Real estate license benefits or drawbacks

[Austin J.]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet. My best friend and I are newbies to real estate investing but are very serious and focused on scaling and building wealth. My friend is a business owner and has no shortage of capital. I am saving to split a down payment with him to acquire my first property and besides that and being someone he trusts, I don't bring much value to him. Would it be worth it for him to pay for me to get my real estate license? How would me having my license benefit our future endeavors? How much could i help our team by attaining this license and how much money could I potentially save him by becoming an agent? Assuming He wants to buy one multifamily property per month. Located in ohio. Thanks for any and all advice! 

[Matthew Sullivan]

Hi Austin!

This is a great question. I'll be honest with you I questioned for a while if I should get my real estate license. But my logic for getting it was this..I'll have more book knowledge about real estate. This helps big time because I learned a lot of laws in the course and also have a better understanding about fancy terms used in real estate, the mortgage process, buying process, selling process, etc. I would recommend any real estate investor to have their real estate license even if there's no intent to practice as an agent for the mere fact the education will never go to waste from the course. Another benefit to being an agent is - if or when yu have the capital to purchase your own investments you can receive full commission from the buying side which could cover your closing costs and some carrying costs and then when you go to sell your investments you make more money from the sake side which the commission from the sale can also cover your carrying expenses and other incurred expenses. You'll also have access to multiple listing and other public records sources that can be advantageous to determining where to invest- and the information will be more accurate than zillow. The downside to being an agent as an investor is that you have to disclose (at least in NY) that you're an agent when acting in the hands of an investor and vice versa for disclosing agent or investor. As an agent you can do your own paperwork for making offers and sending in paperwork but you risk the real estate firms name being jeopardized from the types of deals you do depending on the image the broker firm holds. I hope this lengthy insight helps as this is what  I have learned thus far as a new investor and experienced agent.