Obtaining my real estate license in Virginia…

[Michael Nijhawan]

Hello bigger pockets community! I am a new investor in Virginia; more specifically in Northern Virginia, and I wanted to know if there is a benefit of getting my real estate license to educate myself and also use the real estate license for my investing career/opportunities. Are there any real estate agents in Northern Virginia that can recommend classroom style approved real estate license courses, or would you recommend to do it online? Any advice, guidance, mentoring and information would be most appreciated. I am a cyber security professional by trade and I have a full time cyber architect job and I've got two kids and a wife and lots of family around, so I need to make sure that investing the time and money in getting the Virginia real estate license is worth it. Thanks! 
Michael

[Brandon L.]

@Michael Nijhawan I feel that becoming an agent will give you an edge over every other investor that is not an agent. As Russell said there are fees that you will pay to maintain your license, do not let anyone telling you about these fees scare you away. You will make those fees back with only 1 transaction. 

I would also suggest doing your real estate course online, Specifically with Kaplan Real estate (I am not affiliated with them) The reason I suggest them is you can purchase the PSI practice exams to go with your course. They are the electronic version and you can take them over and over again until you are confident you will pass. The cost for Kaplan is minimal.

I wrote an article for the BP blog that may help you when it comes time to test. click the link below to read:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2016/07/1...

The licensing test will teach you little about being an agent, but since you already have a good job, I am sure you are not looking to sell 100 homes a year. Simply being the person people know, like, and trust in your every day social groups, and any investor meetings you start attending should generate a modest amount of sales per yer that will put some extra cash in your pocket, and take care of those scary fees that Russel is always talking about. 

If you have any other questions feel free to reach out, I love talking about real estate :)