Real Estate

Earn back buyer's real estate agent commission - Become an Agent. New Humber College Course is now live!

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Newbie
Apr 26, 2019
1 posts
Hey . I need help. I have my exam for paper 1 'real estate as a professional career ' scheduled for may8.
I have to xlear it in 2 attempts as admission for 1dt course closes on 30 april. Other courses if i fail i and re enroll with the fee.

Any guidance from where to study.
I have minicram notes and sample papers.
Passit.ca has only question papers. And i have 2 kids . So i cant sit to study 2 hours together. So cant really solve the question paoers.

Any suggestions
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Mar 2, 2017
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I passed the first 2 phases strictly from the passit.ca multiple choice question bank.
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What if I let my annual dues lapse.
Then decide to come back to it 5yrs later.
Do I have to redo my license at the new requirements/schooling?
Or can I just pay the annual fee to pull myself out of suspension.
Or is there backdate fees for missed years of payment?
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Aug 2, 2010
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sidshock wrote: What if I let my annual dues lapse.
Then decide to come back to it 5yrs later.
Do I have to redo my license at the new requirements/schooling?
Or can I just pay the annual fee to pull myself out of suspension.
Or is there backdate fees for missed years of payment?
Of course you have to do it all over again. Why in the world do you think you can just stop and go at will? If it was so easy so as to just let it lapse then pay the annual fee or back fees then every agent who stopped practicing would do that! That's why, if you read this thread, there is such a thing as 'parking' your license, which still costs an annual fee.

A 2-sec google search answers this question: Reinstating your registration
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nishah74 wrote: Hey . I need help. I have my exam for paper 1 'real estate as a professional career ' scheduled for may8.
I have to xlear it in 2 attempts as admission for 1dt course closes on 30 april. Other courses if i fail i and re enroll with the fee.

Any guidance from where to study.
I have minicram notes and sample papers.
Passit.ca has only question papers. And i have 2 kids . So i cant sit to study 2 hours together. So cant really solve the question paoers.

Any suggestions
I suggest you hunker down and study. There is no easy route unless you are like some of the people on here who (falsely) claim they skimmed the notes the night before and aced it...
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Mar 2, 2017
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RichmondCA wrote: Thanks to OP for putting this guide together, it's what inspired me to get this done for 2019.

A family friend is willing to let me list their house if I get all my paperwork in order by late summer when they want to list and I am trying to figure out if it's feasible.

I did the Real Estate as a Professional Career in early April and I just did the 2nd course exam (Land/Structures/Trading) today and passed. I then signed up for the earliest available The Real Estate Transaction - General and The Residential Real Estate Transaction. The issue here is that all locations were starting in early July except St. Catherine's where it starts in early June. Based on the OP i just have to show up for the first day to give my email and then I can study on my own correct? On that alone I signed up for the St Catherine's location, which runs for 3 weeks (Mon-Thur) and scheduled the exam the day after the course is over (late June).

I also ordered my background check online as the OP states it takes 8+ weeks.

My understanding is with the first 4 courses completed if I am registered I will be able to do the transaction in late summer, or have I missed something (it feels like I have)?

How much more difficult is having one exam that combines two courses (The Real Estate Transaction - General and The Residential Real Estate Transaction) vs. the first two exams?

Looking forward to feedback.
Any feedback, I heard that I can no longer trade after passing the first 3 phases like the OP states due to a change a few years back. I would now need all 5 phases completed before my first transaction?

Can you anyone confirm?
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RichmondCA wrote: Any feedback, I heard that I can no longer trade after passing the first 3 phases like the OP states due to a change a few years back. I would now need all 5 phases completed before my first transaction?

Can you anyone confirm?
Yes. Again, a 500 millisecond google search reveals the answer!: https://www.reco.on.ca/wp-content/uploa ... g-Path.pdf
Sr. Member
Jul 10, 2018
567 posts
588 upvotes
There are over 50k agents in the GTA. Most don't do any business and most are part-timers. Ask yourself what the likelihood is that you'll be in the category that had big dreams of easy money only to end up being part of the bottom 50% paying dues out of pocket with nothing to show for it.

