Contract with Keller Williams as a business?

Question

Hey, I've decided to take a different angle to enter the real estate market. Becoming an agent will solve several problems I faced as a wholesaler. Plus, I'm migrating to real estate from being a full-time Software engineering Contractor, so I have the aptitude for building a contracting business.

To protect myself, I plan to operate my new real estate contracting business as a business, and not under my personal name. That will afford me asset protection, anonymity, and to some extent, tax benefits. (Ex. Car bills or mileage)

I chose Keller Williams because they are well known for their excellent training programs, but I've heard that sometimes agencies don't like to contract you under a business name. Sometimes you need to put your name in your business name to get them to make an exception.

Does Keller Williams allow agents to contract with them as a business? I'd appreciate it if you post a link to where I can read more about their policy on this.

Timothy Tooker · Answer

@Rick MacGills

I work for KW in Tacoma Washington and KW pays my commissions to my LLC.

Account Closed · Answer

@Rick MacGills are you looking to setup your own brokerage under an LLC name or have you listed as an independent contractor as an agent under your LLC?

Rick MacGills · Answer

@Timothy Grothuesmann I'll call the Division of Real Estate tomorrow. Thanks for your help.

Timothy Tooker · Answer

My advice is to check with your state's Department of Licensing to see what rules they have regarding names for real estate companies.

Rick MacGills · Answer

@Timothy Grothuesmann Perfect. That's what I was wondering. Does your LLC have your name in it's name or is it an arbitrary name? (Ex. Keller Williams, or McDonalds versus Bigger Pockets or Vista Print)

Rick MacGills · Answer

@Michael The latter.

Rick MacGills · Answer

I'm not looking for wholesale training; I've already completed that. Being an agent will help me avoid problems I was facing with the market in wholesaling.

Brett Synicky · Answer

Even though it sounds like you've made up your mind, in my opinion, you're better off with an Independant where you get to keep most of your $$. Especially since you plan to approach real estate in a non traditional sense. You won't get training on wholesaling at KW unless you join a team that already specializes in that. If you haven't already, talk to a cpa about the set up of your biz. Unless you're engaging in super risky stuff, your e&o and a nice personal umbrella policy should be just fine. Your state will have rules set by your bureau of real estate about how you can use a team/business name as a licensed real estate agent. I can't imagine a brokerage telling you that you can't have an SCorp or something like that since you're an independant contractor.

Either way, best of luck.

Contract with Keller Williams as a business?

Contract with Keller Williams as a business?

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