Real Estate Sales: Hot Career Lure

Booming Housing Market Attracting Many Career-Changers

(CBS)  In the past five years, Regan says, the number of registered agents in the United States has more than doubled to 1.2 million.

Many of them are leaving behind other careers to try to cash in on the housing boom.

"The streets are paved in gold. That's what it's all about," says Morris Ashear, a student in an adult education real estate course on New Jersey's coast taught by Frank Felice.

The classes have been at full capacity for nearly two years, Felice says.

"(Real estate is) the ultimate (way to make lots of money). I think that's why most people get into it," remarks student Michelle Mackey.

"I had a Continental Airlines pilot that graduated in my last class," Felice says. And that, he adds, is par for the course: "There are CPAs. There are homemakers that have been away from work for 25 or 30 years. … In one class, I had an FBI agent, an IRS agent and a mortician. So they come from all walks of life."

Neeley himself is a former accountant and law student.

"It's hard not to notice the real estate boom," observes economist Robert Schiller.

But he cautions that so many people suddenly wanting to get into this industry is a warning sign.

The author of "Irrational Exuberance," the book that called the tech stock bubble in 2000, is out with a new book, called "Irrational Exuberance: Second Edition."

"It's not euphoria," he says. "It's not a mania. It's kind of a frame of mind we get into when prices keep going up, and we see a lot of excitement, and talk about it. We get drawn in. That's irrational exuberance, and that's what's happening right now in the real estate market."

But Neeley responds, "We really don't anticipate a bubble, but prices could level. People have to have a place to live."

Still, cautions Regan, not everyone is as lucky as Neely.

Generally, it takes about six months to a year before agents make a first sale. And, on average, only about one-third of the agents in the country make more than the national median income of $43,000.