Becoming a Real Estate Agent and Managing Your own Properties

[Wesley Smith]

I live in Virginia. I have 5 homes that I manage myself. I'll be getting my real estate license in a few months. My question is. Do I legally have to run my personal rental agreements through my brokerage and pay them a fee on my own deals. I like to use Craigslist to market my homes, and would rather not list them on the MLS.

[Kevin Tran]

In Texas, you must be licensed to a property manager, which in turn requires you to be sponsored by a broker.  My current brokerage does not allow property management, so I would suggest you check into that first.  An exemption to the "must be licensed" rule is if you're managing your own property or being paid a salary by a property owner directly.  Both of which do not involve your sponsoring broker.  

So based on Texas law, you'd be ok if you stick to managing your own properties ONLY and not co-mingling that PM activities (and funds) with your other real estate activities through your broker.  Hope that helps.