To me, the data suggests that the best way to succeed as an agent is if you have the freedom to work without any financial concerns (i.e. you're not living paycheck-to-paycheck and you don't have another job that's taking up all of your time). In other words, making a go at being a realtor seems best suited to someone who is already somewhat established. There will always be exceptions to the rule.

I'm taking the course out of sheer curiosity (all formal aspects of the business - buy/sell process, legal, structures/inspections), to respond to the classic realtor bluff ("if it's so easy, why don't you become an agent!???"), and because I have the time to put in work if needed, be available 24/7 more or less if needed, and do all personal/friend/family deals. If it doesn't work out, it'll have no impact. If it does work out, it'd potentially be a huge financial bonus and experience. Take the above for what it's worth - the pie is big but I'm sure that I'm far from the only person that has these competitive advantages entering the realtor game.

Regarding the course, using passit is key. Read the textbooks and do the multiple choice questions on passit and you'll have no problems. The passit M/C questions are a mirror image of the actual exam questions.

I'm currently on course #4 (Real Property Law) - have read the textbook and am just going thru all the passit M/C questions. One more course to go (Commercial Real Estate) and it's on! Taking my sweet old time with the courses as I'm in no rush, makes this 'continued learning' bearable.
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Mar 23, 2003
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eonibm wrote: Of course you have to do it all over again. Why in the world do you think you can just stop and go at will? If it was so easy so as to just let it lapse then pay the annual fee or back fees then every agent who stopped practicing would do that! That's why, if you read this thread, there is such a thing as 'parking' your license, which still costs an annual fee.

A 2-sec google search answers this question: Reinstating your registration
There are some professions that let you do that. Was just wondering if this was one of them.

Thanks for the quick response.
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Aug 2, 2010
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TheSinner wrote: There are over 50k agents in the GTA. Most don't do any business and most are part-timers. Ask yourself what the likelihood is that you'll be in the category that had big dreams of easy money only to end up being part of the bottom 50% paying dues out of pocket with nothing to show for it.

To me, the data suggests that the best way to succeed as an agent is if you have the freedom to work without any financial concerns (i.e. you're not living paycheck-to-paycheck and you don't have another job that's taking up all of your time). In other words, making a go at being a realtor seems best suited to someone who is already somewhat established. There will always be exceptions to the rule.

I'm taking the course out of sheer curiosity (all formal aspects of the business - buy/sell process, legal, structures/inspections), to respond to the classic realtor bluff ("if it's so easy, why don't you become an agent!???"), and because I have the time to put in work if needed, be available 24/7 more or less if needed, and do all personal/friend/family deals. If it doesn't work out, it'll have no impact. If it does work out, it'd potentially be a huge financial bonus and experience. Take the above for what it's worth - the pie is big but I'm sure that I'm far from the only person that has these competitive advantages entering the realtor game.

Regarding the course, using passit is key. Read the textbooks and do the multiple choice questions on passit and you'll have no problems. The passit M/C questions are a mirror image of the actual exam questions.

I'm currently on course #4 (Real Property Law) - have read the textbook and am just going thru all the passit M/C questions. One more course to go (Commercial Real Estate) and it's on! Taking my sweet old time with the courses as I'm in no rush, makes this 'continued learning' bearable.
I agree 100% with your post. I got my licence for the same reason as you and then created this thread to help others do the same. I was constantly being told by agents on RFD (one in particular and they know who they are) about all their 'secret' methods of selling a home, their 'secret' strategies for marketing a home, their 'savvy' marketing methods that reached buyers that would never consider buying your home, and on and on blah blah blah ad infinitum. But, of course they couldn't reveal any of it when challenged, which revealed the lie.

