Ever since the advent of a little thing called economics, the principle of scarcity has ensured that land would be a sought-after commodity. What's that got to do with real estate? Everything. Ever since people started to realize they could make huge profits from the stuff they build on the land, real estate developers have created a market around buying, flipping, and selling the best areas to the highest bidder.

A real estate developer makes money by buying land―usually land that's undeveloped or in otherwise bad shape―and making improvements to get it into a condition that makes it more desirable for a prospective buyer. Once the potential they saw in the property has been realized, the developer flips the plot or rents it out for a profit. It's a pretty good gig, too, with a median yearly salary of over $80,000 (source).

 

Sadly, being an "expert Monopoly strategist" isn't official enough to land the job. (Source)

Does that sound appealing? Big real estate firms that are hiring young professionals for this role look for people with training in real estate, law, or accounting. Often, would-be developers will be hired by a firm as a project manager who oversees a property, a financial analyst, or a research associate (source). The skillset of a master developer is very broad, and it takes many years to learn the business sufficiently well to practice it successfully.

So yeah, experience and education are musts. You'll probably want to secure a master's in real estate or real estate development. Whether you specialize in one phase of the real estate development process or work the whole start-to-finish process of flipping a property, social skills are also key. You should enjoy working with others to solve a problem. It also doesn't hurt to be really into money.

There is, however, a very significant risk involved in this line of work. If you buy a patch of land on the Indian coast to build condos on, but don't realize that monsoon season will turn any residential community into a waterpark of death for three months of the year, you just might take a bigger hit than you can afford.

To avoid such devastating blows, the well-rounded real estate developer has to be proficient in finance, marketing, management, and should probably have the keen eye for spotting a diamond property in the rough (source).

Success in this business correlates with a highly active and finely tuned sixth sense for opportunism. If you're hungry enough and don't get caught up in a feeding frenzy—metaphorical or otherwise—you just might become a top shark in the real estate game.

Unfortunately, with the global economy just sort of loping along right now, job growth in this field isn't as high as one might hope. Of course, there are certain sectors that are growing, such as work that revolves around retirement housing (due to the rising average age of the population). Real estate development involves a high amount of risk for these relatively uncertain times.

If the economy continues to improve, though, look for the real estate business to start booming again. If you're keeping your eye out for trends like that, you should have a leg up on the competition in the land development market.

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