Why New Yorkers are Turning to Real Estate as a Second Income

New York City is one of the most exciting places in the world to live, but even well off professionals are increasingly feeling the pinch due to the high cost of living. With housing costs skyrocketing (the average rent in Manhattan is a staggering $3777 per month) and wages in most professions remaining stagnant, more and more New Yorkers are weighing the pros and cons and opting to move to more affordable markets.

According to experts who track what has come to be known as “affordable migration,” internal migration that happens when people can no longer afford to live in their home cities, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx all saw net population losses of more than 100,000 people in 2018.

Not everyone is leaving, of course — but the rising cost of living does mean that those who stay are increasingly looking to maximize their income. While wealthier New Yorkers can leverage investments in stocks, bonds, and real estate, those on a fixed income who don’t have access to investment capital need to find other ways to make ends meet. Oftentimes, this means either upgrading skills or finding a second source of income.

Developing alternative revenue sources has long been a standard way for people from all walks of life to enhance their earning capacity and cover expenses more effectively, but in the disruptive world of the twenty-first century, secondary sources of income have practically become a way of life.

According to a 2017 CNN story, forty-four million Americans have a side hustle to augment their main earnings. But while many of these jobs involved low-wage activities like driving an Uber, delivering food, or copywriting, a growing number of Americans are using their experience, insight, and sales abilities to secure lucrative opportunities in growth industries like consulting and real estate.

Beyond Side Hustles: How Real Estate Can Provide a Reliable Second Income

Due to the immense desirability of living in New York and the huge concentration of wealth in the city’s five boroughs, real estate has underwritten the fortunes of many a New Yorker. But real estate also provides opportunities for ordinary people with an entrepreneurial spirit, local connections, and the desire to become a real estate agent.

Real estate agents in New York City play an essential role not just in facilitating the purchase and sale of houses, commercial properties, and condominiums, but also in helping connect renters and landlords. With so much competition over new units and so much money to be made off of the real estate market, real estate agents are perfectly positioned to make a healthy living mediating between people looking for a new home and people selling one.

Best of all, real estate agents are often well positioned to work part time on evenings and weekends, making it an ideal second source of income for people who already have a full-time day-job. And, compared to other professions, it is relatively easy to become licensed: all you need to do is take an online 75 hour real estate course and pass the New York State real estate exam, at which point you are eligible to receive your license.

For this reason, if you want to find out how to become a real estate agent in NYC you may be surprised how little time it takes to become fully licensed. Courses like the RealEstateU 75 hour NYC real estate course can be taken online at your own speed, and will provide you with all the information you need to pass the state exam. It will also prepare you to handle every aspect of real estate purchasing and sales in New York State.

The course consists of video lessons taught by twenty-one real estate professionals who have extensive experience in the industry, and comes with a two-hundred-page downloadable pdf to help you master the material and pass the NY real estate exam on the first attempt. If you want an online real estate license in New York that will equip you secure a reliable second income by building a thriving career as a real estate agent in New York City, RealEstateU is the best place to get started.

How to Thrive as a Part-Time Real Estate Agent

While it is relatively easy to become a licensed real estate agent, successful part-time real estate agents are the ones who are able to efficiently split their energy between their different jobs. There is plenty of money to be made even when only working twenty hours a week, but it is important to be strategic about one’s time when doing so.
Here are just a few strategies that can help part-time real estate agents succeed in the competitive New York market:

1. Be Organized, But Flexible:
When you’re juggling multiple jobs, flexibility is always going to be important. Determine in advance how much time you can spend in the office and how much time you can spend with clients, and then organize your week and month so that you have enough time to meet all of your commitments.

At the same time, it is vital to recognize that opportunities may arise when you least expect them to, and the best way to handle this kind of uncertainty is to build in flexible time every week that will allow you to respond to a sudden change of events.

2. Specialize
This is good advice for all real estate agents, but it is especially important when working part-time. A real estate agent’s credibility comes from their knowledge not only of the law, but also of the market. And given just how big the New York real estate market is, there are plenty of niches you can choose to invest in.

For example, many New York City real estate agents focus on certain kinds of stock (commercial properties, for example) or certain parts of the city. If you speak more than one language, you can also use this to your advantage, as nearly fifty percent of New Yorkers speak a second language at home.

3. Don’t Over-promise
This is an especially big challenge for new agents, who want to say yes to every opportunity that comes along. It is certainly important not to let exciting chances pass you by, but in the real estate business your reliability and credibility is everything. Especially when juggling multiple jobs, it is important to be realistic about what you can actually accomplish. Even if you have the best intentions, promising to do things you simply don’t have time for is only going to frustrate your clients and employers alike.

4. Invest in Lead Generation Tools
Lead generation is a significant part of any real estate agent’s job, and if you are working part-time, it is especially important to make sure you have lead generation tools that will help you connect with potential clients. Not all brokerages provide real estate agents with leads, so paying for a lead generation service like BoldLeads, REDX, or Zillow can be more than worth the monthly subscription feeds.

5. Don’t Get Discouraged
Generating a reliable second income is not going to happen overnight, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. If you don’t have investment capital lying around, making money will always require a major upfront investment in time and energy, and this is especially true in an industry like real estate, where you need to earn your client’s trust and develop a strong working knowledge of the market.

The difference between those who succeed as real estate agents and those who fail often simply comes down to perseverance. You can’t expect to be making huge commissions in your first couple of years, but if you start small and consistently put in the work, you may be surprised at how much your second revenue stream is worth in five years.

Working part-time is not without its challenges, but for many New Yorkers, a part-time career in real estate has proven to be reliable second income, one that makes it much easier to navigate the challenges of earning a living wage in New York City.

If you’re worried about the long-term sustainability of living in the Big Apple but you don’t want to join the large out-migration of New Yorkers who are tired of having to work hard year-in and year-out simply to keep their heads above water financially, then becoming licensed as a real estate agent might just be the best choice you ever make.

And if you choose to take your New York real estate course through RealEstateU, you could be closing your first sales within the year. Get in touch with us to find out how you can take the 75 hour NY real estate course for only $99, and start working on securing a second income source today!