Before I get started with this article I want to mention to you that a lot of these things I have had personal experience with, I know friends who have actually started these businesses and these are gonna be things where I can give you some personal perspective on legitimate ways to actually make money from home. I believe there's a lot more opportunity now more than ever, I have buddies right now making a killing off stocks, I have people starting their own business right now, eCommerce is booming more than ever, and on top of that, there is just so much more than you can do during this time.

Let's get straight into this article and let's talk about the top three ways on which you can make money from home. For most of these things you don't really need that much money to start off and I'm just gonna start off from the bottom of the food chain and work our way up to some of the highest-earning things that you can do in order to even potentially make a 6 plus figure income.

1. Flipping/Retail Arbitrage

If you are at home right now and you have a lot of things that are piling up. People right now are actively looking on Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, and people are just looking for deals while everyone is sheltered in at home. If you have any things that you're looking to give away whether it's your couch or your chair or maybe some old belongings, look into selling a lot of these things. I used to do this a lot with sneakers so whether it was Easy's or off whites or different limited edition pairs, I would buy them at a low retail price and sell them for a profit on eBay and different platforms like stock X in order to make a profit when I was back in high school.

Later on down the road when I realized I wanted to scale that a little bit more I realized that you can actually find different verticals within arbitrage. So what you can also do is go to Marshalls, go to TJ Maxx, go to these different websites that have clearance sales, buy these items at a lower price see if they're selling on some of these platforms like eBay. Listed on there and make that profit for yourself. There's a lot of opportunities to be made especially when people are not buying things where items are going on sale and where people have a higher demand for certain things. So look into the market and see what that is, whether its shoes, clothes, designer bags, or even luxury watches, you really don't need much to start out, you can start out from the most basic amount of things and work up the food chain.

2. Labor Work

I feel like a lot of people don't want to talk about this there's a tendency to think, Oh, labor work is just a blue-collar job it's not a good way. We don't necessarily have to go all the way creative, we don't have to go to the moon, we don't have to think about the next a billion-dollar business idea, you can do simple basic things as mowing someone's lawn or investing in a power washer and scrubbing down the mold on people's sidewalks and buildings. 

Growing up in high schools I actually go out with my neighborhood buddy, and we would actually shovel all the driveways in our neighborhood and it's actually really good money. I remember shoveling the snow in my neighbor's driveways. 

Always go for the rich and you want to preferably target the older people because they're too old to shovel their driveway chances are they got more to lose if they say no to you. Now, with people like this, they were very happy about giving us about $300 to $400 just by shoveling their driveways. You split that with a buddy that's $200 that takes an hour. $200 each per hour

It always comes down to this fundamental idea if you're able to provide some type of valuable skill to someone you are going to be able to make money. That's how I always simply put it, whether you provide value in entertainment or whether you do it by actually providing some type of skill or service, if you want to make money in this world you have to provide some type of value. It doesn't have to be something crazy, you don't have to be a YouTuber, you don't have to be a hall what celebrity, you can do as something as shoveling or walking someone's dog. There are so many people who are just neglecting labor work I think it's because, you know, we all got our phones right now, and it's a digital age. But seriously, consider getting something like a power washer if you have a neighbor who's got a fleet of very expensive cars, let them know, hey, let me wash your vehicles maybe $20 to $50 an hour or let me just show you how it's done I'll do the first vehicle for free.

Start that way, build up your fleet, there are so many businesses that are just waiting to be made right now, and it is not oversaturated at all, this common misconception that many people have, Oh, it's too late. Too many people are doing it, why would they hire me? Why don't they hire anyone? 

Just start, just try it out, start with someone you know, start with a friend or a family member and let them know, hey look, I just want to start working for myself I want to see if this is an opportunity or a career that I can pursue, start washing vehicles, start cleaning sidewalks, start mowing people's lawns, and at a certain point if you're able to automate this and get the trust of these customers, what you do then begin a scale.

3. Digital Work (Service)

Say you don't want to get your hands dirty, say you don't want to be on your hands and knees, you don't want to get that physical fitness in, and you're one of those guys that just like to work on the computer, you like to do things from afar and you're very creative with your space. One of the things I'm gonna mention to you is actually providing some type of digital service to many of these businesses. For some reason, a lot of these businesses are super outdated with their public information or with their web presence or their social media accounts. It's as simple as saying, hey look, let me help you build your Instagram portfolio, let me take some photos, let me post some videos, let me build a website for you, which is actually very very easy right now you can use Wix, you can use Squarespace, WordPress, there are so many different ways you can build websites for other businesses right now which is literally just a drop-in template and a lot of these businesses right now you'd be surprised with some of them don't even have any up-to-date websites and if you can learn the skill on making a website which takes about less than a couple hours on YouTube you can find yourself making income.

You just provide this service to other businesses that may need it I would approach a lot of different restaurants so if I was doing a shoot at one restaurant or a bubble tea shop, I'll go to their neighbors and let them know, hey, we're in the area right now, we're just doing cinematic videography, and we're gonna run some marketing on Facebook Ads for you guys. Right now because we're in the area if you want something like this I can hook you up with a 70% discount or something or you can run a free trial with us and we would love to help you guys out too.

