Thinking of leaving Real Estate and going into Tech Sales as SDR or AE. Has anyone else made that transition? Am I making a mistake?

Hi All,

I am so tired of being on 24/7 from real estate and want to make a change. Constantly having late night and weekend showings, up all night working on offers, constant last minute urgent inquiries from clients... I'm burned out. Texts coming in from as early as 7AM to as late as midnight-3AM.

I have realized it may be more than just setting boundaries, and this is a core part of the job. Nights and weekends are always spent working. The biggest thing is I used to have a mentality of "grind now so I can relax later in life", but now I question if my attitude is really the right approach to life. I feel like all I do is work, and it's all I've done is work this year. I constantly miss out on things in my personal life, and I feel this is a waste of my prime years. I have missed multiple of my friends birthdays, time with family, cancelled on dates, and even missed a friends funeral this year. Even when I do get a chance to do those things, I do not feel fully present, since at a moments notice a client may need me and I have to be glued to my phone. Friends honestly don't even really invite me out anymore since they just assume I'm busy on weekends (which I always am). I even had to work on my birthday, and missed out on plans to spend time with family and friends. It sucks more when the buyer doesn't even get the home so I feel like I worked and sacrificed for nothing. I worked both New Years Eve and New Years day this year. I hear horror stories about how Real Estate has ruined marriages, or parents miss out on their children's lives since they are not present. My father always worked and was pretty absent in my childhood, so the thought of this being me terrifies me.

The market does not help either. I live in a HCOL, very competitive area, so homes can very easily go within 24 hours, most sell in 4-6 days, and if they have an offer review date, there will be bidding and multiple offers. A home a buyer sent me came on the market on a Thursday, and had an offer review date for following Wednesday. Mid Thursday, the agent moved up the date to the same day and asked for all offers to be submitted by EOD. It got 22 offers total, and sold 150k over ask. I have thought maybe it is something I can improve in myself and set firm boundaries with clients to my on/off hours and availability, but in a market like this, an off day for me (or even just an evening off) could mean the client loses opportunity for a home. With interest rates dropping and more buyers entering market, and inventory going down due to seasonality, I only see this situation becoming more and more common in the next few months.

I feel a lot of negative feelings about being a realtor in general. The long hours, constantly being on call, having to drive a million miles and always sit in traffic (since buyers want to see homes at 4-5PM after theyre done with work), the constant stress, and the inability to travel (since if I leave for a weekend, buyers will miss out on homes that week). Even when I have travelled and had another team member cover, I have had to respond to client messages and still work. It feels like the work never ends and I cannot escape it. I would much rather prefer a remote or hybrid job that has more flexibility.

I am looking for something remote, where I can get a base salary, disconnect on off hours/weekends, and travel. I am relatively successful (most people leave the industry due to not enough clients- not the case for me) but just seem to have dissatisfaction with core aspects of the job. I don't mind sales and talking to people, but god would I love to disconnect and take a day off. I usually work 7 days a week.

I have a friend in tech sales and I am honestly jealous of his life. It seems the work is much more manageable and he can take weekends and nights off and disconnect. He is remote, so he can travel as well. Is this common for SDR/AE?

Is Tech Sales a good fit? Is the work life balance better? Has anyone made the move from RE to Tech Sales or vice versa? Am I making a mistake by leaving my successful career now for pursuit of a better work life balance?

TLDR; I am successful realtor but burnt out. Ok taking a pay cut and thinking SDR or AE may be better career path with better work life balance.