Chico, CA · Member since 2016 · 12 posts · 2 votes
I'm planning to enroll in an online real estate licensing course to obtain my real estate license in California and am trying to decide upon two things -- first, the course provider. Do you have any recommendations?
Second, I'm debating which course to take as my 'elective' course. I'm leaning toward a 'Legal Aspects of California Real Estate' course, but want to know if there are any topics I should consider instead.
I'm planning to obtain my license primarily to assist with finding and buying off-market properties, which is why I'm leaning toward the 'Legal Aspects' elective. If you have experience with finding, buying, and selling off-market properties, what other courses should I consider?
Are you looking to have access to the MLS or work as an agent? Either way the state of CA requires that you pay dues to your local association, CAR, NAR, MLS, Sentrilock, etc. About $3500 /year upfront to use the MLS AFTER paying all of the dues. In order to do this you MUST be under a BROKER and pay monthly for a small space.
Completely false information. The State of CA does not require you to become a Realtor. You can be an agent (not a realtor) for free.
If you want MLS access and a Supra key lockbox, it makes a lot of sense to become a REALTOR, by joining your local Realtor association (in addition to NAR and CAR). All in, about $1500/year including everything: Zipforms, Supra Key, etc. No idea where Paris got the $3500/year fee, but she is getting majorly ripped off.
Also, you are not required to pay a desk fee to a broker. If you don't need a desk, work from home. I am doing my own deals (like you) and I hung my license with RE eBroker in San Diego. 100% split, $0 desk fees, $0 monthly fees, just a $500 per transaction fee.
Virtual Assistant · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 15 votes
9y
Are you looking to have access to the MLS or work as an agent? Either way the state of CA requires that you pay dues to your local association, CAR, NAR, MLS, Sentrilock, etc. About $3500 /year upfront to use the MLS AFTER paying all of the dues. In order to do this you MUST be under a BROKER and pay monthly for a small space.
Chico, CA · Member since 2016 · 12 posts · 2 votes
9y
Thanks @Paris Beitel! That helps me quite a bit -- I'm not necessarily looking for either access to the MLS or to work as an agent. I'll admit that access to the MLS would be a nice benefit, but I have no intention of working as a real estate agent at this time. I'm more concerned with learning the legal aspects of real estate in California, primarily as it relates to the landlord-tenant relationship and purchase & sale contracts, and figured taking the licensing training (and getting licensed) would be a relatively inexpensive way to do so. All that said, I don't think paying $3500/year just for access to the MLS is worth the expense, for me.
As a follow-up question -- Say I go through the required pre-license training and decide to get my license. If I have no intention of using the MLS or getting paid from a third party as a result of buying and selling real estate, would I still be required to "work" under a broker?
Real Estate Agent · Redlands, CA · Member since 2016 · 253 posts · 115 votes
9y
Hello Paul.
As a salesperson, your license must be "hung" with a broker. Some brokers don't charge monthly but they won't be happy if you aren't closing any deals ever. I have a question, why do you want your license if you aren't planning on practicing as an agent, don't need access to MLS, and are primarily interested in off market properties? If you just need access to owners title lists, you can find paid programs online that will give you that access for a lot less than paying all your dues. You almost need to sell one house a year just to pay dues (that's based on So Cal prices where one house is at least 350,000-400,000).
Cheers,
Kiersten
Virtual Assistant · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 15 votes
9y
@Paul Munly : Kiersten, is correct. Although now the median house in San Diego is above $500,000. I can't find a condo for $250,000 for myself right now in a safe neighborhood that is central. It sounds like you just want to know what you would be getting into legally as well as how the contracts and property management aspects work in CA. No education is ever lost. You can take the exam and courses ( Kaplan ) has online study and is relatively inexpensive. In your case, you would not need to work under a broker. You would be one of many in real estate that are inactive. However, if you plan on buying your own home, you will need to get an agent and be under her/his broker for liability reasons. CA is a sue crazy state with tons of disclosures and discrimination laws. Nothing wrong with getting educated on real estate. :)
Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2015 · 290 posts · 80 votes
9y
@Paul Munly I took Allied Real Estate School. Wasn't super impressed but it did the job. I took real estate finance as my elective. Bite the bullet and be persistent learning the material. Best of luck!