So I figured, how hard can a so-called 'profession' be where the only hurdle is that you have to do a few courses that you can finish in less than 4 months, you have to be 18, don't have to have even finished high school, costs only a few measly thousand dollars, no classroom attendance is required and which you can study for part time and where the answers are already staring at you on their exam pages? In fact, you don't even have to finish the entire course to start peddling real estate!

So, I passed with flying colours in just 4 mos. This is not my day job. I only do deals for my own account and friends 'n family and have run circles around established agents. How? Well because I don't spend any time marketing as this is just a fun side gig for me. I can spend all the time required on my clients, but I don't look for or want clients. I only do a deal outside of my own account when I am asked by family 'n friends because they know I am an agent.

I've liased with many established agents on both sides of the deal. I like listing better than buying because as the agent mantra goes "95% of your work is done once you get the listing". When I am buying since it's mainly for my own account so I get 100% cash back lol.

As for the agent on here who claimed all these 'secret' marketing methods for selling a home be advised that any agent worth their salt uses the same listing 'playbook'. Crossing all the checkboxes on the MLS listing is 95% of the work. Unfortunately clients think that if you listed a lot of homes that sold that you are a great agent. We constantly see how many homes or deal volume an agent did advertised on their marketing card, of which I must get 20 a day in my mailbox. They want you to believe that high deal volume means you are a really good agent and getting the best price for home sales. That is not necessarily the case. All it means is you are good at marketing yourself, which the OREA course teaches you is the single most important skill an agent can have. Funny that.

So, all those secret marketing methods? It was bull I found and being an agent you can take my comment to the bank.

So, now it costs me peanuts per year to be an agent. The commission on one transaction is literally 20-100x+ (depending on the deal value of course) my annual fees to remain 'in the game'. It would be a lot more expensive if it was my full-time profession.

In summary, if you want to be an agent as a full-time profession, it's a lot of work, but the work isn't hard, it's just time consuming and there is a lot of competition out there with so many agents all clamouring for the same clients and trying to 'out-flyer', 'out-market', 'out walk-and-talk', 'out razzle-dazzle', 'out-advertise' the other agents. If you want to be one part-time for your own account, for friends 'n family or for when a deal drops into your lap it's the easiest money you will ever make.
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I wish I started this in 2016-2017 when I first saw the thread, that's my only regret. Going through the courses now the material is actually pretty interesting (to me anyway) and the cost is not material in the grand scheme of things.

Also as a future agent I find that already being a real estate investor (5+ years) with a finance/construction background you automatically become a lot more valuable to potential clients and it's a pretty easy way to set yourself apart from others when you have a bunch of successful business transactions behind your name as proof, opposed to just talk/promises/marketing plans.
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Penalty Box
Mar 27, 2004
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The work isn't hard, but it is hard to be a successful agent.
Sales is not for everyone, you need a certain type of personality and skill set for it.
Same thing applies for car sales people. People look down on sales people at dealerships. To get into that industry is not hard, but to be successful you need to work hard and have the personality and skills to be successful. Average car sales person may my make 60-80k, but people who get to the point of being a finance manager, can earn 150-200k /year even working for Ford.
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Aug 2, 2010
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oasis100 wrote: The work isn't hard, but it is hard to be a successful agent.
Sales is not for everyone, you need a certain type of personality and skill set for it.
Same thing applies for car sales people. People look down on sales people at dealerships. To get into that industry is not hard, but to be successful you need to work hard and have the personality and skills to be successful. Average car sales person may my make 60-80k, but people who get to the point of being a finance manager, can earn 150-200k /year even working for Ford.
Finally I agree with a statement you made. The work is not hard as you say. What is hard to be a successful agent because that dictates that you do enough transactions to make a good living and that requires marketing yourself so that you can get enough clients. There is nothing at all wrong with being a salesperson. I never look down upon them. The problem with agents, especially ones on here, is how they vainly try to claim that doing a transaction is so complex, so hard, so difficult, blah blah blah that they the ridiculously high commissions are justified. Before I became an agent I was told so many lies on here by other agents it wasn't funny. When you asked them to back up what they were claiming it was always a 'secret', 'proprietary', 'can't be disclosed except to clients', etc. ad infinitum. Yes there are a very small number of transactions that have some wrinkles and thus can be challenging and take some skill but they are very few and far between. If agents were straight with people, admitted they commissions are way out of wack for the work that is done, they would get a lot more respect. In this day and age trying to pull the wool over people's eyes doesn't work anymore in the real estate game.

