My Plan B------> Real Estate

Discussion in 'Pfizer' started by Anonymous, Apr 28, 2014 at 3:22 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Finishing up the class online now for $100 and will be taking the exam within a month. I know of people making 500k a year pushing houses and rentals. Anyone up to talking strategy or discussing their plan b also?
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Investing in real estate is fine and I have made a lot of money. If you work for a big real estate firm they will issue an announcement on their website that you joined their company. Pfizer can fire you for conflict of interest. Stick to a small firm, you name can't be in the advertisements or just invest yourself
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    No conflict of interest unless real estate is a prescription drug. Also no conflict if I'm 1099. I can do whatever I want with my free time. Just can't use company tools like car, laptop, email etc to earn income.
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Thank you guys for posting. Just wanted to share a little about me I'm 28 and have worked for two pharrma companies but never with Pfizer. I've been in pharmaceuticals since the age of 23 and have been truly blessed to get in. However, the ride has been bittersweet. On an excel spreadsheet the pay and benefits of this career beats anything else out there, but after 7 years I have come to learn the nature of this industry and it's true when they say it is what it is. I've also learned that it is this way and always will be while working for someone else and generating a dollar for them.

    I've won presidents club twice, been through two layoffs, acquisitions, had a good, bad, and spineless boss, multiple territories etc... ec.. you guys know the drill. At this point I don't say much at the POA meetings because it will all change at the next POA so it's not worth getting worked up about anymore. So I feel confident that at this point I have a sufficient amount of experience to go on my own.


    The aspect that appeals to me about real estate seems to be that the only person you have to answer to is you. No manager riding along with commentary. You can choose to work with someone or not. Seems to be that one gets what they put into it and people will always need to live somewhere whether it is an apartment or house. Housing doesn't lose patents or lay people off. Either you get paid or you don't. Any advice? Interesting how at this point there have been almost 700 views and not one negative comment about this business.
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Real estate investing is not without risks. I buy to rent and rarely flip. I made some great buys and some poor buys. Like anything experience is the key. Read books, talk to everyone currently doing this in your area and don't buy just to buy.

    If you want to be an agent , I can't give you advice.

    These are people you need to work with: The zoning or codes department of the town. Some are hands off some are in your face. HOA - if you buy in an area that has one. Neighbors - some hate renters amd investors. Bank, Mortgage companies, insurance companies.

    Best advice I can give you - Keep your day job, do your day job quickly and effectively and be done by 1:00pm. Work on your properties from 2-6pm and every weekend. Invest as much as you can in real estate and only purchase when the deal is great. I followed this plan for 10 years, won presidents club, started with $80,000 and now worth many millions in paid assets. Started at 33 years old.
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I was an agent (part-time) many years ago and it is a trememdous amount of running around. You must preview properties on specific realtor inspection days (daytime days) and there is a tremendous amount of knowledge to know about towns, school districts, zoning, etc. The office meetings are during the day an sometimes transferees come in and want to go out. My real estate office was in the town that I grew up in so I received lots of home-town referrals but the industry got too litigious and I got out. It was interesting and fun but at this time in my life or in the future i would not do it as it is "overly competitive" and very difficult to make a living especially with no benefits whatever.
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Real Estate can be great career.. Sell a $300K house , 6% commish, $18K pay day! but wait..gotta split with buyer's agent so now 3% commis, $9K pay day!,, hold on gotta give some to agency you work for or co-agent so its 2% comm, $6K pay day! more math here..your outapocket expenses (marketing material, websites, gas, insure, fees, staging etc, etc...) low side $1K , so $5K payday! minus your health, disability insure, self funded IRA lets say $4K payday!...this is just typical reality of realty..Not knocking it but it is hard work (with potential big rewards) but it takes time to build the business and you need a good mentor or connections to succeed. Good luck!
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Great post. Investing is what will really make you money down the road though. And I agree, always have and keep a day job!
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Guys thank you for your posts. Completely agree with keeping the day job to keep the money coming in and prevent it from going out as much as possible. Especially with the kind of benefits pharma has. This is why like I stated real estate is going to be my plan b and I am building it up in the meantime because I definitely can tell it doesn't happen over night. Starting to do this on the side has been very beneficial to me. Has challenged me to really think. I thought about one of the posters earlier who mentioned a take home of only like 5k for selling a 300k house. That would be 60k a year which isn't all that great. But that's only one client. What if you had already sold that clients house, helped them find that 300k house, then converted maybe that for sale by owner client who was selling their 300k house as a client of your own?

    That would be 3 more transactions. I know it all depends on the price and if the other client has another agent but lets say it where the case then that would be 15k that month which would be 180k. Not too much now we are at DM level compensation without the headache of job security. That's only from selling one house a month. Now that's thinking outside the box which if ever mentioned at a POA people would think you are speaking a foreign language lol.

