Consequences of being a Realtor and REI

[Bo Goebel]

Hey BP,

I have talked with several investors who advised me to attain a real estate license as a means of gaining access to the MLS and as a means of improving credibility. I am not interested in working as a traditional realtor, and I would much rather leverage a highly-qualified broker/team member. So, two part question..

1. Is there any legal ramifications of serving as a broker and REI? (any extra disclosures when dealing with sellers?)

2. Would you advise a part-time investor who is going to transition to full-time investor within 18 months to pursue a broker's license? I am primarily looking to move directly into multifamily, especially commercial multifamily.

Thank you all in advance. You guys are AWESOME. 

Respectfully,

Bo

[Jim Goebel]

@Bo Goebel

Hi Bo and welcome.  I mainly am responding because I thought it was cool we have the same last name.  Likely no relation but I do have some family members in the military.  One of them is Bob and for a split second I thought, maybe that's Bob and he forgot the 'B'.

I don't have a ton of value to offer on your question however we have investigated getting the real estate license as you are discussing because we are primarily investors.  Anyways, time constraints have gotten in the way but I did get the feedback that it's feasible and depending on the broker there shouldn't be an issue.  They still get a cut of the buyers' commission that you'd have to negotiate with the broker.

Other people will know this better than me, but on your #1 question my understanding is that becoming a broker is like a lot of licensed things - you have to put in the time and get another broker to sign off on your time.

#2 - I would because you can save a lot on commissions over the years depending on the volume you're going to do - and I'd assume that your networking opportunities would be different (not better necessarily) with going the broker route.  I'd recommend talking to more people to understand the advantages and disadvantages of that.  For me personally I find more intrinsic satisfaction (at least currently) as being more involved in the projects in engineering etc.  My assumption would be you'd be rubbing shoulders with more agents as a broker.