All Forum Posts by: Jessica Wygal

Hey Artigua,

Brandon turner had a webinar titled ' Newbie' that I attended last night...I highly recommend you check it out. I had the same question as you regarding how to really get the good numbers on a rental/investment property and how to fill out the calculator and he breaks that down well within the webinar. If you dont have time to listen to the whole thing skip about the first 30-35 mins...I think the calculator/ property example starts around that time. 

Hope this helps!

also - I didnt do the MCD. 

I highly recommend checking out Shane Woods post titled "A TX Real Estate License Journey', it has really helpful information about finger printing, submitting broker paperwork, etc....just the whole timeline on when you should do what. 

Hey Dan, 

I am in the Cypress area and just went active this week actually. I interviewed 5 brokers; Coldwell, Gary Greene, Remax, Keller Williams and a small brokerage called Soluna. Some of them (Coldwell and Remax) I knew pretty much when I walked in that it wasnt a fit for me...just the vibe, the people, etc I knew werent a fit for me. Gary Greene and KW were what I was left with and both seemed like great options. When I dug deeper into KW (I asked for a copy of the contract I would sign, which was SEVERAL pages long) I realized that the split was rough for the first year with them. First year you have to give a cut to your required mentor/accountability coach, school fees, etc and that left me with about 35-40% of my commission. However that isnt what steered me away, in the contract it states something to the effect of if you leave before 12 months you owe 1k even if you have no pending transactions...I decided against them. That left me with Gary Greene and Soluna. After talking to any realtor that would help I decided to go with Soluna Realty. I will get 100% of my commission and pay a flat $200 fee per transaction that I close. I am prepared to work hard for my own clients as I dont foresee being given many leads from my broker, but I am ok with that for now. If this doesnt work out I have no obligations or monetary amount due in order to move on. Ultimately its whatever feels best for you. I think KW and Gary Greene would have turned out to be great options but I would rather join them when I am little more experienced. Since you are almost done with schooling start getting out there, make some appointments, meet with the brokers youre interested in..its time! 

Hope this helps, good luck. 

Great post with great ideas, thanks everyone. Will keep all this in mind when I am new to the rental game like Allison. 

Poem - thanks so much for your response. I think my broker will be awesome and supportive with walking me through any transactions once I get them, but I'm prepared to work super hard to get my own clients. I will check out Streak and Agile for now, get a better idea of what features I really feel I need and maybe switch to a better/paid option later. Thanks again!

I am VERY new to the game (just officially licensed yesterday) but I have been reading a lot on BP since I started the RE journey 8-9 months ago. I have decided to sign with a smaller broker per recommendation of a realtor I know. Since its a smaller brokerage I am obviously not getting the training I would with someone like KW. Since I am now official; my first question is do any of you use a CRM type database to maintain your leads and/or goals? A simple Google search provided me with a few recommendations, zoho and insightly being a few but I would love to hear from you.

Thanks in advance!

Shane - I am FINALLY licensed after a looong 9 months and I wanted to say THANK YOU! I am from Fort Worth (now live in Houston) and I had your blog book marked, every time I got one thing accomplished I was referring back to your post to determine what I should knock out next. I genuinely never even had to attempt to dig through TREC to get the steps you laid out so well. Thanks so much!