Seeking Guidance on Partnering with a Brokerage to Launch a Property Mgt Business

[Aaron Lee]

Hi Everyone,

I’ve searched through the forums and couldn’t quite find a thread that matches my specific situation, so I’m hoping someone here has experience or guidance to offer.

Background & Experience:
I've been a W-2 employee my entire career, but for the past five years, I've been preparing to transition into business ownership. My real estate journey started in 2019 while living in New York, when a business partner and I purchased a distressed property in North Carolina. We successfully BRRRR'd it, but managing from afar was extremely difficult due to high maintenance needs and tenant challenges—so we sold it and walked away with a decent profit.

Since then, I’ve moved to San Francisco (where I purchased a condo), and more recently relocated to Southern California to be closer to family after my son was born. I remodeled and furnished my SF condo and began renting it out as a midterm rental, primarily through Airbnb and Furnished Finder. It’s been cash-flow positive, with strong reviews, minimal vacancy, and runs on a fairly passive system I’ve developed.

My Goal:
Now that I’m local to Orange County/South Bay, I’d like to apply the systems, experience, and insights I’ve gained to launch a property management company focused on both midterm/furnished and traditional long-term rentals. My vision is to scale this into a serious business managing potentially 100+ properties, ideally with a degree of operational independence from the brokerage.

The Challenge:
As many of you know, California law requires property managers to either hold a broker license or operate under a licensed brokerage. Becoming a broker isn’t feasible for me at the moment due to the time and income requirements (I can’t afford to work full-time under a broker for 2 years while supporting a family). Most brokerages also require agents under them to at least hold a salesperson license, which I do not currently have—but am prepared to obtain quickly if there’s a viable partnership path forward.

I’ve started reaching out to brokerages to explore possible partnership or sponsorship arrangements where I could operate under their license and share a portion of the revenue. So far, I’ve contacted four brokerages with no responses yet—still early in the outreach, but I wanted to cast a wider net.

My Ask:

• Has anyone here pursued something similar—launching a property management business under a broker’s license without being a broker yourself?
  
  
• Are there brokerages in California (especially Southern CA) that are known to work with entrepreneurial property managers in this way?
  
  
• What advice do you have for presenting a compelling win-win proposal to a broker?
  
  

Any referrals, insights, or even cautionary tales would be incredibly helpful. 

Thanks in advance!

[Drew Sygit]

Not sure why a broker would be willing to do business with you, given you have almost zero PMC experience and don't even have an agent license.

How well do you understand the potential liabilities you are asking them to assume?