In any event, this is why being an agent is the best part-time gig ever. You don't have to work hard to find clients because you can have enough deals fall into your own lap on your own account and friends 'n family. I made over $150K on the side in my first year on just 3 deals. I did no work, no marketing, no nothing but just the 3 transactions. I continue to operate on this basis. My costs were less than 5% of that and that includes the one-time cost of the course. Keeping the license costs peanuts and even fewer peanuts if you park your license or are with a brokerage that doesn't require you to join a local board. Now, tell me, where can you earn that kind of money after doing a course that takes just a few months, does not require you to even have post-secondary education or even have finished high school, does not require you to attend classes and costs less than $5k? I'd make even more money if I accepted all the offers from people reading RFD who send me private messages asking me to do a deal for them, but I have no interest. I'm too busy running my many businesses.

So, kudos and congrats to all the RFD members that became agents as a result of this thread and have thus joined the part-time agent gravy train.
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Apr 10, 2011
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You're amazing. Thanks for all your info and support.

(PS - Write a book some day. It would be a good read!)
eonibm wrote:
So, kudos and congrats to all the RFD members that became agents as a result of this thread and have thus joined the part-time agent gravy train.
Newbie
Apr 24, 2019
4 posts
Best brokerage for 1-3 transactions a year? Looking at right at home but I’m wondering if there are any more that are good for minimal transactions
Penalty Box
Mar 27, 2004
10493 posts
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eonibm wrote:
I made over $150K on the side in my first year on just 3 deals. I did no work, no marketing, no nothing but just the 3 transactions. I continue to operate on this basis. My costs were less than 5% of that and that includes the one-time cost of the course.
Your example is an exception though. to make 150k on just 3 deals means each home was worth 2m.
New agents may have a couple deals just fall on their lap, but to continue earning real money, getting clients, it takes hard work .
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May 5, 2007
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How much of the annual Licensing fees and TREB/RECO/OREA fees can you write off on your taxes?
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oasis100 wrote: Your example is an exception though. to make 150k on just 3 deals means each home was worth 2m.
New agents may have a couple deals just fall on their lap, but to continue earning real money, getting clients, it takes hard work .
Agreed, but that's not the reason I became one and same for many on here. Even one deal would have earned me $50K for under $7K investment in time ($4K of which is not recurring) and a few months of study, which was interesting in itself even if I didn't do another single deal. Where else can you get that kind or ROI? If you are thinking of buying or selling a home it's a slam dunk as the deal is already in your lap.

I never ever said it wasn't hard work to be a full-time agent, To adapt an analogy coined by Warren Buffett with regard to investing: "Being an agent is easy but hard to do"
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Sep 16, 2010
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eonibm wrote: To adapt an analogy coined by Warren Buffett with regard to investing: "Being an agent is easy but hard to do"
I like how you are on top of your game with your signature! :)
Thanks again for this highly informative thread and your help answering questions. Hope you and others will still be around on this thread to give guidance after April 30th. I am on my 2nd course now.
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Mar 23, 2003
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Thinking of signing up!
So the contract states I need to find employment with a brokerage as per below:
Following completion of the Pre-Registration Segment, students have up to 12 months to obtain employment with a brokerage and apply for registration as a salesperson with the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO).
What is the cheapest?
From what I read in the initial post, I can find one for $99 annually and only pay the $35 monthly fee when I am listing.
Any cheap brokerage recommendation?

Also, briefly reading post 265, I can park my license. ( will read it in full later, on a time crunch currently)
Can I park it off the bat without joining a brokerage initially?
Or must I find employment with a brokerage at least once to fulfill the initial contract?

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