Getting my LICENSE, anyone else doing the same?
Realtor · Athens, GA · Member since 2017 · 336 posts · 123 votes
Hello, my name is Georgui Kasaev I am an investor and I live in Athens Georgia. I have been immersing my self in everything to do with real estate for the last year and it has been a blast.
On 12/30/17 I started my 75-hour pre-licensing course for the Georgia real estate sales license.
I'd like to connect with anyone undergoing any sort of licensing courses in the real estate industry.
Tell me about your field of study, how it's going, what are you planning to use the license for and where do you plan on working?
Would love to connect and build a network of hungry new professionals! Hope you all have a wonderful day and thank you for taking the time to read!
Whether you plan on using your license or not, if you are interested in Real estate and Real Estate investing, it's not one of those things that can hurt. It'll only benefit you. When you get your license, you'll have to join a brokerage in which you'll make contacts with all sorts of Realtors from all sorts of backgrounds. Just that networking opportunity itself and be golden for you. Do it and don't look back!!
@Russell Holmes Man that is awesome! Congrats, love seeing people achieve what they set out to do. I can't wait. I am only about 45% through with my course. So I think I am between Keller Williams and eXp. From the research I have done I am realizing that Keller does a lot of great education post-licensing and they really help you get started in the field. I would love to hear what you and @Travis Konermann have to say about the post-licensing education of eXp and if you guys feel like they are supporting you well in first steps of your new profession. Thank you so much for your time guys. This is been really helpful.
I am 50% of the way done with the Colorado course and am planing on taking my license test in March. I am looking to do homes sells and buys for clients, as well as venture into some fix and flips, once I get established.
Glad you found this post and thank you for chiming in! Who are you thinking of hanging your license with and why?
Thank you for your time!
@Georgui Kasaev The education and support I have been receiving is amazing. I just feel like all the agents at eXp in my MLS are here to support and help me. I go out to our branch office about 2 times a week and sit in on listing meetings and other stuff that is going on and my managing broker sat down and went through an entire purchase agreement and explained every detail to me. I feel like i'm getting a lot of hands on experience and training which is great because that's how I learn best. And the classes on eXp world have been a huge help in getting me familiar with things i didn't even know I needed to be familiar with lol. I have nothing but great things to say about eXp and feel it is a great fit for me and my entrepreneurial style of doing things at my own pace and getting out what I put in.
@Georgui Kasaev - sounds like you're on the right track. Here are a few of my experiences, I hope you find this helpful.
I started as an investor in '03, and continue doing that today. In 2014, I obtained my Real Estate Broker's License(I skipped over the agent's license, taking my agent test and broker's test the same week- if you have enough experience in NY, you can do that, and my investment portfolio gave me more than enough points(by a factor of 10, I believe.) My initial idea was to function as my own buyer's broker, thus saving approximately half of the commission on my own investments. This idea did not work out- it turns out brokers on the other side were so opposed to what I was doing that it undercut several deals and I abandoned this model.
Hoping to salvage all that time I put in, I thought I'd act as a buyer's agent for other investors for deals that weren't quite right for me. It turns out brokering was harder than I thought- I found plenty of properties, but didn't have the clientele. I know how to acquire and operate real estate very well- but I've never been able to market myself! I'm still pretty lousy at that.
Then I wrote a book and was interviewed by @Joe Fairless on his podcast(Hi Joe! Still a fan and listener,) and the book and the podcast interview turned out to be very helpful. At the end of 2015, I had no clients and I was considering not renewing my broker's license when it expired in March of 2016. By March 2016, I'd acted as a buyer's broker on one deal, and had two more in the pipeline which closed in April and May.
So I still consider myself an investor first, second, and third- but I do an increasingly brisk business as a buyer's agent. Now, my challenge is no longer finding clients(I have those,) but it's finding reasonably priced real estate in my target markets. It has gotten much harder to do that over the past year.
It's great to have multiple income streams when one dries up- I recommend staying active in the brokerage business, and expanding into other areas as a hedge in the future.
Michael
@Russell Holmes @Travis Konermann You guys are awesome! Thank you so much for such an amazing breakdown Russell! It sounds like you did a whole lot of research!
Travis, am I understanding you correctly? In addition to having a powerful online structure, they also provide a physical location that you can go to and get advice and more hands-on knowledge?
Also is there MLS proprietary or is it the same as all the agents use in your state?
Thank you guys you have been an amazing resource during this journey!
@Georgui Kasaev - sounds like you're on the right track. Here are a few of my experiences, I hope you find this helpful.
I started as an investor in '03, and continue doing that today. In 2014, I obtained my Real Estate Broker's License(I skipped over the agent's license, taking my agent test and broker's test the same week- if you have enough experience in NY, you can do that, and my investment portfolio gave me more than enough points(by a factor of 10, I believe.) My initial idea was to function as my own buyer's broker, thus saving approximately half of the commission on my own investments. This idea did not work out- it turns out brokers on the other side were so opposed to what I was doing that it undercut several deals and I abandoned this model.
Hoping to salvage all that time I put in, I thought I'd act as a buyer's agent for other investors for deals that weren't quite right for me. It turns out brokering was harder than I thought- I found plenty of properties, but didn't have the clientele. I know how to acquire and operate real estate very well- but I've never been able to market myself! I'm still pretty lousy at that.
Then I wrote a book and was interviewed by @Joe Fairless on his podcast(Hi Joe! Still a fan and listener,) and the book and the podcast interview turned out to be very helpful. At the end of 2015, I had no clients and I was considering not renewing my broker's license when it expired in March of 2016. By March 2016, I'd acted as a buyer's broker on one deal, and had two more in the pipeline which closed in April and May.