Investor · Orange County, CA · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
9y
I found legal aspects boring and not that helpful ... I'd double check the curriculum as I'm not sure it will cover what you are hoping it will, though knowing the law is very important none the less regardless of you best learn it. I think Real Estate Appraisal is a good one for comping properties.
Chico, CA · Member since 2016 · 12 posts · 2 votes
9y
@Kiersten Vance Thank you for explaining the license/broker relationship -- I thought I'd only need to hang my license if I wanted to actively buy/sell real estate for a third party. To answer your question, I had thought that getting my license would allow me access to homes which are active on the market, mostly to help me gauge how my properties compare for rentability and/or sale. I was also hoping that by getting a license, I'd be able to represent myself when I buy or sell a property and save myself some money in the process.
@Paris Beitel Ouch -- I'm not sure I could justify paying $250k for a condo (at least for myself). I've seen condos in the Chico area sell for between $60,000-$100,000, though I doubt you'd want to move to Chico just because it's a bit less expensive. :) I'm interested in learning mostly so I don't shoot myself in the foot, and this conversation is definitely helping me open my eyes a bit. Whether I get my license or not, I'll definitely take the Legal Aspects of Real Estate course. Thank you for your help!
Rental Property Investor · Chico, CA · Member since 2016 · 625 posts · 336 votes
9y
@Paul Munly Welcome Sir! I am in Chico and pretty active in looking around in our market. I will keep you posted if I see any multi family properties that may work for you. I am doing single family flips at this moment. Take care
Real Estate Agent · Redlands, CA · Member since 2016 · 253 posts · 115 votes
9y
Hello @Paul Munly. You can access most information for houses that are actively on the market on the public sites like Zillow, Trulia and Redfin. You won't be able to see the agent information (which includes commission %, special notes, ect) though, but if you had any questions you could always text/call the listing agent and ask. I am not sure getting your license would drastically help with this part enough to make the fees worth it.
As for saving money, yes by having a license you would be able to get commission when you buy or sell. Remember though, depending on the broker, you will lose a portion of that commission to him/her. You can still save even without your license too if you are confident in your knowledge about the process: when buying a place, call the listing agent directly and ask them to do your paperwork for you in exchange for a portion of the commission that would have been due to the buyers agent anyways. (Say they are offering 3% to the buyers agent, if you represent yourself, you could say you want 2% back as a credit from the seller and the agent can keep the other 1%) Be careful doing this as the agent does not represent you so you have no advocate on your side. You need to be very confident in your skills to adequately inspect the property and receive appropriate disclosures ect. When you sell a property, you can pay an agent to input in the MLS only but do nothing else: around $500. You would field all the calls and arrange the showings ect and only pay the buyer's agent commission. I would still say you really need to know what you are doing though in order to try this. Your investment is on the line if you mess up so be careful!
Flipper/Rehabber · Chico, CA · Member since 2015 · 26 posts · 11 votes
9y
@Paul Munly, I'm a licensed real estate broker in Chico, and I want to clarify that you can pay all your dues for NAR, CAR, and the Oroville Association of Realtors for under $2000/year. It's not the $3500 that you would be looking at in San Diego. (In Chico, it's under $1400, and I don't know exactly what it is in Oroville, so I included a buffer.) This would give you MLS access, lockbox access, online access to all the legal forms, etc. You would need to hang your license under a broker, however, to join these associations. I know you mentioned accessing active homes with your salesperson's license. If you are talking about through the MLS, or physically accessing them yourself through the lockbox, either way you would still need to have your license hung with a broker. Similarly, you can write your own offers, but if you want the commission, you will have to be under a broker, or write it through a broker or an agent under a broker.
One other thing: There are brokers who will allow you to work from your home office, thereby avoiding paying "desk rent" for any space in their office.
