New licensee starting in short sales

[Christopher W.]

I have a real estate salesperson license but am not practicing or affiliated with any broker. I am looking to get started in short sales and have a partner who will negotiate the shorts with the lenders. Basically, I will bring the short sales leads and they will do the negotiating. We will flip the house and split the profit. This arrangement is ok but I know that I have to disclose that I have a real estate license to everyone involved. I was just looking to get more information on this.

How exactly do I disclose that I have a license? Does the seller have to sign something or is there a form to fill out?

If I eventually do affiliate myself with a broker and am working with a Realtor to get the leads, can I collect a commission and split the profit from the flip?

Any licensed agents doing this sort of thing? I’m just looking to get some direction on what I can and can’t do.

Like I said I’m not affiliated with a broker so I don’t have someone I can ask. Any help is appreciated!

[Moe M.]

Since you haven't hung your license with a broker as Ralph suggested you probably can't represent as a listing agent. But what you can do if you're not going to use an agent is to put a Loss Mitigation fee in there for yourself, and put in seller's concession on the HUD-1. Since banks are accustomed to paying 5% commission, realistically they don't care if that 5% is going to an agent or non-agent, just make sure when you put in your offer that it's included on the HUD-1 properly -- because if you don't, then it will be a pain for escrow to pay it out the way you planned.

Moe