@Steve Porcello Congrats! I Started with the exact same motivations! I knew I would be purchasing at least 1-2 homes a year. So I found a discount broker to start with. It is someone who only charges a nominal fee per transaction. They don't do splits or monthly fees etc. Those types expect that you want to do your own thing and don't mind to much if you do to much volume. So I would say find one of those. On the other hand, in my opinion it is really expensive to keep your licensee up if you are not doing at least a couple transactions a year (at least in Utah). Also if you want to get your brokerage license you may want to check how many points you need in addition to the time requirement. The state only gives us a fraction of a point per transaction and you have to have quite a few points in addition to the 3 years here in Utah anyway.
Good and bad about being at a discount broker:
Good: Cheap, and they don't care what you do. You never have to answer to them.
Bad: They also offer very little support in general and don't have huge motivation to help you. :) So you get minimal help on learning good negotiating and actually being good at following deadlines and understanding how to protect your client (yourself) in a transaction.
All I can tell you is that I have experience in both and I find great value by being at a brokerage where I have access to so many amazing minds, it has helped me to become a great agent, for me and for my clients ;)
Best of luck, I believe we all find what works best for us!
