At first glance they didn't seem to have much in common. But there they were, sitting around a table, listening to Kathe Weinkam King talk about the joys and hardships of selling real estate.

Mark Pires said he was in danger of losing his job with a rental car company and he needed an alternative.

Ann Greenwood said her youngest child was going off to college this year. And after being retired from the Fairfax County Public Schools for a while she felt that she needed something to do.

Susan Beal has always had jobs where she's had to deal with people, either with the Census Bureau, with Washington Gas or as a social worker.

"I've always worn name tags and knocked on doors," she said.

They listened as King, a Realtor with Weichert, told stories of real estate's lucrative opportunities mixed in with tales of caution about the amount of work involved.

They looked at ads in local papers announcing the region's top real estate producers.

They asked questions.

"Certainly I don't think anybody should get into this career thinking it is a fast dollar but with working hard and good follow-up and a good work ethic you can be very successful within a year or two," said King. It also helped to be self-motivated and upbeat, she added. Because agents are paid based on how much they sell, it can be very difficult to earn a paycheck some months.

"It's scary to work on commission, no doubt about it," said King.

Roz Drayer has been a real estate agent for a little over two years and is a top seller in the country, according to King. Drayer said that she got into real estate after she and her husband moved to the United States. A native of Britain, Drayer has lived in Yugoslavia and Berlin with her husband, who works for the U.S. Foreign Service.

"I needed some money," she said. "I didn't want to work a 9 to 5 job." Some weeks she'll put in 120 hours of work while other weeks cap out at 20, she said.

"It is tough but luckily most of the people I'm dealing with have been really nice and friendly," she said.

THE FOUR POTENTIAL real estate agents were attending a seminar held last Friday at Weichert's Vienna office to recruit new agents. If the four decide to pursue a real estate career, they will join a crowded field. With home sales the only bright spot in a sluggish economy, many workers are signing up. Real estate sales agents are paid a commission when a sale is complete on a property.

According to state statistics, the number of people who take the real estate licensing exam in Virginia has more than doubled between 1998 and 2002 from 3,386 five years ago to 7,085 last year. So far this year, nearly 4,000 people have taken the exam.

"We are seeing probably our membership increasing by about 150 to 200 members a month over the last many months," said Esther Pryor, a Realtor with Avery Hess who is the current president of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. "It used to be people would come in as a second career or as a part-time career. Now we're seeing younger people coming to it as a profession."

Many laid-off high-tech workers have found a home in real estate, as well. King recalled a meeting at NVAR early this year where as many as a third of the participants had come from high-tech fields.

For her part, King said she came to real estate in 1990. She got her license while she was working as a defense contractor, thinking she might get into real estate as a part-time job. But then she lost her position with the contractor and went to real estate full time.

"It was such a good feeling to go to work every day knowing that if I worked hard and I was pulling my weight, knowing that nobody was going to say: 'We're going to cut back,'" she recalled. At first she considered applying for other contracting jobs. "I couldn't even bring myself to go to interviews," she said. "You walk into those buildings with those gray walls. It's so stifling."

AS THE SEMINAR wound down, King told her listeners the next step would be to sign up for a class. She handed out coupons offering discounts to the class. Not everyone was ready to commit.

"I'm not sure that this is something that's for me yet," said Pires. Although he added: "It would be kind of exciting to be able to sell houses in two or three months."

Job stability would be nice too, he added. Two years ago, Pires sold his house in Loudoun County and moved to Connecticut. He put the money from the house in the stock market, which turned out to be a mistake. Then he took on a project at work that made him travel all over the country. Now with his career with the car rental company in jeopardy, he is living with his parents in Oak Hill and looking for another job.

Beal, who was also affected by the stock market downturn, was more enthusiastic. "I love classes," she said. "How could it hurt me?"