So if you're looking to make some money online I would really consider working in the digital space just by providing any type of service it can be as simple as going to your favorite restaurant, and, saying look, what do you guys need? what are you guys lacking in? and what can I help you guys with? If you're someone who's reading this article, you're generally a little bit younger, you know how to work that tik-tok. Chances are you know how to work a phone much better than some of these business owners, go in helping them out, let them know what they're lacking in, provide them some type of strategy or an outside perspective and if anything if you want to figure out how to charge them money you can, say look, $20 an hour, that's fine, I'll give you my hour, pay me that way or you can say, hey, I'll build out this website for you how about $600, and it takes you three days to make that website. Not too bad in exchange especially when you consider how much it actually costs. A lot of these businesses when they reach out to some of these other corporations that can do these services for them, so really considered digital work I think that's one of the best ways for you to start working for yourself and to really leverage this into your own business.

Those are the 3 ways to make money from home. Hopefully, you can try some of those work and see how it turned out for you

I won't be telling you all the ways to increase your credit limit. Your credit limit plays a big role in your credit score. Having a higher credit limit helps you have a lower credit utilization, which in turn boosts your credit score.

Why You Want To Have A Higher Credit Limit?

As we all know, by having a higher line of credit this allows you to have more access to money. This could be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. But in a positive light, having more access to money gives you more leverage to do things with your money. Credit utilization makes up about 30% of your credit score. 

What Is Credit Utilization

It's basically how much credit you're using compared to the credit that you have available. So generally the lower your credit utilization, the better will be for your credit score.

But where does your credit limit plays a role?. Let me give you a real-life example between Bruce and Jackie

Say that Bruce has a credit limit of about $10,000 on all of his credit cards, and Bruce has a balance right now of $3,000. Currently, his credit utilization is 30%.

But now, let's talk about Jackie

Jackie has a credit limit of about $30,000 among his credit cards, and Jackie also has a balance of $3,000. So in this instance, Jackie only has a credit utilization of 10%. 

So for Bruce to have the same credit utilization as Jackie, which is 10%, Bruce can only have a balance of $1,000 on his credit cards.

If you're reading this article, then you probably have some experience with credit cards so knowing having a balance on your credit card is never a good thing.

Now, let's talk about the actual ways to raise your credit limit 

1. Automatic Increase

Probably the easiest and most passive way to raise your credit limit is to wait for an automatic increase. The majority of credit card companies increase your credit limit automatically without you even having to ask them for it. You can see an automatic credit limit increases every six to twelve months or so depending on how good you are as a credit user. So if you're making your payments on time, paying your balances in full every month, you're more likely for a credit card company to increase your credit limit automatically. 

Another way to increase your likelihood of getting an automatic increase is by keeping your account up to date. Most importantly your annual income. If you use a specific credit card frequently, you're more likely to get an automatic increase due to the fact that every time you swipe your credit card, the credit card company is making money from them. The good thing about automatic credit line increases is that there won't be a heart inquiry on your credit report, so depending on your bank most banks will notify you if there is an increase to your credit limit. The only downside is that it is random, and you cannot expect them to automatically increase your credit.

2. Request It

Just keep in mind that when you are requesting a higher credit limit some banks will do a hard inquiry on your credit report. There is a long list that you can find online where it goes into detail of which banks does a hard pull or a soft pull. For me, sometimes I do dig a little bit deeper to see which banks do a hard pull, but I always expect one to be done anyways, even if they don't. Just keep in mind that when you do request for an increased line of credit, and there is a hard pull, you may see a little thing to your credit score, but that should resolve after a few months, and after about two years hard inquiries disappear from your credit score. So before you even request a credit limit increase make sure you have your facts in order because it would be much easier to get an increased line of credit if you making more money or if your expenses are less, and you have more disposable income. This makes credit card companies safer but giving you more access to money when they know that you have more disposable income to pay them back.

To request for a credit limit increase, you can do this a couple ways, the typical millennial way is to do everything online. For example, I have a credit card with USAA, this is a military bank and I have the cashback rewards plus a credit card with them, and when you scroll to the very bottom of the website and take a look at a bunch of links that they have, and there's one that says change your credit limit.

Once you click on that, this opens up a window and it gives you an option to increase your credit limit or lower it.

As you can see here, they say that they do look at things like your account history, your income, and your current debts to make a decision.

So depending on who you bank with, and maybe similar to this, or a little different, not all banks will allow you to request for a credit limit increase online. So this goes into the next way of requesting for one.

If you're someone who likes to talk to someone over the phone, this is probably gonna be the next best way. And if you don't, too bad. Some banks give you no choice. I know for sure that Chase Bank requires you to talk to them over the phone if you want to increase. So before you do this just make sure you have some information handy like your updated income, your monthly mortgage, or rental payments, and an idea of the increase that you want. The reason why I say have some proof ready is that you can use this information as leverage so the banks will be more likely to approve the credit limit. Because you should never request a credit limit increase if you're in dire need of a bigger TV, or expensive handbag because that just looks desperate. So you want to come across like you have more disposable income, and by having a higher credit limit this will allow you to make more purchases 

So let's be real, banks will give you more money if you have more money. Whether you're requesting a credit limit increase online or through the phone, they may ask you how much you would like to increase it to. Sometimes, I don't even have the specified number. When I request a credit for line increase, I just said hey, I want to increase my credit, and they usually bump it to wherever that they see fit. There are times where you do need a specific number, American Express is pretty well-known for this and they're pretty generous for credit limit increases. I hate telling you a specific number because this really depends on the card and a situation. Because if you had to discover it card which is a fairly common card for starters, they may give you a credit limit of say, $1,000, but after using it for a year, paying it on time, and using it frequently, they may bump it up to $3,000. That's about a 200% increase.