Real Estate Agent · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2015 · 24 posts · 8 votes
9y
Thanks for the info @Scott Wolf. I am pursuing my real estate salesperson license for the exact reasons that you described above. I understand that I must hang my license under a broker, but there are a couple things I'm not clear on.
When you write an offer for yourself for your own investment property, is your broker entitled to any fee or commission (which would make sense)? If so, is it based on a typical commission of say 2.5% or 3% for the buying agent/broker, depending on the area, with a percentage of that commission going to the broker? And I assume the same is true if you sell your own property?
Also, do you have any suggestions for finding a broker that is willing to hold the license of a investor that will be writing his or her own offers and selling his or her own properties? Do all brokers offer this service? I would imagine the large companies would prefer to work with people representing other buyers and sellers.
Are you looking to have access to the MLS or work as an agent? Either way the state of CA requires that you pay dues to your local association, CAR, NAR, MLS, Sentrilock, etc. About $3500 /year upfront to use the MLS AFTER paying all of the dues. In order to do this you MUST be under a BROKER and pay monthly for a small space.
Completely false information. The State of CA does not require you to become a Realtor. You can be an agent (not a realtor) for free.
If you want MLS access and a Supra key lockbox, it makes a lot of sense to become a REALTOR, by joining your local Realtor association (in addition to NAR and CAR). All in, about $1500/year including everything: Zipforms, Supra Key, etc. No idea where Paris got the $3500/year fee, but she is getting majorly ripped off.
Also, you are not required to pay a desk fee to a broker. If you don't need a desk, work from home. I am doing my own deals (like you) and I hung my license with RE eBroker in San Diego. 100% split, $0 desk fees, $0 monthly fees, just a $500 per transaction fee.
Flipper/Rehabber · Chico, CA · Member since 2015 · 26 posts · 11 votes
9y
@Nic Williams, you are right that the brokerage takes a split of, or fee for, each commission each agent earns/transaction (s)he completes, and real estate brokerages have a wide range of commission split structures. Some have a set percentage split per deal no matter how many you do; others have, for example, a 70/30 split until you pay the "office cut" of $26,000 per year (that comes out of their 30% cut per deal), then a 100/0 split with a $200 fee per transaction after the office cut has been met; still others have something like what @Account Closed
Hello Paul.
As a salesperson, your license must be "hung" with a broker. Some brokers don't charge monthly but they won't be happy if you aren't closing any deals ever. I have a question, why do you want your license if you aren't planning on practicing as an agent, don't need access to MLS, and are primarily interested in off market properties? If you just need access to owners title lists, you can find paid programs online that will give you that access for a lot less than paying all your dues. You almost need to sell one house a year just to pay dues (that's based on So Cal prices where one house is at least 350,000-400,000).
Cheers,
Kiersten
Do you have a link to the paid programs online that give access to title lists, Kiersten? Thank you in advance.
Chico, CA · Member since 2016 · 12 posts · 2 votes
9y
@Scott Wolf Thank you for your reply! $1400 per year is more within my current budget (and may be more worthwhile for a 'part-timer'), and I'll do a bit more digging locally to see who would potentially allow me to 'work from home'. If you can recommend anyone, please feel free to send me a private message. I'll take a look at First Tuesday as well!
@Account Closed Thank you for the clarification! An agreement similar to what you describe would probably be ideal for me once I'm licensed. I guess the trick will be finding one! :)
Real Estate Agent · Redlands, CA · Member since 2016 · 253 posts · 115 votes
9y
@Amber Stevens. I haven't used any before but I believe there is one called Property Shark. Just google property title search and see what comes up. Read reviews and then decide which one works best for you.
Real Estate Agent · Mira Mesa, CA · Member since 2014 · 218 posts · 49 votes
9y
I used Allied as my study material. I purchased the cheapest package which gives you PDF versions of the books and online quizzes and tests. Their website was probably built in the late 90's and hasn't been updated. It works though!
I chose the Legal Aspects of Real Estate and it didn't seem relevant to my day-to-day work. If I had to do it again I would probably do Appraisal purely by the fact that as soon as we see a property we ask "What's it worth?".