What should you expect from a career as a real estate developer?
Becoming a real estate investor is not the only career choice where you can make lots of money in real estate.
One of the most popular career choices in real estate is a career as a real estate developer.
As a real estate developer, you should expect to make a hefty amount of money, but only if you’re willing to put an equal amount of time and effort into managing your career and all aspects related to it.
So, what does it mean to become a real estate developer? And what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of becoming one?
A Real Estate Developer
They are someone who develops new real estate projects from the ground up, ranging from simple single-family homes to complex and large-scale shopping centers, hospitals, or even airports.
Basically, a real estate developer is the person who gathers a team of contractors, engineers, architects, and professionals from every other field, and brings them together to work on developing a real estate project.
Typically, a real estate developer will make a profit upon selling the property, but they will also be responsible for covering all the costs of developing it. Therefore, the amount of profit they make depends on the difference between the amount of money they spent on developing the property and the amount of money at which they sell it.
The Challenges
Being a real estate developer is not a simple feat. In order to become a real estate developer, you will need a high level of education, an associate degree, and around 5 years of experience.
Additionally, becoming a real estate developer requires extensive knowledge of the real estate market, and you will need sufficient knowledge in several different fields, including the fields of law, business administration, construction management, civil engineering, urban development, as well as the different processes needed in order to develop a new real estate property from the ground up.
Related: Is it a Buyer’s Market or a Seller’s Market?
A real estate developer must also possess certain personal skills that allow them to manage the team of professionals and contractors and guide them in order to achieve the result that they are hoping for. This means that they must be socially skilled, and must have superb communication skills.
The Risks
A career as a real estate developer is far riskier than a career as a real estate investor.
This is because the amount of money needed to develop a new real estate project is very high, and if the property fails to sell at a high enough price, the developer will be putting a very large sum of money at risk.
Also, while a real estate investor can start their career with little to no money at all, a real estate developer must have a large amount of money available in order to start developing a project and obtaining a loan to finance their project can be much harder than with a real estate investor.
Also Read: The Most Common Real Estate Investment Scams
Final Notes
Becoming a real estate developer can be a very good career choice if you know what you’re getting yourself into, and if you possess the necessary skills and knowledge to drive your career.
To learn more about how we will help you make faster and smarter real estate investment decisions, click here.
If not, then I highly recommend a safer career as a real estate investor where you have more room for error and more tools that are available to you, such as Mashvisor, to make your life easier and increase your chances of success.