Newly-Licensed Broker in IL Looking for Brokerages to Join

[Nicole R.]

Hello all,

I've recently passed the Illinois broker's exam to faciliate my real estate investing. I have been interviewing brokerages to get a feel for what would be the right fit for me.

Background: I have a full-time day job and will be using my license for personal use only; I am not looking to build a business of buyers/sellers. Most of the brokerages I've interviewed have two options that fit with my part-time status: 1) hold my license in an LLC (receive referral fees only) or 2) work on a 75/25 commission split with higher "desk" fees and will allow 1 personal sale per year commission free. The first option doesn't work for me because I want to be able to move to a managing broker and that will not be considered the active practice of real estate. I've targeted some smaller brokerages and have interviews set up next week--I'm hoping these businesses will be more amenable to working with a PT broker mainly interested in investment properties only.

Question: I'm looking for a brokerage with low fees to gain access to the MLS because I will only be using this license on a PT basis. Any suggestions/advice would be very helpful.

Thank you in advance for you help!