Becoming licensed as a Mortgage Loan Officer and also as RE Agent

[Victor Drazen]

Hello,

This is my first post, so I hope it complies with the rules. I've been doing a lot of digging and reading everything I can. I am about to close and acquire on my first multi-family investment property (Hartford, CT), and had a question about the licenses in the title of this post as an investment in future dealings. Having jumped into the deep end of the pool, I am exposed to all of the agents that skim off a real estate transaction: real-estate agent, loan originators, attorney/title fees, appraisers, etc. (Note: I am not disparaging the valuable work a lot of these agents do by any means; everyone deserves to charge what they believe they are worth).

 I'm wondering if I can integrate these all under one person (myself) and therefore absorb all of the costs by eliminating these middlemen. It makes sense in the plan in my mind, but I really wanted to run it by the more experienced and nuanced folks who frequent this community.

I am looking to my next deal later this year (another buy-and-hold multi-family 3-unit), and before that time I would like to become licensed as a (Residential Mortgage) Loan Originator, and as a Real Estate Agent. Supposing that my sponsoring brokers hired me as an independent contractor and gave me favorable terms such as:

Loan Originator: No fees/no salary/Split commissions: 3% of loan amount and split: 85% originator (me): 15% Broker (employer)

RE Agent: same, but 3% of sale price split 50-50 with RE Broker.

If I were to act as just the buyer's agent and loan originator, at a $300,000 sale with 25% down, I would be looking at pocketing 300000*.75*.03*.85= $5737 (loan) + 300000*.015=$4500 (RE agent) = ~$10000 or a full 3.4% of sale price.

On top of all of this, I am looking to act in these capacities entirely as my own agent - not to service others' sales. That would include originating my own loans, as well as acting as my own buyer's agent (and, eventually, selling agent).

I understand that there are significant upfront costs, which I estimate at $1000 per license just to get licensed at all, as well as 21+60 hours of classes and exams, etc. And then the hassles and costs of annual continuing education. For argument's sake let us estimate the total costs at $5000 for the first year for both.

It all seems very straightforward and something that is a no-brainier for someone who wants to start doing multiple investments per year. That 10k per transaction that I save will go into future properties and it will be a great cycle of investment.

Again, this is my first post and I wanted to find out what you all thought; your insights are invaluable.

Thanks!