Real estate license - utility as an investor

[Louis L.]

Interested to learn others perspectives on if and how obtaining your real estate license has helped you as an investor/flipper/developer.

Im planning on getting mine this summer for MLS access and also because im curious and "why not"! Thanks in advance for your opinions.

[Bryan Reid]

I am currently in the process of getting my RE license for pretty much the same reason as you - "why not."  Nearly there... I should have it within the next couple weeks.

If you're not planning on using it to actually take on listings/clients/buyers, though, I wouldn't recommend getting it.  The "why not" is because it is a significant investment of time and money to get the license (at least here - NY may be different.)

I don't plan to totally re-frame my RE ventures and spend 100% of my effort listing houses and taking clients, but I do plan to at least do it part-time to make the effort worth the hassle.

It will be very nice, though, to have the flexibility of seeing a house as I'm driving by, calling the listing agent, and then being permitted to immediately show it to myself assuming it is vacant.  It can be a pain to need to schedule a showing through the agent any time I think I might be interested in a property...