Last summer, after being tired of trying to find a Real Estate Agent to work with, I decided to just get my own license. Which I accomplished by September and then signed on with a very small broker. For those not aware, in order to do anything as a RE Agent you have to hang your license with a broker. If you don’t hang your license you can not have any of the benefits of being a Sales Agent like
- MLS access
- Getting The Magic House Key
- Getting Referral Fees (legally)
- Listing Properties
- Making Commissions
Those are just some of the benefits for having your license as an investor. There are some disadvantages like having to abide by the Realtor Code of Ethics (that’s actually a good idea for a post on another day), but to my the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.
Getting back to the purpose of this post. I interviewed 4 different brokerages back then and decided I wanted to join the smaller broker because I’d get the ultimate in freedom it and had a direct link to a group of investors. My expectations where that I would be able to get some training on Real Estate Agent stuff like writing up offers, leveraging the MLS and properly doing a CMA (market analysis). To me, these would have all been useful for my investing career.
Unfortunately I’ve yet to get any of that training and I’ve actually had a very hard time even getting in contact with the broker over the past 6 months. This is in no way the brokers fault or mine as we both have made efforts to get together but our schedules just never synced up. He is the only employee in his company so he is running around like crazy, and I don’t blame him for not making the time to train someone who is only hanging their license with them and has alternate goals. The broker is a really nice guy, but I think it’s time to part ways.
So yesterday I called up the broker at Executive Realty (this was my second choice back in fall) and we are going to get together next week to talk about bringing me aboard. The location of this place is more convenient for me as it’s on the way home from my JOB (the other place was a rough ride during rush hour let me tell ya!).
Other Benefits of Executive Realty
- Established brokerage with a track record for dealing with investors (has a few on staff)
- Better networking opportunity with in house Sales Agents
- Training System already setup for new agents
- 70/30 Agent split
- Marketing material readily available
What I Learned
I learned a decent amount from this experience in terms of what I really needed out of a brokerage. To be honest I thought I new more then I did and that I really didn’t need that much help. Have you ever heard the adage You don’t know what you don’t know, until you try to do it? Doing realtor type tasks seemed easy and self explanatory on the surface but as I got into trying some of the tasks I realized I needed some help. Unfortunately my old broker didn’t have the time to help me out (and there were no other agents on staff to help either) so I’m moving on to a situation that will better fit my needs.
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Comments 5
Go for the Broker which has a contract with Fannie Mae or Bank with the most REO listings.. They seem to be getting all the action and are the ones upto date operating in this market..
Well you live and you learn Scott, right? When I started I went with Keller Williams because a) they are very into training agents b) all of the agents were willing to help out and c) they are very investor friendly.
I since left to join a small, local broker. Just because it was closer to me…had nothing to do really with KW as a company…well the fees were a lil more but the commission split was decent (new place is 80/20.)
Anyway, just wanted to make a comment about what you said above…..real estate agents do not have to abide by the Realtors code of ethics…..Realtors do. Most folks not involved in real estate automatically assume that all real estate agents are Realtors but that's not so. You have to join the special “Realtor” club (i.e. pay extra dues) to be considered a Realtor and to be allowed to use that title.
Just wanted to make those comments for folks that may be new to real estate. So all Realtors are real estate agents, but not all real estate agents are Realtors.
Also, even though real estate agents don't have to techincally abide by the Realtors code of ethics…it's ummm kind of a good idea to do that anyway. lol they are common sense rules……
Good luck with your meeting Scott!
Thanks for clarifying that to my readers Carey. I have a bad habit of saying “Realtors” when I'm talking about sales agents. I guess it's an old habit I got into before I understood what the differences are.
Definitely a great idea mohegan! Thanks for chiming in
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