Realtor AND Investor?

[Account Closed]

Hi Everyone, 

I'm curious if any of you have an opinion about being both a practicing Realtor and a real estate investor. I know some people have a license only (no clients) in order to have a competitive advantage in buying their own properties, but are there pros and cons in both having clients and investing in your own property? Maybe there's already an obvious ruling on this that I'm not aware of, but would you lose clients? Would you lose trust? Or would you just broaden the scope of your success?

[Russell Brazil]

I'm both a Realtor and an investor. The pros are I have a much better understanding of the market being a full time realtor than someone who is only an investor.  I know when the market is changing, I know what buyers are looking for and I know that as those things are changing. I know what neighborhoods are heating up and which ones are cooling down. You just have a much better sense of the market.

The only con I see is time. But I'm primarily a buy and hold.investor, so it doesn't take up all that much time.