Marion,
A big part of the real estate industry is about making money off other Realtors and realtors. This is what the NAR and its affiliates are about to a large degree to. Some offices recruit for the sake of churning business from the recruits. Commission splits can be terrible for quite some time while the managing broker and sometimes a mentor make additional monies from you and your friends and family. Nothing wrong with that I guess. Not many people succeed at making a full living from real estate and I doubt “pretty” does it. People who do well are good at being unoffensive and are “other people centered” or good at faking it. These requirements caused me to realize early on that it would not be a career type thing for me but I am glad to have gotten my license 10 years ago. I think this is why bub cracks a joke about Powayseller getting into the business too.
I always sold something every year until 2004 when first I quit in disgust after selling a house in the early spring of that year and now because most my clients are sitting on the sidelines with me and I am still pretty ambivalent about selling this market. It’s getting better though. I will probably go back to 2-3 or more houses or properties per year soon. Good enough for me. Sometimes I think I will make a big push say from the trough until it gets ugly again if it does. I want to buy a mixed use commercial place if a good opportunity comes up so those interests may coincide. An independent broker should have a commercially zoned address and I am about to get my broker’s license.

I never have put much into the business in 10 years. My rate of participation with clients to sell is about 100% including listings because I work only with extremely grounded clients. Normally it is about 1 to 10. I think? I have learned a lot about personal investing from the experience. Coming from a work a day, blue collar existence that has been a boon. What really makes me tick is sweat equity .Of course I am not into all sweat and no equity so this market sucks. When things are good the license helps to be able to scout out my own properties and put the commission into materials. Maybe your are not thinking along these lines at all but it could be useful in the future.After gaining some experience, with a license and that commission you bring a lot to the table in potential investment partnerships.

I have never gotten any “insider deals” although I am not against figuring out how that works, legally. I do trust that I am my own best advocate in property searches and making offers, being a general contractor helps with that but the real truth is nobody is going to try as hard as I do to find a situation with the upside(s) I am looking for.

In any case it is cheap to be in the business if you don’t lose your head or get pushed into a large capital outlay. I spend about 1k a year to be ready to go. I am what you would call a “dabbler”.