Property Management Broker Search

[Blake Baker]

I am in the midst of starting a PM company in Utah. Here, the law is the all PM companies must employ a broker. I can incorporate my company, but I can't take on clients until I have my RE license connected to a broker.

Does anybody have a good lead for a Broker in Utah that we could hire to help with my business? We have talked to a few national brands and they want a crazy 25% commission from leases. That may be standard if we were selling houses under that brokerage, but we will be strictly in the PM business. 

Thoughts?

[Jeremiah Maughan]

Here are your options if you want to have your own company:

1. Find an active broker who will dual license (create a separate PM company from their existing real estate brokerage) and pay him/her an override.

2. Find an inactive broker who will activate and be your broker of record and pay him/her an override.

3. Find a friend who is an agent who also enough experience to get their broker's license and talk them into getting their license and being your broker...and pay them an override or cut them in as the partner.

All of those require the broker to take on significant risk which is why it is hard to find one.  Most brokers don't like to get into PM because you can screw up PM much more easily than you can real estate sales. Your best bet is to go to the Division of Real Estate's website and download the list of brokers (from the look up a license section under real estate), sort for inactive brokers, and start calling or sending them letters.

If you're okay giving up (temporarily) on your dreams of having your own company, then call brokers/brokerages until you find one that will let you hang your license with their existing brokerage but do property management under them (they will charge some portion based on how much work they do versus you do).  However, this has the same issues as above, with risk and all.

The final option is to hang with a shop like mine, that is, a brokerage specifically designed for managers with their own portfolios.  It won't be your company, and yes, the splits are pretty big because of the amount of office support delivered in the property management space, but you can pre-negotiate a buyout if you want to go on your own in three years when you get your license.