As a realtor, WFH is not something new. I am already Working From Home; not in my own home, but in other people’s home.
Working from other people’s homes attributed to my main sources of income as a realtor:
Sale transaction,
Rental transaction, and
Property management
There are more ways to earn in this industry than the conventional means stated above. Here are 6 ways to make money online, working from home, as a realtor.
1. Stock Photos
For landlords and home sellers — the money is in the property. For us realtors, the money is in our smartphones.
If you ask me, “What’s inside your iPhone Photos app?” It’s photos and videos of food, properties, and cheques. In real estate, photos and videos of properties, are not just assets for advertising materials. They can also be income-generating assets.
My photos and videos of properties are of bedrooms, living areas, dining rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, gardens, and the exterior. Take for example, a photo of a bedroom. When capturing the photo, the bedroom should be brightly lighted and taken from an angle to give the impression of spaciousness. Also, the bed, which is the subject, should be in focus.
After selecting my best photos and videos, next is to sell them online on a stock photo site. There are many stock sites online:
Shutterstock
Getty Images
123RF
Submit your photos and videos to them. Once approved and uploaded; whenever someone purchases your photos or videos, you gain a royalty from the sale.
2. YouTube
YouTube is not just another social media platform to market properties and generate leads. It is also a platform to monetise your photos and videos.
When your YouTube videos reach a certain eligibility requirement — you can earn on and from YouTube by putting ads in your videos.
Your YouTube channel must have minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of public watch hours, in order to qualify for the YouTube Parter Programme.
Only valid watch hours from currently public videos count towards YPP eligibility. Videos played from the ‘Stories and short videos’ shelf or as part of ad campaigns are not included for YPP eligibility.
I’ve already uploaded hundreds of videos and am halfway towards reaching the threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours. On my channel, I share about real estate, investment, and home care products.
Notice that YouTube mentioned “Stories and short videos”. These are YouTube’s new version of TikTok and competition to it. Even before your YouTube videos are monetised, you can also start earning money with short YouTube videos while working from home.
3. Affiliate Marketing
We’re all familiar with the saying:
A picture is worth a thousand words.
There‘s a marketing twist to it:
A picture is worth a thousand dollars.
A picture is definitely worth more than a thousand dollars.
As mentioned earlier, photos and videos can income-generating assets. Scrolling through my Photos app, I shortlisted photos of bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, study rooms, and game rooms.
One of my go-to marketing tools is Canva. Canva is an online editing site with pre-made templates and icons to create your social media posts on-the-go. I compiled together a few bedroom photos. After a few edits, transitions, and captions, a 15 seconds video was exported from Canva.
Next, make a list of furnitures that are in the photos. The common furnitures in a bedroom (photo) are bed, wardrobe, dressing table, curtains, lights, fans, and air-conditioner.
Now we can do what we’ve been doing best working from home to past time— online shopping. Browse online marketplaces (Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, and Ebay), and search for a bedroom furniture.
Often, the trap is to fall for the cheapest product. Sometimes cheapest is not the best option. Review the products with the most purchases, best reviews, and most ratings.
Next, search for an affiliate program to join:
Amazon Associate Program,
Involve Asia,
Shopee Affiliate Program, or
Lazada Affiliate Program
I shortlisted a bed-frame on Shopee and copied the product URL link. I signed up as an affiliate with Involve Asia. Paste the Shopee product link in Involve Asia to generate an affiliate link from Involve Asia.
Upload the 15 seconds video exported from Canva onto YouTube and #Shorts in the title. If you’re not directly recording from YouTube Shorts, the maximum video duration is 15 seconds. It’s called #Shorts because it is even shorter than TikTok’s 3 minutes maximum duration.
Then, add the affiliate link (from Involve Asia) in your YouTube description. Whenever a viewer clicks the affiliate link and purchases a (bed-frame) product, you gain a percentage from that sale.
4. Ecommerce
My real estate website focused on property listings and real estate content. Working from home, I branched out into offering home products. What makes a home is not just the house but what is in the house.
Previously, we briefly ventured into online marketplaces: Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and Ebay. Now we’re going into the supply-side:
Alibaba
Taobao
Aliexpress
Select products from a supplier and sync them on your website to sell. It can be living room furnitures, dining furnitures, kitchen wares, bathroom furnitures, bedroom furnitures, garden tools, etc.
After taking into account the cost of the product, you can mark-up however much you want. You’ve to also bear in mind the shipping fees and delivery times. Compared to the previous income streams, ecommerce requires more start-up cost, time, and effort.
After publishing the products on your website, share about them on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and more. The same clients who purchased or rented a property through you, can also buy home products through your website.
5. Ebook
In addition to selling your photos on stock sites, you can also create an ebook with the photos. It can be an ebook of living room decoration ideas, inspirations for bedrooms, or a real estate guide book.
The cost to create an ebook is definitely cheaper than a physical book. The main bulk of the cost is time as it requires your experience, and time to compile and edit the ebook.
My first ebook was a real estate career guide book from my personal experiences, and I sell it on Amazon KDP and Shopee. Amazon KDP practices royalty structure. Authors receive either 35% or 70% of the list price. On Shopee, sellers are charged between 1% to 2% commission fee on the list price. Nett of the list price after deducting the commission fee, is the seller’s ebook profit.
6. Medium
Lastly, how can I not talk about Medium? Medium is a site which I feel is not given much credit and recognition for what it offers.
You can write about your real estate experiences, real estate horror stories, etc. As readers read your stories, you get paid from their reading. The more and longer they read, the more you earn.
Initially, I was real estate-focused. My stories were mainly centered around real estate topics: 9 Common Objections in Real Estate and How to Overcome Them, 8 Lessons I Learned in My Real Estate Career, and How to Shock the Junk Mail System.
Over time, as I became more involved, joined a few publications, and wrote more — my topics grew beyond real estate. I also covered social media and personal development topics.
Summary
Hence, these are the Work From Home ways to make money online, in addition to or as an alternative to selling, renting, and managing properties. Even if you’re not a realtor, these can also apply to you. They can also be your 6 income streams, in addition to and more than what you’re doing now.