Now let's say that you have a Chase Sapphire credit card, and initially, they give you a credit limit of $20,000. But after using it for a few months your request for an increased line of credit, and they bumped you up to $30,000. Well, that's only a 50% increase but with almost a 50% increase, it's also a $10,000 gain on your credit limit. As you can see here, the differences between percentages gain or the total amount of money gained are pretty skewed. So depending on the type of credit card that you're requesting for an increased line of credit, just try to think of what best fits.

3. Get New Credit Card

I must say this is probably my favorite way of increasing my credit limit because all you really have to do is open up a new credit card. Once you open up a new credit card, this also increases your line of credit because each credit card will have a certain amount of credit that's attached to it.

Also, when you open up a new credit card you get signup bonuses while increasing your total line of credit while other methods they don't allow you to do that.

Just remember that when you do open up a new credit card there will be your hard inquiry on your credit history, so you will have a little thing to your credit, you may think that this is counterintuitive where you're trying to boost your credit score, but by having an increase on your credit limit to potential to reduce your credit utilization will likely boost your score in the long run. 

Plus, there's also a bunch of benefits by having multiple credit cards, for instance, having specific cards for specific categories can bring you more money and cashback or other perks, but there are downsides and opening more credit cards, for example, it does temporary lower your credit score, it shortens your overall credit history, you got to think about card management, and annual fees.

4. Secured Card

Secured credit cards are not only for people who are looking to build or repair credit, but they also can increase your total line of credit. The thing about secured credit cards is that your credit limit is your deposit. For me, I really don't like the idea of tiring my money to account just to have an increased line of credit. So this option really doesn't allow you to borrow more because it's kind of your money anyways, but this may help you boost your credit score much faster.

Timing is important. It is probably best to wait to ask for an increase after you have gotten a pay raise at your job, currently have good credit, and paid off all of your balances. By looking great on paper and all of your accounts this will give you a better chance of getting an increase.

If you have credit card debt don't even bother asking for an increase. You're way better off increasing your credit score by lowering your debts.

Max Credit Limits

Depending on what credit card company you're trying to increase your credit line they may only increase a certain amount across all of your accounts. So imagine having a $30,000 credit line between your Chase Sapphire Preferred, chase freedom, and your Amazon Prime credit card. If you asked for an increase in your Chase Freedom Card this may prevent you from getting an increase in your other chase cards. Because the bank will look at your account credit limit as a whole. So in this case, you may be able to transfer your credit limits to other credit cards that are from the same issuer. So in situations like this, it really only affects cards that are from the same Bank.

Hard Pulls

When requesting an increase this may result in a hard pull, but if you do decide to apply for a new credit card this would definitely require a hard pull. a hard pull will be on your credit score for about two years and you will see a drop in your credit score for a few months. So just keep that in mind if you're thinking about getting a mortgage or any type of big loan.

Alright, folks, that is how to increase your credit limit. Hopefully, you got some value out this

I'm going to show you four jobs that you can work at home with no experience needed. In fact, some of the jobs I will mention this article, I have actually done it myself in the past so you can rest assured that these are legitimate occupations. Work from home jobs is a viable source of income that can help you make some money in the meantime. The jobs I will be talking about here they pay anywhere between $13 to $26 an hour, you're not going to be taking any surveys online, or getting paid watching videos. These jobs you get paid hourly and some of them even come with benefits. I'm gonna be upfront with you, all these jobs are entry-level jobs, but if you have any experience you will have a bigger boost to your income.

Let's kick off with the jobs

1. Call Centre Representative

This is probably one of the best jobs that you can do from home if you have no prior experience. Some of the major companies that are hiring are;

• Overstock..com
• Wayfair
• Geico

You will find a lot of these jobs on major search engines like,

• Indeed 
• Monster
• ZipRecruiter 

The job description for call center reps is usually pretty similar amongst companies, of course, each company has its own mission and requires different tasks, but in general, they are similar. 

Qualifications

First off, let's talk about what are the qualifications needed to work as a call center rep. 

You usually need to have at least a high school diploma, or a GED. It is also recommended that you have previous customer service experience in retail or call centers, but these are not necessary. But if you do, it does give you an advantage during the application process since you are familiar with the day-to-day routines.

You Have To Have Great Communication Skills

The majority of individuals who were laid off or furloughed during this pandemic, they were individuals in the hospitality or food industry. So I know that many of these individuals deal with people all day long, so they have experience with customer service. But the truth of the reality is most jobs do require a certain level of customer service even the lonely jobs do require some sort of human interaction. 

Job Requirements

Some other job requirements include proficiency around computers this means being able to use the email, Microsoft word, excel, and outlook. So with that being said, you need to have access to a computer, reliable internet, and a working space where you can communicate with customers. So this is going to be a requirement for all jobs I will be listing in this article, you'll find that 99 of remote jobs will require a computer.

Companies Benefit

Depending on the employer, they may loan you a work laptop, but most will require to have your own. While researching this job around my local area in areas around the U.S, most of these companies they will give you benefits, it may vary if you're a full-time or part-time employee, but some of these benefits include health insurance such as;

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision Insurance

Most companies do offer pay vacation, sick, and parental leave. In addition to these benefits, you also get access to retirement plans such as a 401k or profit-sharing. I also found that some of these companies do offer tuition reimbursement, and they may offer paid training and licensures. So it really depends on the location and the company that you would be applying for, some companies will require you to be within the state where the company is located, some don't really care.

