Investor looking to get brokers license & create a "company"

[Bob Johnson]

Long time lurker, second time poster, please be kind! :)

Back story - I own a number of SFR properties in California, and they cash flow to a point where it's my full time gig now and thus I am a full time real estate investor after a couple decades of getting beat up on Wall Street.

Being the entrepreneurial guy I am though, I'm looking to get my broker's license so I can freely buy, sell, and look at properties on my own rather than having to line up one of my agents to let me into a new to market property that usually gets sold before I can get in there to scope it out.  Saving commissions also on the benefits list, as most of what I'm looking at is over $1 million.

I already have an LLC for my investment holding company, no problem there, will probably use serial LLC's under that for the brokerage and individual future investments, which I am looking to expand to commercial and land/development.

Now, I took a couple real estate classes during my under/post-graduate years, will this usually enable me to bypass the agent exam and move straight to the brokerage one?

And if no luck there, I assume I have to take the agent classes, pass the CA. test, and wait it out 2 years? I would be using Allied, PrepAgent or License Solution for the classes probably (no real need for mentoring on how to sell/build the biz as this is for me and partners only), but I would need to find a brokerage on the same page as me - a low cost, low hassle solution with MLS access for a guy that might have 1 transaction a year tops until I get my broker's license.

Any suggestions/help would be appreciated, especially from investor/brokers, thank you!