Real estate is as much about who you know as what you know. Unlike corporate law and public accounting, the technical learning curve for real estate is pretty mild. Particularly on the residential side, stay-at-home parents with limited higher education and work experience have been known to build lucrative real estate careers. The ones able to turn a side career into a strong income tend to share a common trait: They know a lot of people. While commercial real estate tends to require more of a full-time focus, networking matters just as much or more as having specific industry knowledge.

Career changers coming from other fields should use this question as an opportunity to highlight the connections they have made and detail a plan to leverage these connections for real estate leads. If you are a recent graduate, a young professional with limited work experience or you have yet to amass a long list of professional contacts, tell your interviewer how you plan to make connections once you are hired, such as joining networking groups or the chamber of commerce.