2. Documentation Specialist Or Transcribing

If you were to go on the revs website the average pay per month is around $150. So that is barely considered to be a main source of income. You can view this more like a contract job, and not like a typical 9 to 5. During my research, I came across a company called nuance

This is a company that uses conversational ai, where doctors and team members complete their medical documentation via voice. 

If you ever use voice typing on google docs, or even on the phone, there is tech that would automatically transcribe your spoken words. There are a lot of factors that affect outcomes like the speed of talking, different types of accents, and the clarity of speech. So in a nutshell, your role in this type of profession is to ensure that the transcription from the ai is correct. So you will listen to doctors' voice or audio recordings of patient visits and clinical reports to make sure that they're accurate.

Job Requirements

Depending on the company that you do the transcription for, there will be different types of requirements, but typically having prior work experience in a professional office setting is preferable. And having great English writing skills such as grammar and spelling is definitely a deal-breaker. 

You Will Need To Have Excellent Listening Skills

Since you will be transcribing audio, you will need to have excellent listening skills. Which means being able to pick up different types of accents, and dialects from people. For this particular company you don't need to have experience as a medical scribe or transcriptionist, but it is a plus. It is just easier to make out the lingo and how electronic medical health records work.

3. Contact Tracer

Contact tracing is one thing that's very important during a public health emergency. So what contact tracing is, it is a process that identifies people who have been in contact with someone who is infected with the disease. So in this case, it would be COVID-19. So once these contacts are identified, you communicate with these individuals to warn them of potential exposure and connect them with public health information and services like testing. Again, this really depends on where you live. The job will be more relevant in bigger cities and towns. Some of these contact tracing companies will allow you to apply outside of the state where the position is located. After reading multiple job listings, some jobs will require initial training on-site first before you can work remotely from home. But just double-check with the listing just to make sure.

Job description

Once a patient is newly diagnosed with COVID, you will contact any individuals that this person may recently come in contact with, you would collect and keep a record of information of any symptoms, you would also provide these contacts with information about local isolation procedures, and where they can go to get testing. Once you have done that, you report all the contacts and records with your supervisor on a daily basis.

Qualifications Of This Job

Most of the positions that I have researched, only require a high school diploma or something equivalent to a GED. Although, it is a plus if you have an education or some experience in healthcare. So depending on where you do the contact tracing, being bilingual does definitely help. One thing to keep in mind that, contact tracing can be a temporary job. Due to the fact that the demand for this position will most likely be less when the presence of the coronavirus will become less, but again this is America, who really knows how long it will be here.

4. ESL Teaching

Esl teaching stands for English as a second language. You may first think that you would have to have a teaching certificate or some expensive educational degree to do ESL teaching, but there are plenty of jobs out there that don't require teaching credentials. Here are some of the common websites that people use to teach English on;

• Cambly
• Palefish
• Vipkid

Cambly and pale fish, both of these websites do not require you to have a degree or experience, while VIPKid they do require you to have at least an undergraduate degree. There are plenty of these companies that are just looking for native speakers that can have the ability to engage students over video chat.

But certainly, if you are a teacher or you have an undergraduate degree it does certainly help to get more teaching gigs full-time positions, or higher pay. Cambly and pale fish were companies where you'll be teaching English to students in China. Even though you will be teaching students overseas you do not need to know their native language to teach them English, and the majority of your students will be in the younger range anywhere between 5 and 12 years old. Different companies do have different protocols so you may be teaching one-on-one or maybe a classroom with two to four students. From what I saw the majority of ESL teaching jobs are pretty flexible, but you also have to keep in mind that the majority of the students will be in china and you would have to plan your schedule around their time zone. For example, 4 o'clock in California is 7a.m the next day in Beijing China. So in most cases, you will be working late afternoon or night time just to make up that time difference.

While researching a lot of these companies they do handle your classes and assign you your students, they also may provide you a free training and teacher support. And all of them they do provide you a curriculum for each class so there's no lesson planning that is required, but again, just be mindful of the qualifications so from what I've found most ESL teaching jobs are contract-based so they're not the many companies that do offer benefits.

Bonus

Here are some jobs hiring in person. The reason why I want to throw this in here is that it's hard to find quality jobs that require no experience that is remotely based.

1. Convenient Store

I'm pretty sure that most people know what 7-eleven is, but if you don't, it is a local convenience store chain and sometimes a gas station. As for what you will be doing, you'll be stocking shelves, cleaning the store, and dealing with customers.

2. Amazon

Ever since the pandemic, amazon is one of those companies that are making more money than ever. It makes sense, it's because more and more customers are standing at home and ordering online. Some of the positions that are open are working at fulfillment warehouses or delivering packages. But if you want more of a flexible position, you can always work for amazon flex. Imagine Uber, but for delivering packages. On the amazon website, they say that most drivers can earn anywhere between $18 to $25 an hour.

3. Pharmacies

There are plenty of retail pharmacies that are offering positions such as CVS, Walgreens, and rite aid. Again, this really depends on where you live in us and if there are any stores nearby. A lot of these companies are on a large hiring surge, due to the fact that the demand for prescription delivery has increased. You don't have to be a pharmacy tech or a pharmacist to get hired, there are many retail sales jobs that are open.

4. Pizza Delivery

During this pandemic, the demand for pizza has not slowed at all. If anything, it increased. So there are different roles that you can actually do, there are delivery drivers, pizza makers, and also truck drivers. This can be a side hustle or a full-time position for the time being.

