Ryan,
I know a little bit about this subject because I have the same dream. I would recommend getting a undergraduate degree first before trying to get into commercial real estate.
Getting into the commercial real estate field can be accomplished in a couple of easy steps:
1) Join a real estate club at your college or university, or any real estate groups in the Ontario area. Look online and in the phone book. Which will help you.......
2) Get to know someone in the field, and the chances getting in are EASIER.
3) If you are an undergraduate student right now, start off with an internship(likely to be UNPAID) at a large commerical brokerage firm(CB Richard Ellis, Jones Lang Lasalle, Cushman and Wakefield, Grubb and Ellis are some of the largest firms in the world!).
4) I listed the LARGEST firms, but there are hundreds more smaller firms. Go open a phone book and find out if you want.
5) The internship will help facilitate getting a job after graduation. Then you will be flipping through all the cash stuffed in your wallet while rolling down the road in your Ferrari.
Sounds too easy? First, I will give you the not-so-good news. The commercial real estate broker job(which I assume is what you want) requires sacrifice in the beginning. You know that no ones start at the top, right?
From talking to different commercial brokers here in the US, I found out the average starting salary working underneath a broker is between $20,000-$24,000(USD for you
). Doesn't look that appealing I know. Also, you would have to live off this salary for one to three years until you get a broker's license and enough contacts to start making huge deals. After you become a broker, the green can multiply to infinity. Sweet!
Ready for the good news? The average salary for a commercial broker at Cushman and Wakefield is about $250,000. Not bad, but who makes the most? The top brokers in the US and the world can make millions of dollars. What!!!! Yes, the amount of money you make is determined by YOU.
Here are some good websites to gather information about the commercial real estate biz and real estate in general:
www.creonline.com
www.cushwake.com
www.cbre.com
www.joneslanglasalle.com
www.grubb-ellis.com
I'm not sure how much involvement these firms have in glorious Canada, but I bet each of them at least have one office in Ontario.
Good luck,
JW