Do I need my real estate license?

[Mikki McConville]

MLS question. I just passed the real estate licensee class and am getting ready to take the test. My only reason for doing this would be to have access to the MLS. However I am getting conflicting and unclear information about this. Many solurces say that you need to get a National Association of Realtors membership to access the MLS. Other people say you just need to be a licensed real estate agent who is associated with a licensed broker. Which is it? I was prepared to associate with a broker and pay those fees, but I have to pay NAR fees and MLS fees on top of it...it may not be as smart as I initially thought! So many of the posts on Bigger Pockets about this topic are very old and I want to make sure that nothing has changed.

[Jonathan Minerick]

@Mikki McConville In California, the state supreme court ruled that requiring an agent to join the Association of Realtors as pre-requisite to MLS access was a violation of antitrust law. So, in California, you do not need to join NAR to get on the MLS.

As a side note, here is a BP post I did about how expensive MLS access is in California and how time consuming a license is: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/9561/55035-what-are-the-costs-and-steps-to-a-california-real-estate-license. 

In most cases, you are better off not getting a license and just using flat fee real estate services and working directly with listing agents. You are more likely to get the deal when there is not an agent on your end (and you won't be claiming the commission as an agent), as the listing agent will make more money by pushing your offer.