5. Food Delivery

Almost similar to delivering pizza, but as an independent contractor. During this pandemic, the demand for food delivery from restaurants or grocery stores has been booming. Since there are a lot of restaurants around u.s that are still closed due to government orders. Apps such as Grubhub, doordash, uber eats, they have been getting a lot of work. Just as a reminder, food delivery does not only mean restaurant orders but also groceries. 

Instantcart is another app that hired plenty of full-time contractors to keep up with the demand. In addition, instacart said that they would provide up to 14 days of extended pay for any full-service or in-store shoppers who were diagnosed with coven-19 or forced to quarantine or self-isolate.

Over To You

Which jobs from this article are you going to try first? are you going to try out being a contact tracer, or rather have an in-person job at a pharmacy?

I wanted to write this article to share with you the top apps that I recommend you must have especially if you are a real estate agent. All of these are apps that you can use on your cell phone, and also on an iPad.

Let's begin

1. Spoti

This app I had never heard of it until recently that my friend was out door-knocking with his partner. He came across a homeowner, they had a really good conversation so he asked him, you know, let's exchange information and keep in touch. Usually what he does is that he opened the notes section on his cell phone, and he'll just write down there the person's name, and their phone number. However, after he left that home his partner said, hey, do you have that app Spoti, and he said no, you know, he had never heard of it, and his partner said, well, this is a really great app especially for people who door knock because when you are collecting information you just open up this app and you can just type in their information on there and it saves it, later on, you can export it as an Excel spreadsheet to your computer upload it to mojo and when it's time to follow up you already have everything there.

Let's take a look and see how it works 

It's pretty easy to set up. All it asks is email and password, and then that's it. It shows you exactly where you are. This is perfect if your door-knocking. So let's say that you're door knocking on summer wood Avenue, and you talked to this person right there, it'll automatically put their address, then you can select a status. You can put, not contacted, not home, not interested, lead, or sold.

This app is for you to collect information and keep it organized. So let's say this person that you about to implement there is lead, so then you just select lead, type in a name, let's say the person's name is Joe, a phone number and then an email, and you save it.

That's pretty much it. You can continue on your day, like I said, this is a perfect app especially for those that door knocking.

2. RPR Mobile

This app is perfect for real estate agents that want to know exactly what's going on in a certain neighborhood, perhaps you're outdoor knocking, or you're out with your friends, and let's face it, real estate always comes up when you're with your friends because they're probably gonna ask so how this is going? So this app is called RPR mobile and what it stands for is (Realtors property resource), the mobile version. Once you log in and sign up. It does connect you to your MLS, and what it gives you is it gives you the number of homes that are currently listed in the area that you're in. 

As you can see I opened it up and it says that right now there are 14 homes for sale, two new listings, 25 recently sold, 8 distressed properties, and one for a lease. Now, I'm sure that you probably have your own MLS app that you are logged into, but what I really like about this app is that it gives you the distressed properties, and what are those? Those are NODS. (The notice of default), and if you don't know what those are, those are properties where the owners haven't paid the mortgage, or are behind, and the bank has said, hey, pay up, or it's gonna get to the point that it's gonna be foreclosed and lose the house. So many times that information that's good for you to know because maybe they can't pay, so if they have a lot of equity it's best for them to sell, cash out, move on, instead of losing the house and losing the equity that they have built so far.

3. Canva

You can also use it on your desktop at canva.com. Is actually where you can do all of the marketing materials that you use. You can do anything from business cards, real estate Flyers, postcards, whatever it is, you can design your own, save it as a PDF, jpg, PNG, whatever it is. The best part is that it's completely free. I believe that if you do want to pay an additional fee it's only in order to download pictures with a transparent background.

4. Everlens

This app is perfect for you to keep track of all of the miles that you drive, and especially you being real estate agents I'm sure that you are always driving to appointments or open houses or showing your clients around, so it's very important that you keep track of your mileage, that way once you do your taxes you can report all of it.

5. Scannable

This app allows you to scan documents, and then save them immediately as PDFs. It's really convenient, and if you do get a contract sign or a document sign and it needs to be sent to somebody, this app will definitely come in handy.

6. CamScanner

Does the exact same thing, you can take pictures of documents, and save them as PDFs. I'm not really gonna go into it because, like I said, they're self-explanatory, once you do download the apps you're gonna see that they're pretty easy to use.

7. DocuSign

This one is very important, you always have to deal with contracts or paperwork, you might be at a meeting and need to have something signed. DocuSign is definitely an app that you should have. DocuSign does come with a 30-day free trial after that, I believe it's a monthly fee.

8. Zip forms

You have to have access to zip forms, which is where you can find every single type of document and contract that you can possibly need for a transaction.

9. Open Houses

This app is perfect for those of you who do open houses. Now, I will say that this app is free, however, if you want all the bells and whistles and be able to download all the sheets onto your computer and have them saved on your phone, I believe that is a $20 fee. But aside from that, it's free, you can have access to all of the contexts on your cell phone.

Conclusion

That's it for this article. Like I said, every single app that I mentioned is free, there are some fees is associated with apps if you want additional features, but aside from that, the most basic things that you will need are free in the app.

One of the saddest things that are happening in this country there was a survey done not too long ago that if you had to come up as an American with $2,000 cash, the average American could not do it in 30 days. Most people in this country have no savings account. Most people in this country don't have any personal savings and it gets really scary when you start talking about retirement savings. So what we're going to do is address that problem. We're going to talk about the creative ways to fund an emergency fund. 

