Should I become a realtor?
Let me start by saying that I did get my real estate license. There are two schools of thought here.
,
Method #1 - Spend your time doing what you do best. Part of me says that I am better off spending my time practicing law rather than scanning MLS. Pay the professionals to do what they do best.
,
I started this way for my first year. But, here were the problems:
- My agent wasn't bringing me any deals. They relied on my looking on realtor.com and telling them what I wanted to see.
- I felt bad asking my agent to run comps on different properties on a daily basis, but I couldn't run them myself.
- I felt bad asking my agent to show me a bunch of low priced homes until I found the right one.
- Sometimes I had to wait 24 hours to get an offer submitted.
- I felt bad giving away an entire months rent to have a property listed for rent on MLS.
- When I found a hot property, it was sometimes three das before I could view the property and by the time it was gone.
- Last and not least, all of this cost me 3%!!!
So, I went to method #2 - Get my real estate license. Now, it looks like this:
- I see listings as soon as they come one the market.
- I can run the comps immediately to verify that they are a good deal
- I can see the property anytime I want,
- I can submit an offer before my competition.
- I keep the 3%
- I keep 1/2 months rent or more when I list properties for rent on the MLS.
Moral of the Story is that I just got my first check for $4,200 today when we closed on our third home! This goes a long way to a down payment on my fourth home!
.
Cash is the limiting factor in our investing. So why not save some wherever you can.
Comments (6)
Thanks for creating this post. My husband and I are new to investing and this is one of the first questions we asked ourselves.
Tiffany Green-Abdullah, over 10 years ago
I have contemplated obtaining my RE license for 2 years now and recently came to the conclusion you eluded to above. My RE agent is a close friend and even he said that I should get my license based on my REI business plan. I agree that there is a time and a place for allowing the professionals do their job, but time is money and I don't like wasting either.
Drew McIntyre, over 10 years ago
Thanks Deidra! You just inspired me to do what I thought was a good idea! Which company did you use for the course?
Denise Mayo-Walley, over 10 years ago
I am in a similar spot right now too. I am looking to buy through my RE agent but she is so busy that we haven't gone out to look at houses and its been 3 weeks since I first contacted her. I am thinking to get my license as well, as this is taking too long!
Andrea Kugelman, over 10 years ago
I have my license only for facilitating my own investing. It is ridiculously valuable to me for all the reasons you mentioned and more. I fully respect anyones decision to not get one, but the arguments I hear have never sounded the least bit compelling.
Shaun Reilly, over 10 years ago
Hi Shaun,
Quick question. I read your comment surrounding yourself getting your real estate license for the purpose of MLS access and being able to do much of the research without a real estate agent. Once you have a license, can you automatically sign up for MLS or do you have to be affiliated with a broker? I am very new to all this and am just scratching the surface of real estate and investing and am trying to gobble up all the information I can get.
Thanks!
Kyle
Kyle Cabral, over 10 years ago