5 Real Estate Jobs You Can Create for Yourself Right Now

Spring and Summer are traditionally the time of year when the real estate market kicks into high gear. As homeowners and real estate agents look for ways to move properties quickly, there is a big demand for people who can assist in making the process run smoothly. With a bit of ingenuity, you can create a home based part time job for yourself right now by catering to the real estate market.
Because the real estate market covers the entire house and any land the home sits on, there are many small business ideas you can develop to create your own job and make extra money...here a few suggestions to get your creativity going!

If you have a creative eye for detail and beauty, and can make a small space appear bigger, then you may do well at home staging. Staging homes requires getting rid of junk and clutter, and arranging furniture and accessories in order to make the space seem more appealing to prospective buyers. Your job will be part organization, part home decorating, and part interior redesign.
Staging a home is usually less complicated in a vacant property. Your duty would be to find rental furniture (or the homeowner's own furniture) and arrange it to look as though the space is being lived in, but avoid loading up and making the space feel tight or cramped. Adding lamps in dark spaces can also help make a home look more appealing.
In a home that is occupied, many people tend to overuse furniture, so you will advise the homeowner about which pieces to sell or store and then arrange what is left to showcase the home's space and light.
Home Staging Tips.

Not all homeowners are up for completely altering their living space in order to sell a home faster, but they may be willing to make smaller adjustments to get top dollar from their property's sale. You can offer home organization for the entire house from top to bottom, or focus your expertise on specific areas of the home, such as closets, bathrooms, home offices or play areas.
Because basements and storage areas can become unattractive junk catch-alls in a house that is on the market, if you offer home storage storage organization, you can provide a tremendous service to homeowners by helping them arrange the things they need to store in a manner that will help house look more attractive to buyers.
Home Organization Tips.

One homeowner's trash is another homeowner's treasure. While staging and organizing may help a house to sell faster, your client may be wary of throwing out usable items that still have some value. Marketing yourself as a yard sale manager can be a part time job you can conduct in addtion to helping people stage and organzie.
You can either offer to pay the homeowner a set fee for the items they would discard during the organization or home staging process and sell the items on your own, or you can offer to run the garage sale for them and split the profits 50/50, 60/40, or whatever you and homeowner agree upon beforefehand.
Or, you could charge a fee for pre-sale work, like sorting, pricing, and setup, and then charge an hourly fee for each hour that you hold the sale. Find what works best for you and the homeowner and proceed accordingly.
Garage Sale Tips.

A home that is for sale will be more likely to sell faster and for more money when the new buyers have less work to do. One quick way to spruce up interior and exterior surfaces is by applying a fresh coat of paint, but busy homeowners can find themselves crunched for time time and not want to put in the hours needed to do a good quality paint job.
Kitchens, bedrooms, family rooms, shutters, fences, porches, and the outside of houses are some surfaces that can benefit from a fresh coat of paint, and you can offer a discount if a homeowner wants more than one room or surface painted.
If you have an eye for design, you can also help avise the owner about house paint colors and specialized painting techniques such as glazing, texture, and faux finishes.
House Painting Tips.

Another often overlooked factor in selling a house is curb appeal. To put it simply, a homeowner can spend hours sprucing up the insde of a house, but it does little good if a prosective buyer is unwilling to even look past the exterior of the house.
You can help advise homeowners on curb appeal ideas and tip, and then do your landscaping magic to implement the curb appeal updates. Your tasks could vary from trimming bushes, planting flowers, or laying sod, to full out patio or porch redesign. If you have skill in installing fountains, ponds, or pouring concreate or installing pavers, you could assist a homeowner in creating an outdoor oasis that will be irresistible for prospective buyrs to ignore.
Landscaping Tips.

1) Print business cards and set up a basic website or blog to describe the sort of services you can provide.
2) You could also invest in a magnetized door sign for your car. If you have friends who are willing to help spread the word, you could also get bumper stickers printed up and have them put them on their cars.
3) Use a camera to document the "before and after" of any jobs you've already done (even if it was your own home or a friend's house) and add them to your portfolio to show prosective clients. If you have a website or a blog, post these picutres there as well.
4) Talk yourself up...almost everyone knows somone who is trying to sell a home and word of mouth is a powerful advetising method.
5) If you have friends who are Realtors, contractors, or who can provide useful contacts in the real estate market, give them your information to pass along if they are willing to reccommend you to homeowners.
6) Advertise in real estate related publications, such as the classified sections of newspapers and real estate focused pamphlets.

Partner with someone who enjoys one or more of the above and become an unbeatable team. If you specialize in indoor services like home staging and organization, but you have a friend or relative who is a yard sale expert or enjoys landscaping, partner together and become an all encompassaing service.
Homeowners will appreciate the fact that you provide service in more than one area of expertise, and may be more likely to hire one service who does it all rather than piecing together services from several different providers.

Tip: To stay up to date on what's new and fresh in paint colors and landscaping ideas, subscribe to a home decor magazine or journal for less than $20 a year.