Should I become my own Real Estate agent

[Dion J.]

Should I become my own Real Estate agent if I am rehabbing house does anyone know the pros and cons?

[Aaron McGinnis]

I have both a RE License and a GC license. I am my own agent and my own GC, so this is a topic near and dear to my heart.

Pros: Direct Access to the MLS, pay yourself on the buy and on the sell. Total control of the listing process.

Cons: You may not be able to sell a house as effectively as a full-time agent who advertises heavily in the area. This is the biggest issue IMO.

More time commitment. You need to invest in advertising tools to sell the house on the back end. You'll need to work at advertising the house. It's not nearly as hands-off as just handing the listing over to a good agent. If you're busy in other parts of your business, it can be hard to focus on selling houses.

If you're buying for yourself, you'll probably have to fight a few listing agents who will want to stiff you out of your commission because "Agent is buyer and therefore not entitled to a commission" (I really get angry over this, and YES agents try it all the time!)

You need more disclosure. You need to disclose that you're buying for yourself, and that the "Listing agent is owner"

Some people, for some reason, will sometimes feel that there is something fishy about a guy who can buy, list, and rehab properties for himself. IMO, this just means that you need to go beyond average in being professional and turning out an excellent product... and treating your retail buyers like minted gold.