to work part-time in real estate when your children get a little older. This next list shows additional perks and possible downsides from working part-time in real estate:

• Full-timers will have an edge over you in the field.
• Brokers might be hesitant to sign you on with their teams.
• You might not be available to a client at a particular time.
• If you’re working another job in addition to selling homes, you might be putting in more hours than you would if you were to sell homes full-time.
• A benefit to part-time real estate work is that it’s a useful tool when you are satisfied with your current job but need a way to generate supplemental income.
• You have more free time to focus on other things.

As mentioned earlier, it’s possible to make changes in your schedule when working in the real estate industry. At one point, you might only want to work part-time. However, down the line, you might decide to devote 100% of your work time to real estate. Either way, it’s nice to have options, and you can adapt your schedule to fit your needs, your budget and your career goals.

You might be one of many people in South Carolina who have been nurturing a dream for some time to become a licensed real estate agent. You imagine yourself making appointments with prospective buyers, showing homes and closing deals. Perhaps you started thinking about obtaining your sales license because you wanted to generate supplemental income. Or, maybe you’re hoping for an entire career change. Either way, the journey must begin with real estate school.

In this state, you’re required to obtain 90 hours of pre-license education before you’re eligible to sit for the real estate exam. Choosing a real estate school is an important decision. Whether you live in South Carolina or elsewhere, there are several things to keep in mind to help make your discernment process more effective.

What do others say about the school you’re considering for enrollment?

Before enrolling in a real estate school, it’s always best to seek reviews from former or current students. People tend to be very honest regarding their experiences, which may help you limit your choices to the schools with the best reviews in your area.

One way to seek reviews of a particular school is to visit its website online. There are bound to be testimonies published from former students, which may help you discern whether that school is a good fit for you.

How many students pass the final exam?

Information regarding student pass rates is available to the public. If you’re considering a specific real estate school, you’ll want to learn more about the student pass rate for that particular institution. If more students fail their final exam than pass, that should be a red flag signal that something is amiss in the curriculum or instruction process.

How adaptable is the school for scheduling, budgeting and learning style?

Finding a school that fits your immediate needs and long-term real estate goals can be challenging. For instance, you might have a day job that makes you available only in the evenings for classes. Whether a school has evening sessions or online classes that you can access at will may be a determining factor in your case.

There are also budget issues and learning style factors to consider when choosing a real estate school. Pay close attention the faculty, including whether there is an atmosphere of mentorship and whether or not tutoring is available for students who may be struggling with a specific concept. Generally speaking, you’ll want to choose a school that has a high rate of success with an instruction team that is willing to go the extra mile to prepare you to not only pass a real estate exam, but to become a profitable real estate agent in your state.