Michigan Real Estate License under a Contractor

[Mary Cavanagh]

Good afternoon, 

I was approached at work today by the owner of our company, asked me to move forward with taking my exam, study 2 years to become a broker and partner with him. I need some help on making all that happen. 

Little background:  We are a non-profit that works with a construction agency to buy homes from tax foreclosures or municipalities. I work very closely to our one main General Contractor. I have expressed interest in wanting to become a real estate agent for my company and took the classes to qualify. I have not taken the test yet because after taking the classes, I was under the impression I would need to find a broker (i.e. Century 21 or Re/Max) which has made me wait a little to actually take my exam.

My coworker approached me a couple days ago and said, I can actually get my license and use my General Contractor as my broker instead of working underneath real estate companies and paying all the fees. I am curious as to if that is true, is there anything that would be different if I went with my GC. In addition, would it be any different licensing procedure (i.e. would I be putting my General Contractors information in replace of a broker)? 

Also, once passing my Exam, am I able to work with my company and General Contractor and when we have  home that needs to be sold, I would be able to handle it directly, get commission and not have to be under another company name for my license. Please if anyone knows of this process or how this works, let me know! 

Thanks!!!