Really?  "Housewives and school teachers"??   Does either determine intelligence or ability?  Determination, discipline or dedication?  What kind of sexist and antiquated question is that?

I've found more high level business/corporate/military people fail at this business.  People who are used to following orders or spouting out orders.  Many have gone bankrupt and sadly, many have committed suicide due to the stress of, and the inability to fully understand this business.

It takes money to make money. 

Hi John DL Arendsen you just described ME.... I didn't know what a deed was when I enrolled in the licensing course.... oh, how far we've come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John,

I think that everyone has the potential to do anything they want to do.  The real question is do they have the motivation, the desire, and the follow through?  A

You have to have the skills, either naturally or learned. And John is right, you need to have money to make money

Now that would certainly be an uphill battle. I would have to say, AHHH; NO!

Time and again, most recently the Go-Pro owner, repeat that the recipe to success is a greater purpose, a problem to which you have the solution, and LUCK.

Vision, not knowledge drives the successful.

Commitment, not experience, is the companion for the long journey.

Faith tested, not good wishes, keeps the heart at peace.

Regarding the failure rate of REALTORs, this is available from your REALTOR board.  However, you need to play patty cake, and not use the word failure, but ask about active members at the start and end of a year and those who are new memebers that year. Then you will need to derive the answer from the Association of Realtor data, which they may hold closely.

It is my strongly held belief that the FAILURES in real estate is directly related to the practices of BROKERS. They treat EVERYONE as fish, and most fish never learn to climb the tree. And there is decades of statistics to support that conclusion.

Hi John --- success or failure can and does happen due to many factors.  I think each of us can cite examples of people who seem to have all of the qualities you might imagine for incredible success who have left the industry frustrated while there are others who have reached quite lofty levels quite unexpectedly.   

Yes if they are going to work at it , you dont have to have money to make it ; but business will not come to you . You have to go get it and succeed . great question John have a super day

I don't care about past careers, but you do need to have some bsuiness acumen  to make a go of it in real estate; afterall, you are running your own business. I believe statistic show that 9 out of 10 new licensees do not renew after the first year.

As a teacher for over 20 years before I became a Realtor, I had little of either of the mentioned skills, but my prior career taught me how to handle chaos and people that might need hand holding.  With drive and determination and also the help of a good broker and a great system, I believe anyone can succeed in real estate. 

People in this condition may wish to keep a salaried job while working in real estate part time until they have saved some money and developed some skills.

Maybe.  

Real estate is sales.  If you are a salesperson then you will do well at selling anything including real estate.  The trick with real estate is to be able to balance all the rest of the "office work" unless you can get an assistant to do that part.

Not at all!

Most agents are what you are describing.

If they have a desire to work hard, and learn, why not?