What Happens To The Average Person Who Doesn't Have An Emergency Fund

first of all, life happens. Cars break down, you may need to go see the dentist, there's a lot of little emergencies that happen in life, the washer and dryer break down, and typically most of these emergencies can be covered between $500 and $2,000. But most people have no savings so when this emergency comes, let's say, you wake up, you get ready to go to work, you put the key in your car, your car doesn't come on, then you have your car towed to the mechanic and you find out you need $1,500 for work. You don't have $1,500 in cash. So what you got to do is either put it on a credit card if you have the credit to do that, or borrow the money, or go without having a car. So this car breakdown has become a life-altering emergency. If you had an emergency fund with the money in it, it would just be an inconvenience. This is typically why people live paycheck to paycheck and pray nothing bad happens. And this creates this situation of people living a scarcity mindset. One emergency after another and this is one of the bad things that happen when you live without a financial safety net. One emergency can prompt other emergencies. A car breaks down, you don't have the money to get it fixed, you can't get to work, you don't go to work, you lose your job.

Now, you're really in a world of hurt because you don't have any money, you don't have a job, next thing you know you're evicted. Your car breaks down, you can't go to work, you get evicted, now you gotta move in with friends or be homeless. This is what happens to the economic underclass, and one of the reasons that so many people are poor is behavior. Not birthright. Did you know? Typically, the social-economic class that you're born in, it's the same social-economic class you will die. So chances are if you're born poor, you're going to die poor because of the behavior in those social-economic classes such as, not having a savings account. And this is a generational thing, my momma didn't have a savings account, my daddy didn't have a savings account, my grandparents didn't have a savings account, so this is the economic legacy that has passed down to generation after generation. I want you to think, was the last time someone in your family said, hey John, let's sit down and talk about money. This how you handle credit, this is how you save money, this is how you invest money, when did someone in your family sit you down and have that conversation with you?

Creative Ways For You To Establish This Emergency Fund

Here's the first step, you're gonna go to the bank or credit union, you're going to open up a brand new checking account or savings account. You're going to pick from one of these side hustles, and all the money from this side hustle is going to go into that account. And you're going to sit down then you're gonna write a goal that, I'm going to open up this checking account, I'm gonna save $5,000 put this money in this account through one of these side hustles. This is why you got to go above and beyond what you're currently doing because if you're living paycheck to paycheck, it's gonna be real hard for you to establish a savings account because you've got some bad money habits. 

One of the things that you can do to earn almost passive income is to Airbnb one of your rooms. If you live alone, you've got a spare bedroom, you could put that spare bedroom on Airbnb, all of the money that comes in through Airbnb goes into this new checking account. It does not go into your lifestyle spin. This is going to be something that you're gonna have to fight against, and this is going to have to be something you're gonna have to deploy massive discipline because it'll be so easy, psych oh, here's this new money, let me figure out a way to spend it. You cannot do that.

Another creative way that you can earn money to fund your emergency fund is to sell on Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, eBay, Poshmark. One of the things you could do is literally go around your house and find everything that you don't want, and don't need. And this is the process with this, take your spare bedroom, and go around the house in every piece of clothing, every item, every electronic, every spare cellphone that you no longer need that's just sitting in the drawer somewhere, put it in the room, do all of this collect everything in your house first. Then you start putting it on eBay or Craigslist or whatever and every dollar that comes in through that, you go ahead and put that money in this special account until you get to $5,000. This is the pathway to changing your economic freedom. This is the pathway to setting yourself apart from the average person because once you do this, next time the emergency happens, it becomes an inconvenience.

Let's say you've read to this article, you've gone ahead, six months in the future you've got the $5,000 in this savings or checking account. And you go out into your garage and you put the key in the car and it doesn't start. Then you have the car towed to the mechanic, and it's like, well, it's $1,500. So now you have a $1,500 to get your car fixed, plus the additional money to rent a car why your car is being fixed so you can get to work and you don't lose your job. It sounds simple, but it's so massively important for you to have a savings account.

Why It's Very Important To Have A Savings Account?

You don't want to be the average American financially, you don't want to be living paycheck to paycheck. While time is good, this is when you need to be putting your acorns away, fortunately for most of us, most of us wake up each day, most of us life goal is predictable. You go to work, you come home, you eat, you go to sleep, and during these periods of goodness is when you need to start stacking money. This is the period that you need to start putting money away and segmenting money. What you need to do is get in the habit, cuz habit Trump's willpower of putting money aside. Once you start segmenting your money because you should run your personal finance section. You need to have an operating of accounts, have an expense account, have a savings account, and the bulk of your income is going to go into your operating account, and start off gently, 90% of your money goes into your operating account, and then 2% goes into a savings account, then 2% goes into an expense account. You start saving slow because if you're going to do this from your income, you must build the habit of putting money aside. Make it a habit.

Now, here's the cool thing that's going to happen once you listen to me and you start stacking this money. You're going to go out and get your side hustle, and then six months in the future you got your $5,000 in there, it's going to become fun. You're gonna want to see that more money, you're gonna keep doing it because you like the fact that now you have some money somewhere, that now that you're prepared for emergencies, and you're going to keep doing this and you're going to adjust your life. Because now you're in a good situation, now you're in the situation where if something happens you're covered. Now you're in the situation if you get sick and can't work you're covered. And this is going to promote self-confidence and better mental health. 

