As a young college grad at 21 I was mentored in real estate sales by Scott E. Cohen in NY and he taught me many things but the one that served me best for the next 25 years was to focus on listings and working with sellers as opposed to buyers. I've had many buyers buy through another broker or builder and I wound up with zero commission after working sometimes for months with them but if you control the listing you will get a minimum of 50% of the commission. Other than that I'd suggest to others to enter the career in a higher priced section of the country. I was selling in Rochester, NY and at that time my typical sales prices were in the 75K - 125K price range. I wish I had relocated to Southern, CA earlier in my career since the average sales prices there were 300K+ and since sales commissions are generally based on a percentage of the final sales price I would have made three times the commissions for the exact same amount of work.