Why get your Real Estate License

Now if you want to become a traditional Realtor, then you MUST have your License.  But if you don't want deal with clients and showings or don't have the time, it still makes sense to get your Real Estate License.  And the reason can be summed up in two words... REFERRAL FEE!

Now we buy and/or sell 4-8 properties every month and I make my income by having others do all the work.  When we locate a property we want to buy, we find a local agent that can do the paperwork and the stuff we need.  While we interview each agent, I mention that I'm an agent in GA and I usually get 35% referral fee.  Sometimes they negotiate it to 25-30% and depending on the work they do, I'm OK with that.  If they say that they don't pay referral fees, then I thank them for their time and the interview is over.  I usually make about 1% of every dollar of purchase AND sales prices.

Another great feature about Referral Fees are that you get them for transactions in every state.  That means that if your sister wants to buy a house in MO and you live in IL, you can still get a commission on it.  Even if your sister was going with the agent anyway. So you can tell all friends and family and they would be able to hook you up b/c it doesn't cost them anymore.  Who knows, they might get a gift card out of it ;).

I know not everyone buys or sells as many properties as we do (and there are some that do much more volume) but most people's goals are to buy at least one property a year.  If it is in the same state that you have the license registered in, then you keep the full commission.  Not to mention, you get to see all the private remarks in the MLS and you can get access to every property without scheduling it with your agent.

If it costs about $750/year for my license active, you should think of this as an annuity.