This is one of the things that happen to you when you live paycheck to paycheck. You're living in a state of perpetual panic. You're hoping the car starts, you're hoping nothing goes wrong, you're stressed out all the time because it's all rooted with the lack of money or the fear of a lack of money. So you're not mentally healthy and worse yet this is what you're teaching your children how to live economically, they're going to do exactly what you're doing

Conclusion

Money is important, and how you handle money is important. Manage your money, or your money's gonna manage you. And most people are in a situation where their money is managing them. This is a problem. This is a big big problem. So go ahead and begin building your emergency fund, because this is a bedrock of building your financial house, because once you get to the investing stuff and you have an emergency fund, then your investments continue month after month, year after year, without being disturbed and then you get this compound interesting going on, and its a beautiful thing,

In this article, I'm going to be sharing with you everything that they don't tell you when you get into real estate. If you're reading this article, it's probably because you're thinking about getting into real estate or maybe you're brand new and you're super excited about working with your first buyer or getting your first listing. But some of the things that you see on TV are not how real-life real estate transactions are gonna go, and that's exactly what I want to cover in this article. Many times we see millions of dollars listing or the shows on HGTV or real-estate agents are making millions of dollars, and selling multi-million dollar properties, negotiations take place, and only an hour or two in a restaurant, or outside of a restaurant, and everyone's happy. That unfortunately is not how this business is.

You see, ultimately, you deal with so many different people, so many different personalities that, if you are not emotionally stable or ready to take on the stresses of other people and their emotions, this business is going to take a huge toll on you to the point that you are not going want to do this, or you're gonna give up, or you're gonna say, screw this, this is not for me. I don't want to do it. I don't want to deal with other people's BS or their drama, and it's gonna cost you to get out of the business.

In The Beginning, You End Up Working More Than You Probably Have Ever Before

There's a misconception that a lot of people think especially brand new agents and they think, you know, I'm gonna get into real estate, and I'm gonna be my own boss, and I'm gonna make my own hours, and this and that. There are so many hours involved in the business that they don't tell you about. What you hear especially the beginning is, you know, you're gonna call, and then you're gonna door knock, or maybe your broker is gonna give you some leads, but the reality is that it's gonna be your job to convert those leads. If you don't convert them, you're not getting paid.

Things That You Have To Be Prepared For Real Estate Agent

Now, let's say you are getting deals, you're putting listings together, you're getting buyers. The thing that they don't tell you about is what's gonna happen when you start working with these buyers and sellers and their emotions, the negotiation that's gonna be involved, what happens when maybe the lender is delaying, and you have the listing agent on the property that you're in escrow freaking out, and then his sellers are freaking out, and then everyone's freaking out on that party and then they're throwing all of that drama to you because of something that's out of your control. How are you gonna handle that? They don't teach you that when you are reading these real estate books. You are going to have to go through these situations and learn, and it's gonna be hard and it's gonna be tough. And you're gonna cry. You're gonna want to go under a rock and not want to answer your phone and put everyone on Do Not Disturb or just turn off your phone, but these are things that you're gonna deal with eventually if you haven't already.

These are things that you have to be prepared and it's not fun. it's not fun when you're closing a deal, escrow has closed, and it turns out that the sellers not moving out, the buyers outside the house, the buyer ends up calling the police to get the seller out. Imagine being stuck in that. Once escrow closes, you as a real estate agent you're no longer part of that transaction is over. So essentially you can't do anything, but imagine having the pressure of now like this person that was your client telling you why hasn't that seller moved out? If he doesn't move out by this amount of time I'm gonna call the cops and I'm gonna sue them, I'm gonna sue everybody, imagine. This is the stuff that it's not the first time, it's probably not gonna be the last time, maybe you have a deal with it, maybe have heard stories of other people deal with things like this, but are you ready to deal with it? That's the question.

These are the things that are not gonna teach you. It's through life experience so that you're gonna learn how to deal with it. Imagine also working with nightmare tenants that don't cooperate, or when one of your clients maybe it's your client they don't cooperate or they don't communicate, or the negotiations are going so bad all over the place that you don't know what's gonna happen, and maybe that deal that you were counting on doesn't end up happening, maybe you are already banking on that check that you were gonna get, $10,000, $20,000, but the deal doesn't end up happening. These are all little things that are gonna test you. They're gonna test your patience, they're going to test you to see if you're really really ready to take it to the next level.

Conclusion

You're gonna go through a lot of situations maybe you're gonna go through situations with other agents, maybe personal things that are gonna interfere or want to stop you from doing what you want to do or progressing in life. You just have to grab the bull by the horns and make it happen. That's what it's gonna take. These are just the realities of being a real estate agent, it's not glitz and glamour, it's very tough, and it's very draining. And if you don't have deals going on it's gonna get to the point that you're gonna run out of your resources, you're not gonna have any money, and then you're gonna have to probably find a part-time job, and at the end of the day, you just have to keep on pushing and working towards your goal.

In this article, I am going to be sharing with you exactly what it is that you need to know to figure out whether real estate is the right career for you. If you're reading this article it's probably because you are a brand new agent or you are currently researching about real estate and possibly becoming a realtor, or perhaps, you are a real estate agent, and things have not been going the way you thought they were going to be.

Let get into the article

1. This Career Is Not For Everyone

If you are looking for easy money, or to do this part-time and think that you're just gonna get a whole bunch of deals as soon as you begin, the reality is that that's probably not gonna happen. Real estate in real life is completely different than what you see on tv and million dollars listing and all these other shows. There's a lot of blood sweat and tears in this business, especially, in the beginning. There are going to be many times that you just want to cry and yell and give up, and that is just the nature of this business, you deal with so many different personalities in one day you can go through all of the different emotions that you can possibly have and still know that until you close a deal or close a transaction you are not getting paid.

