3 Reasons to Become a Licensed Real Estate Agent in Texas This Year

There was a time when Texas was synonymous with wide-open ranges, natural beauty, oil wealth and a hardscrabble can-do attitude. But while the Lone Star State still maintains its proud traditions and unique culture, the average Texan in 2019 is far more likely to be an upwardly mobile suburbanite than a cowboy or roughneck, and booming hubs like Austin are putting Texas on the map as America’s next epicenter of tech development.

This has driven a remarkable surge in migration, with more than 400,000 new arrivals every year, many of them attracted from other states by the promise of jobs and prosperity. This in turn has fuelled a real estate boom the like of which Texas has not seen in a generation.

Many ordinary Texans are taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by going into the real estate industry themselves, developing the skills and knowledge needed to connect buyers and sellers to facilitate mutually beneficial sales. A career in real estate has always been a rewarding proposition for Americans who want to get ahead, but if you live in Texas and want to turn the state’s growth to your own advantage, here are four reasons to get your real estate agent license this year.

1. The Texas Market is Smoking Hot

Since the early 1990s, urban revitalization has been a powerful force in the life of many American cities. While the late twentieth century saw a massive movement of homeowners away from city centers and out toward suburbs, the past thirty years have been marked by an influx of young, upwardly mobile professionals into large coastal cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

This has driven a huge real estate boom largely focussed around condo developments that has seen prices skyrocket as high-paying jobs in tech and finance draw a population of skilled workers who can afford luxury properties.

In the decade following the great recession, younger buyers — most of them Millennials who cannot afford the prices in America’s largest cities — have flocked toward dynamic, revitalized cities that have started to invest in their own knowledge economies.

Cities like Austin, Houston, El Paso, Dallas, and San Antonio have become deeply attractive options for young, well-educated people who dream of owning their own condo or house and are drawn to Texas vibrant culture and lively economy.

This massive influx of people has fuelled an unparalleled housing boom, to the extent that four of the top ten fastest growing cities in America are located in Texas, with the top stop going to Frisco, TX, which has grown by 8.2% this year and has an average of thirty-seven new residents arriving every day.

Unsurprisingly, prices for housing stock of all kinds is on the rise. The median house price increased by 4.4 percent between 2017 and 2018 to $238,000, and the rental market has also boomed, with the average monthly rent reaching $956 per month. Most of this growth has centred on rapidly growing urban areas like Austin-Round Rock and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, where developers are struggling to keep up with the precipitous demand.

These price increases have been a boon to real estate agents, who are hooking buyers up with the right houses and condos and are helping sellers get the best possible price for their property.

2. Licensing is Easier Than You Might Think

While there has never been a better time to start building a career in real estate in Texas, many people who might otherwise be interested in diving into the world of realtors and brokerages are kept from doing so by a belief that they lack the necessary skills and knowledge, or that it is too late to make a career change.

The truth is, getting your real estate license is easier than you might think, and if a career in real estate appeals to you, we are your Texas real estate school and the best option for fast-tracking yourself into a new career. Not only can we provide you with the information and training you need to pass the licensing exam, our course can also set you up for a lucrative and rewarding career as a real estate agent by grounding you in the principles and legal framework governing real estate in Texas.

The course is organized into six 30-hour sections, each of which is broken down further into chapters and lessons. These sections, designed to prepare you for every aspect of the job, are:
 

• Principles of Real Estate Part I
• Principles of Real Estate Part II
• Law of Contracts
• Promulgated Contract Forms
• Law of Agency
• Real Estate Finance

Because the lessons are recorded as audio lectures (with accompanying materials), you can take the course on your own time, at your own speed, and you don’t need to worry about taking time off work to prepare yourself for your new career. Best of all, you can take each final exam for the six sections from the comfort of your own home, via ProctorU, which means that no matter where in the state you are based, every aspect of the course is available to you.

The entire package, which covers everything you need to know to apply for your Texas real estate license, is available for $165, making it the most affordable courses of its kind in the state. We also offer a Texas State Exam Study Guide that will help you prepare for the State exam

Switching to a new career may seem daunting, but the truth is that with RealEstateU, all the information you need to launch yourself as a real estate agent in Texas is literally at your fingertips. If this sounds intriguing to you, contact us to learn more — with courses you can study while commuting to work, making dinner, and doing the dishes, there’s no excuse not to pursue your dream of becoming a real estate agent.

3. A Career in Real Estate is an Opportunity to Invest in Yourself

The exciting Texas real estate market isn’t the only reason you should think about signing up for a RealEstateU course this year: in addition to offering a potentially lucrative return on investment, setting out as a real estate agent is also an opportunity to unlock your own potential as an entrepreneur. There are many great reasons to become a realtor but the best might simply be that it offers you a remarkable degree of freedom, and the opportunity to be your own boss.

That’s because being a real estate agent means making yourself into a dynamic one-person business. While this kind of career isn’t for everyone, for those with an independent spirit and a competitive and gregarious attitude, it can be immensely rewarding. Best of all, unlike the vast majority of salaried jobs, being a real estate agent comes with an unlimited earning potential — because your income comes from commissions, the harder and smarter you work, the more you will make.

While the opportunity to go into business on your own is one of the most compelling aspects of life as a real estate agent, for those who are just starting out, it is common to put in a few years working for a brokerage, which provides you with some guidance, support, and legal protections while you learn the ropes of your new job.

If you find the idea of going into real estate tantalizing but you aren’t sure you’re quite ready to start your own business, working for a broker can be an excellent way to ease yourself into the new industry while you build your confidence and your network of clients.

Over the past few years, many prominent American publications, including The New Yorker, have observed that the future of Texas is, in many ways, the future of America: one of the most dynamic states in the country, Texas is a rapidly-changing land of opportunity, and it is no surprise that as they get priced out of cities on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, people of all ages are turning to Texas for a fresh start and a new home.

It is projected that, by 2050, Texas — already the second largest state in the union, geographically speaking — will have a population of 54.4 million, or as much as California and New York combined. And as people flood in, what is still often thought of as being a frontier state will become more and more urban. For real estate agents who will be connecting all those new residents to homes, condos, and apartments, this represents a golden opportunity to build a career by building the Texas of tomorrow — a vast, cosmopolitan, and diverse Texas that still embodies the virtues of independence and hard work that are making it a magnet for migration today.