Should I get my real estate liscense

Question

Looking to buy houses at auction and through wholesalers in the state of Michigan. Should I get an attorney or would it be worth me investing in my realtors license for the buying side of things. Will still have an attorney in my back pocket but keeping as most money to myself if I can makes more sense to me. What are the pros and cons.

Geordy Rostad · Answer

@Madison Loftis

If you are not planning to help others buy and sell real estate, it probably does not make sense to go get licensed. There are some cons:

1) You always have to disclose you are a broker. Some people don't trust brokers and won't deal with them. This is part of why wholesaling is a thing.

2) Real estate agents pay a lot of fees to keep that license. You have office dues, local MLS dues, local and national association dues, keybox access fees, clock hour fees, etc. It all can really add up and suck down some of those savings.

3) You won't have an extra set of eyes on your deal. An attorney or broker bring experience to the table that could be helpful.

I would say do some deals first before bothering to get a license. See how all the pieces fit together. Then if you are doing a big volume or decide you have a large sphere of influence you can tap for clients, maybe it makes sense.

Ashraf Spahi · Answer

I think it's worth it. Mainly because the Real Estate sales agent course will teach you a lot about real estate that you may not know about and it'll help you get familiar with your state laws. If you do decide to purchase properties though you may want to have a mentor/lawyer oversee all the contracts as that's where it gets tricky and the agent course doesn't teach you which forms and such to use for specific purchase scenarios or just use another agent for your first few purchases and learn how they do it and maybe get a commission referral fee back from them