Real Estate Agent Liscense

[Whitney Holt]

I'm working on a portfolio that's a mix of buy & hold and fix & flip in Houston- I'm considering getting my own real estate agent license to increase my knowledge of and access to what my agent has been doing for me (listing houses, negotiations, showing houses, etc). Don't get me wrong- she's great, but of my motivation, I know no one will fight for me to get exactly what I want in negotiations more than I will. Added bonus would also obviously be "saving" 3% on each purchase or sale (even though I know it's not that straight forward unless I do a FSBO which I shy away from because I've always heard MLS listed houses get more traffic and therefore higher sale prices).

Here's my question though- I know I have to be attached to a broker to list on MLS, but does anyone know if there are brokers that are okay with me doing this only part time and only on my own properties?

This is all a relatively new idea to me, so if this is a poorly thought out plan, I’m very open to feedback. Google didn’t have a perfectly straight up answer for me though so I figured it would at least make sense to get a feel over here before going down the rabbit hole too much further.

[Mindy Jensen]

@Whitney Holt, I got licensed for the same reason. I now enjoy working in that capacity, so I do when the opportunity arises, but I'm still able to view properties when I want to, make my own offers, etc.

However

There are costs associated with getting (and keeping) your license. Depending on your state, it can run into the thousands of dollars. 

I wrote this article a few years ago, so the costs have changed but it's still a good accounting of the things you may not realize you'll need to pay for in the beginning...