So I still consider myself an investor first, second, and third- but I do an increasingly brisk business as a buyer's agent. Now, my challenge is no longer finding clients(I have those,) but it's finding reasonably priced real estate in my target markets. It has gotten much harder to do that over the past year.
It's great to have multiple income streams when one dries up- I recommend staying active in the brokerage business, and expanding into other areas as a hedge in the future.
Michael
Oh wow thank you so much for letting me learn from your experience! I loved reading that, it was a complete twist ending. The entire time I was reading I thought you were going to say to get out of the brokerage business and then you didn't! This is really comforting to know. I am in the process of reformating my financial footprint from "paranoid Russian style" to "functioning member of society" I have been here for a very long time (since 1996) and have done such a good job of working for and buying everything with CASH that I have only one credit agency out of three that even knows that I exist.
I am hoping that my license will help me secure the Five C's of credit. While helping me develop the valuable network that is so priceless in this field.
Marketing is actually a skill that a bring to the table. I come from a deep heritage of performers. I am currently an actor in Atlanta (in the auditioning stages of my carrier ha ha ha) so I am fairly comfortable around a camera both behind and in front. I am planning to use that to take the lead in my market.
Thank you so much for your time!
@Georgui Kasaev I'm not sure whether other eXp managing brokers have a brick and mortar place to conduct business but in Indiana we do, courtesy of our managing broker who is funding the building out of his own pocket. And I only have access to my local MLS but I can go through my broker and get access to all of the other MLS's in the state. Since my managing broker does have access to all of the MLS's and all the deals go through him I can technically work with any MLS in the state.
@Georgui Kasaev I'm not sure whether other eXp managing brokers have a brick and mortar place to conduct business but in Indiana we do, courtesy of our managing broker who is funding the building out of his own pocket. And I only have access to my local MLS but I can go through my broker and get access to all of the other MLS's in the state. Since my managing broker does have access to all of the MLS's and all the deals go through him I can technically work with any MLS in the state.
Got you. That's pretty cool. I am actually looking into brokers who do work with eXp in my area right now.
@Georgui Kasaev sorry, just now seeing your reply. But yeah, just get out and meet people in the business who are currently out there doing it. I think that's one of the main things that propelled me into everything was just getting out and meeting people at different brokerages and getting lunch with people in different aspects of the real estate business.
@Georgui Kasaev sorry, just now seeing your reply. But yeah, just get out and meet people in the business who are currently out there doing it. I think that's one of the main things that propelled me into everything was just getting out and meeting people at different brokerages and getting lunch with people in different aspects of the real estate business.
No big at all. That is what I have been doing as well. I am currently scheduled to speak with a few brokers in my area to see if we would benefit from mutual collaboration. Thanks for getting back to me.
3 months ago I started the journey to become a real estate agent, yesterday I completed my course and currently I am on hold with the Georgia Commision to schedule my license exam!
After interviewing with a few different brokerage companies I have decided to go with Keller Williams. It was a difficult choice between them and eXp. Their commission splits and caps are slightly better the KW. However, I live and work in Athens Ga and we only have and we only have 9 eXp agents. This could be both good and bad. Since I got into the agents game in order to expend my network the brick and mortar model of KW prevailed. We will see where ill end up in 3 years. Thank you @Russell Holmes and @Travis Konermann for adding so much information to this thread. By the way, how are you still enjoying eXp?
I'm loving exp so far, and honestly there isn't another brokerage that would have worked out for me in my specific circumstances. More than I imagined, I'm having to multitask and time block between my service business and real estate. I have been able to fit 20-30 hours per week of real estate into my schedule in and around my other business schedule. KW office hours would have made that impossible. Today I worked in my service business and listened to a leadership meeting live by earbuds, made some calls during my drive time, finished with work, went home and printed a contract/proof of funds I sent for initials last night to deliver to a withdrawn-listing seller I'm tracking down for a client, then went and networked with another Realtor afterwards. I'm hustling to get going and replace my service business income, but right now I'm trying to be a full time realtor AND a full time service buiness owner/operator. The two overlap and intertwine so much that there's no way I could do it without cloud based brokerage. As much as I'd love to be full time Real Estate immediately, I have a family to support so it's a transition I'm somewhat designing myself. If I had full time availability, my impression of KW and other brick and mortar brokerages may have been different. I just hope the recent anti-exp sentiment of Gary Keller doesn't spoil things between agents outside of BP. He's been pretty harsh despite exp's 211% growth and he tends to comes across as being scared of change. It wasn't long ago that KW was defending similar attacks against itself by the "big dogs". exp is growing rapidly, but I'm not kidding myself to think it'll put KW, ReMax or any others out of business, haha. Who knows, I may end up an independent broker down the road working only with investors, but for now I'm enjoying the system and team at exp.
Man glad to hear that you found a good fit for you. I didn't know about all the KW and eXp strife haha, as far as I'm concerned its the big boy's problem. I am happy to work with anyone. KW in ga is not as restrictive it seems. I am hired as an independent and they don't force us to have office hours. Although office hours is exactly what I want the more face to face networking I can do the better. It feels like it will be a good fit for the first few years. Good luck and keep in touch!
@Georgui Kasaev Congrats and good luck on the exam! I'm enjoying eXp and still learning so much every day. Good luck at KW and I hope everything works out for you!
@Georgui Kasaev Congrats and good luck on the exam! I'm enjoying eXp and still learning so much every day. Good luck at KW and I hope everything works out for you!
Thank you so much, man.
Thank you to everyone who has participated in this post. I wanted to wrap this up by saying that I received my license yesterday 05/04/18 I will be joining the KW team here in Athens Ga.
Being an investor my self I truly enjoy working with investors and understand our needs. I have no problems making offers based on your numbers even if that means making a low commision on the buying side.