    Anyways lets say also you find someone a rental once per week which the commission is normally one months of rent. Here where I live rent is about 1k so 1k times 4 weeks thats an extra 4k a month. Please you would be getting exposure to the apartment management and would be wanting to know about their other sister properties. Now we are ( in an ideal worlds) adding another 4k a month which is 48k a year. lets add it up 180k + 48K = 228K a year. For just selling on average two to three houses a month then getting a rental for someone once a week? Not bad

    Lets say that isn't realistic right? So lets cut that number in half. Which would be 114k. Still not that bad. No more job security headaches. Plus if you want to reinvest that money in flipping real estate yourself even better because it would be all yours like one of the other posters mentioned. Not a bad plan B and this profession will always be there if one were to be let go. No more thinking about what am I going to do now
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Sell More! Make More! this applies to real estate, insurance, securities, hot dogs etc..

    here's link for real estate agent salaries...

    http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/real-estate-agent

    Good luck, get a mentor and be prepared to spend(invest) your own money in your career..but do plenty of homework.
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Most that I know here don't have the kind of entrepreneurial fortitude to do something like real estate as a career. What, no counterparts? Why do I have to pay for my own car, marketing materials, insurance, and gas? Where is the call cycle, and the previous realtor's call notes? Is there anyone paying of community leaders to send customers my way?

    SCREW THIS!! Anyone know anyone at Publicis Solutions? I'll take the $90,000 DM job, please.
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    To really make it work, you may have to do what one of my cluster-mates did for 2 years until getting caught. They depend on the rest of of the team to shoulder the load, while secretly launching their business while on "disability" for falling down and hurting their back carrying samples. Dishonest, HELL YEAH! Unfair, DAMN STRAIGHT! Lots of lying and cheating, YES!!

    But that's how they made it work for them.
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    One has to appreciate this post at least. The reality is that people with pharma careers cannot have all their eggs in one basket and should be planning what they should do in case things go wrong. It's not a matter of opinion, just look around and take note of what is going on in the industry. Real estate agent is a similar option that will always be there no matter where you are in your career or how old you are. It is interesting though that the requirements are to just pass a 100 question multiple choice exam- no degree required and there are people out there without degrees making it happen and making it happen big . Making the same if not more than the ' bright' execs in the pharma industry
     
  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    You fail to mention the army of dumbasses who barely passed that joke of a test and flooded the real estate agent market. These losers are always in the way of the professionals and make the job a miserable nightmare. They've watered down the chances of making money and being respected.

    But, hey I'm sure that 10-20% of all agents make a good living.

    The only successful agents I know sell multi-million dollar listings or sell/lease commercial space. Leave the lower end residentials to the dingbat, uneducated housewives and ex-strippers I remarked about above.

    Also, flipping and renting real estate has tax advantages if you work it full time according to the IRS' rules. If you claim such status, then you're either lying to Pfizer or lying to the IRS. Be prepared to cover your ass.

    If you think your DBM ridealongs suck, just wait until you have to put up with douchebag clients who want 50% above market value as sellers and want 50% below market value as buyers. They also expect you to show them homes after hours and weekends, then sometimes cancel or never show up. It's a shitty job and not worth your time, unless you get into multi-million dollar deals. If not, then just try landlording and pray we don't have another housing fiasco we just had in the mid 2000s. One of my homes is still under 50% of the purchase price.
     
  15. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest


    I got burned in the housing bubble also. I did a deed in lieu of foreclosure which is basically just forfetting the property without any legal action and taking the hit on your credit. This was about three years ago and my credit is back to being good because it has been the only delinquent account i have ever had.
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    For tax reasons you can take mortgage deductions, expenses, depreciation, etc for every rental property you own not matter if you collect a paycheck from a company. This is mutually exclusive. Of course you claim rental income minus these expenses.

    Flipping you pay capital gains taxes on profit after expenses.
     
  17. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Yes but if you are a full timer in real estate the tax bennies are far superior. You can deduct all losses and expenses from your income. You can't do that if you still work full time in a pharma job, uess you have balls or get creative with the IRS.

    To the above poster who did a deed in lieu of foreclosure, be careful about the loss not being considered income by the IRS. I know there was a moratorium on short sales and foreclosures, but I'm not sure about deeds in lieu. Good luck if you owe and didn't claim it and had to. Lord Darth Obama will come down on you hard.
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I invest in RE. I have to say the only thing that allows me to sleep is that I started young and started with a paid off house as our first investment purchase. I emptied all my accounts and we sold the wife's wedding ring to do it. But, no debt and we saved the cash coming for 2 years and now our reserves are back. Now we build for 5 years and pay cash again. This is slow slow slow growth for 20 years but we think we can have 5 to 10 houses by the time we retire making 20 to 30 k a month with no debt.

    It's possible but you have to be very frugal. My top tip is to buy near colleges and always buy a duplex! Or a place with an illegal second basement unit. Always cash flows even if one unit is empty. I got married at 27 and that's what we have lived in from day one. So no rent and no mortgage for us ever. Sacrifice your life style to live big later.
     
  19. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    You have to have a balance.
    I agree with the frugal living though. You also assume you will always have a great corporate job, and that is not always the case. In corporate sales, it really doesn't matter how good you are either. Not trying to be a downer, but trying to be realistic.
     
  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    It also helps to live in a low cost state / area. It's tough saving up cash to buy a house that cost minimum $400-$500K like it does in NY/Calif/SF/Boston etc. The trouble with Pharma is they don't differentiate cost of living when it comes to paying reps. You make the same in Tupola Miss as you do in Westchester County NY or Orange County Calif. You see the advantage you have.