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.