If property is your passion, then working in real estate is a must. Better still, this can be a career path that leads in lots of directions, and has the potential to be financially rewarding as well as straight-up satisfying.

All you need to do is choose the right route, so let’s look at the main paths you can take as an aspiring real estate professional.

Investing in real estate

With the right course, you can enter the real estate ecosystem as an investor, building a portfolio of properties that you rent out to tenants, or perhaps choosing to flip houses by picking up dilapidated premises cheaply and renovating them to sell for a profit.

If you want to get into real estate investment solo, you’ll of course need the capital to get started. The alternative is to act as an advisor to other investors, handling their money for them and choosing what to do with it while taking a commission for your services.

Becoming a real estate agent

The most obvious option is to train as a realtor and focus your talents on selling property in a particular region.

With your foot in the door as an agent, you can go on to launch your own business, perhaps even starting a brokerage. Just remember that growing your sphere of influence is vital to your brokerage’s success, so you’ll need a broad range of skills and good networking abilities to boot.

Developing real estate

While real estate investors tend to take existing housing stock and turn it to their advantage, developers start with a blank slate, transforming pieces of land into anything from single-home plots to entire neighborhoods.

Having a degree in engineering or architecture is helpful, and if you’re experienced in the business side of the real estate market then this can also stand you in good stead for a career in development.

You can of course start at the bottom of the ladder with an established development company and work your way up, which is always wise for anyone who’s just starting out on their professional journey.

Managing real estate

Once residential and commercial premises are built or refurbished, they often require someone to oversee the running of them from day to day, acting on behalf of landlords to see that the needs of tenants are met, and that issues are resolved on-site.

This is where property managers enter the scene, and a career in this area could lead to you taking charge of a large number of premises across an entire region.

Property managers may also be responsible for marketing the assets that they wrangle, and it’s often a position taken by someone who has already proven themselves as a real estate agent and is now looking for a new challenge.

Specializing in real estate law

A career as an attorney doesn’t just involve high profile criminal trials and intense client interviews. If you choose to hone your skills in property law, you’ll be able to take care of the legal side of major transactions and ensure that everything goes smoothly.

Real estate attorneys also step in to resolve disputes over things like land ownership, and even between tenants and landlords as required.

Qualifying as a lawyer can take up to eight years, and there are lots of steps involved. But with salaries at the upper end of the scale, all of this hard work will be worth it in the long run.

Appraising real estate

Everyone should know the value of their property, even if they don’t intend to sell in the near future. That’s where a real estate appraiser is needed, and this is a full-blown profession in its own right which is actually distinct from being a real estate agent, even though there is some overlap in terms of skills and knowledge.

A lot of appraisals are comparative, meaning that a property’s value is calculable according to the rest of the market in a given area. If you don’t have a head for figures, it’s not the best path, but for people who are never happier than when crunching numbers, it’s a fulfilling experience.

Approving home loans

For most people, buying a home involves taking out a loan, and a loan officer will be responsible for processing applications and deciding whether to approve or decline them.

This job requires you to work with prospective property owners to give them advice on whether or not they are likely to be approved based on their circumstances, so it’s very much a customer-facing role, as well as one which involves data entry and decision-making.

Another parallel role is that of a mortgage broker. In this case, you’ll act as the middle man between borrowers and lenders, providing options from a range of sources rather than being tied to a single institution.

Constructing real estate

For those looking for a manual career in real estate, working in construction is the best choice. You can take on basic labor at the start, then gradually home in on what really appeals to you, whether that’s handling plumbing, dealing with electrics, or anything else.

With a grounding in construction, you can go on to offer your services to homeowners when they’ve got renovation or remodeling work to do, and being your own boss in this context is a dream for some people.

Concluding thoughts

As with a career in any sector, those who want to work in real estate have to first think about what skills they have, what goals they want to set, and how they prefer to operate before deciding on a particular path forward.

There’s no point aiming for a job just because it pays the most if you won’t enjoy it. It’s better to play to your strengths, work on your weaknesses and get the right training in order to find a role you love, not just one you can tolerate. If more people did this, the world would be a happier place.