Is it worth it to become a licensed real estate agent?

Question

Hi,

I've become very interested in purchasing multi-family properties for rental and have the cash on hand to do so. But, outside of purchasing several homes for my family, I don't have any true real estate experience. I've listened to many BP podcasts and it seems that very few of the people Brandon interviews are (or were) real estate agents.

I'm wondering if it would be worth my time to get my real estate agent license to better understand the entire process/industry. I'm a retired software engineer so I tend to be a little OCD about learning new things as deeply as I can. ;-)

Thank you in advance!

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

well some are Nathan.. but as you say most are not.. its really market dependant.. for instance my wife will sell 10 to 20 million a year year in year out.. for the last 15 years before that prices were lower but she still did 50 sides a year..

for this situation i cant see how this would hurt a retired person who wants to learn heck just take the per licensing curriculum this will give you some base knowledge that you really wont learn on BP.. BP is a rental home investor site with some pay to play educators sprinkled in.

I owe my entire career  good and  BAD to being an agent starting out at 18 and broker at 20.. been a good run.. but as you said was not a bed of roses the entire time.  but it puts you in the game it gets you talking to those doing deals.. but if your goal is to just be a landlord unless your doing some serious buying volume probably not worth the effort. keep in mind its only a few grand a year to keep a licesne what other business can you pay such a small amount and make unlimited money or very good money.. I have owned 3 brokerages over the years.. and 10% of the agents make 70% of the commissions.. there will always be some stars making 500k to 1mil a year .. but those folks would make that kind of money in any business they try they are simply motivated excellent sales folks and top producers.

but i did a pod cast and i am a broker  LOL

Sam Shueh · Answer

People carry a number of licenses not they are all practicing all of it.  My CPA has 5 licenses and he gave advice in related fields.   Real estate is a last career for many people because they think they can use it.

Many engineers in Silicon Valley are State licensed engineers as well. Why have it if industry is exempted from it? Well, you use it to submit housing plans. Some realtors here do loan, and were financial planners with 700, 800 etc. licenses. We have a couple realtors in our office have GC licenses as well. One got tired looking for good inspectors he decided to become one(PT).

At last local realtor meetup, several are former prosecutors. All have brokers licenses and can give legal advice.

Dustin Wunderly · Answer

Thank you SO much Jay. I've already queued up Podcast #222 (I'll listen to that next). I worked at Apple, Microsoft, and Intel (starting in the late 90's) and I was super fortunate along the way (due more to lucky timing than outright talent).

I just want to understand the business as much as possible so that I don't make easily avoidable mistakes.

There seems to be a great deal of "you can do this!" (i.e. motivational) material here... whereas I'm I don't need anyone to convince me I can be successful. I want to learn the science of this industry (and I will, eventually). It seems to me that getting my license would be a worthwhile investment even if I never act as a canonical agent.

Thank you again!

Dustin Wunderly · Answer

Thank you Nathan - that's very helpful. I don't want to become an agent to sell... I just didn't know if would help be a better (i.e. more informed) investor. I will _definitely_ search through the forums!

Nathan Gesner · Answer

This is a difficult question for anyone to answer but I will tell you this. You need to sit down with a few real estate brokers or agents and talk to them about the true cost and how much they make. Agents are not raking money hand-over-fist, driving new cars, and jet-setting to their Caribbean vacation home every other month.

If you want to read more, this question has been asked thousands of times and you can find lots of answers utilizing the search bar in the upper-right. This isn't intended to insult or blow you off; just an educational opportunity. :)

Is it worth it to become a licensed real estate agent?

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