Large up front fees (beyond maybe a few 100 in appraisal fees) are a red flag that they may not be legit.

I ask, because having previous experience and my background, I know the business is thriving, making it worth paying for.Would a banks oversee the taxes if I put a legit business plan with an executive summary together?

It is good to have an re licence under your belt for many reasons.. it makes you more legit on your portfolio.

How do you vet someone from the Marketplace to find out if their legit?

companyid=92005314I've heard stories about a couple really po'd guys making a big stink about being turned down by MGM, but from what I can tell, as long as you read your contracts, the biz is legit.

Good point Bryan, I'm down in Southern CA and the quality/quantity of RE clubs is a little overwhelming/intimidating, especially with the dues involved.I was thinking of maybe organizing a speed networking session (followed by an hour or so of normal networking) of a good mix of newbies, experts, and non-shady service providers (legit real estate lawyers/tax advisers etc).

Do they have legit customer support to call on?

It wastes my time, the other agents time and the buyer and sellers time as I need to present all offers.If I was going to go to a casino to gamble (I don't), I could keep putting money into a slot machine and I might hit a big one but will probably go home broke. 

I'm sure there's some legit buyers in those facebook groups but most cash buyers aren't as active on social media as people like to think.

it's not the influence thing that i care about....let me try to get away from the whole influence point system...it's more about helping people, and also about vetting new colleagues in business...when a newbie asks to be your colleague, nick, they undoubtedly see your profile and your voting history on that profle...that doesn't tell them much about you as a real estate investor...it would be more compelling to have the links where people voted for your posts, on your profile..then they could see that you seem legit and know a little about real estate, and also be pointed direclty to these posts of yours (through the links) where you had some good things to say...it'd be your hall of fame of posts lol