2. You Are Your Own Boss

 In this business you are pretty much your own boss, you will have a broker or you possibly will be working for a team, but you have to be self-driven, you have to know exactly what it is that you want to achieve, you have to have everything written down. Your goals, how much commission you want to make, how many transactions you want to do because this is what's going to push you to actually put in the work. Because in this business, you get paid in proportion to how much work you put in. You cannot be expecting a paycheck every single week, and chances are that in the beginning, it might be six months or more before you even see a paycheck. Along with that, once you do start having transactions and working with clients, you will quickly realize that everyone is completely different, you will deal with so many different personalities and characteristics. A lot of times you will see that your clients will be very emotional along with the other agents that you're working with. And it is your responsibility to be neutral and know that their emotions are not a reflection of you and what you're doing,

For example, if you're representing a buyer, and they did their home inspection and it turns out that the home has a lot of problems, and now they're really upset, you can't take it personal, I want to make sure that you are clear that in this business you can't take things personal, if you take things personal then this is not for you. 

3. Be Prospecting

When you're new, chances are that you're probably going to have to do cold calls at some point, unless you're handed leads. But again, that is all depending on whether or not you're in a team or the broker that you work with is giving you leads, but even so, these leads are probably people that you have never spoken to so you're going to have to make these cold calls. And let me tell you, sometimes people are not as nice as you think, sometimes they yell, sometimes they scream, sometimes they cuss you out, sometimes they just go off on you. And you're on the other side of the phone, like, scared, and panicking, and you have to know that, you know, they're going off, and their emotions have nothing to do with you. 

Once you are doing deals and going through transactions, there will always be little things that come up in a transaction that you think is going to be the end of the world, and that you think are going to be emergencies. They're not. I like to think that there's always a solution for anything and things will always work themselves out. 

4. Many Times You Will Work With Very Incompetent Agents

There are a lot of amazing great agents out there, but at the same time, there are a lot of agents that really should not be in this business. Many of them do not communicate, they don't answer their phone, they don't answer their text messages, they don't answer their emails, they put false information on the MLS, they do false advertisement, they try to double-end deals. So it's very possible that, let's say, you're working with a buyer and they are completely in love with a property that they saw on Zillow, you researched it, you've reached out to the listing agent and you just never hear from them, or you have submitted an offer and you just never hear from the listing agent, chances are that they're trying to double-end the listing, and just trying to procure their own buyer because they might just want to keep the entire commission for themselves or they took the listing at such a low commission, perhaps, 2% to 4%, that it makes more sense for them to hopefully procure their own buyer then actually do their sellers of service and expose their property to every single buyer out there and present any offer that does come through. You're probably going to come across that at some point.

5. There Will Be Time When You Want To Give Up

There will be many times where you are putting in the work, let's say, you're making the calls, you're going door knocking, you are generating leads, and putting them in your database. And it feels like no one is converting, like, no one wants to buy, no one wants to sell, and you might get to the point that you want to give up. It is at this point that you have to think to yourself, what has been the big difference in my improvement from when I started? You have to learn to focus on positive things. A Friends of mine noticed that back then when he got to that point, he started to focus on the negative things, he thought that he's sucked, that he was horrible, that he wasn't going to do well in this industry, when he was focusing on the wrong thing, what he needed to focus on was the fact that he was getting so much better on the phones and handling objections, that he knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before he actually converted a lead.

 Now, after this happened, about two months later is when he got his first listing which was right under a million in orange county. That is one example. So again, you have to focus on the positive things.

6. If You Are Scared Of Picking Up The Phone And Talking To People, This Is Something That You're Not Going To Enjoy Doing

Now, it doesn't mean that you only have to make phone calls all the time, you can easily go outdoor knocking, or perhaps you can work with the team where you are working strictly with buyers or people that are handed to you that are more warm leads, but again, you have to be comfortable stepping out of your comfort zone. If you're not comfortable doing that or talking to strangers, then you're going to have a very very difficult time in this business. Because your job and everything that you do is talking to strangers every single day, and making them see that you as an agent, will help them in whatever it is that their real estate needs are.

7. Why Did You Get Into Real Estate? Or What Is Your Motivation Factor For Wanting To Become A Real Estate Agent?

Why it is that you're getting into this business. If you are already in the business, why did you get into real estate? Or if you're thinking about getting into real estate, what is your motivation factor for actually wanting to become a real estate agent? This will have a big influence on the way that you perform, and the way that you carry out yourself being a real estate agent. What I mean by all of this is that if you're just getting into real estate because you think it's going to be easy to just sell a house here, and there, and people are just going to come to you, that's not how it's going to happen. I'm sorry to tell you and brush your bubble, but that's not how it's gonna happen. People are probably not gonna know you especially in the beginning when you're new, or there might be some people that are hesitant about using you because they know that you are a new real estate agent. There are a lot of factors that are involved when it comes to your success. So along with things that I mentioned earlier, in order for you to succeed, things that are going to make you stand out are your skills. 

8. This Business Is An Emotional Roller Coaster

Some days you are going to be super happy and excited at the fact that you are a real estate agent helping people with their real estate goals and dreams. And other days you are going to want to cry and question whether or not you even should be in this business. Now ultimately, it's up to you if you're going to let your emotions or some outside sources influence you and your decision to giving up, or if you're going to push through because your reason and your, why for getting into this business are much bigger than a very small problem that you think is going to ruin or allow you to not succeed in this business.

That's it for this article, hopefully, you got some value out it