All Forum Posts by: William Huston

I am a newly licensed real estate agent who has started looking into the real estate brokers around me. So far i have been focusing on the offices the closest to me since the area around me has some of the higher priced homes in the area, but im probably going to travel 30mins to some of the offices closer to the center of Tampa, Fl to see what they have to offer. Overall it seems that most offer literally the same exact things, just some state it differently and others just clump it all together.... 

So i am lost on what is best for me as a new agent to look into ultimately... 

I originally was going to look for the office with the most training available, but literally all the offices i have been to offer roughly the same amount of training according to the calendars they gave, so that has kinda confused me in regards to what next to look into...

Right now the top 2 based on how i felt after talking to the brokers are Berkshire Hathaway and Florida Luxury Realty...

Berkshire Hathaway from the beginning seemed like a more cleaner operation, since both offices i stopped into had that new home feeling and presented very professional. Both offices had a good handful of bodies at the locations along with a few appeared to be customers onsite, but i'm a little worried about all the fees and monthly expenses i was presented with along with the commision rates. The business seems much larger, since there is 17 locations in the area and was told there are thousands of offices nationwide...

Commission:

level 1: $0-$25k 60%

level 2: $25k-50k 65%

level 3: 50k-70k 70%

level 4: 70k-100k 75%

level 5: 100k-150k 80%

level 6: 150k-175k 85%

Level 7: 175k +     90%

Fees:

$300/yr, E/O insurance

$100, new agent setup fee

$75/mth, marketing fee

$72/per 1000 business cards

$18/per name badge

$225, FAR/NAR Membership initiation fee

$460/yr FAR/NAR annual membership dues

$90, MLS setup fee

$350/yr MLS annual membership dues

$50, supra key setup fee

$275/yr, Supra key annual membership dues

$110, lockbox purchase

Florida Luxury Realty from the beginning was kinda hidden off the road, the office is hidden in the back of a business complex in regards to the one office i specifically went to, its very clean and professional looking, just the office overall is not very lit up or fresh looking...and when i dropped in there was noone at the location outside of the clerical person at the front desk from what i could tell, most of the office was completely dark... The broker returned my phone call immediately and drove 45mins from the office he was located at for the day to come visit me at the location i dropped into instead of asking me to drive out to him, we spent over 2 hours talking in his office going over everything the company has to offer, he really took a lot of time to make sure i understand everything the company has to offer, the commission seems to be very in the agents favor with 2 programs to choose from. The company is much smaller with no commercial division and only one office that does property management among the 9 locations in the area... 

Commission:

Program 1:

80% up tell $15,000, then 100% afterwards

No monthly membership fee

Program 2:

90% up tell $10,000, then 100% afterwards

$135/month membership fee

Fees:

$1,300/yr annual dues

thank you for the replies

 Can you specify what you mean by joining a team?

I currently own a 2012 Chevy Volt that i love to death, but im thinking it might be in my best interest to invest in another electric car that has a far greater electric range. I currently get all of my electric used on charging the car via my house solar system and with the heat of Florida draining my batteries faster than normal.. im really only averaging around 32miles on a full charge... 

Thinking of pre-ordering a Tesla Model 3 or maybe looking into a Tesla Model S 

Well today i passed my state exam, after taking the real estate associate course 2 weeks ago... 

What did you do when searching out a Broker? What type of stuff did you look for in one? 

I have been contemplating between residential and commercial.... kinda leaning toward commercial since i am not dependent on that first commision check to survive as i have passive income from real estate investment properties.. 

I was curious what are some of the ways RE Agents maintain sustainable income every month between commissions? I am questioning my brand new career i just graduated into and already thinking of jumping ship and pursuing yet another career in RE, not exactly sure what yet.. was thinking of starting with my agents license and move on from that....

I currently own a handful of rentals i collected while in the military, i am averaging between 1200-1500 in income after paying the bare essentials that i would have as sustainable income if i switch to RE, but curious what others have.... i noticed the RE agent i used when i bought last house had an Uber sticker on her car, so i assume she Uber'd on the side...

I recently graduated school as an RN and got my License in the State of Florida, since starting the new career field after serving in the military 12 years, i am starting to question my choice in this profession. I come home from long 12-14 hour shifts on my feet, averaging between 22-30k steps according to my phone very sore and wore to the point of being unhappy. I went into Nursing because when i was in the military and we were sent to support humanitarian situations i worked closely with contract nurses and they always told me i would make a great nurse, after getting out of the military i pursued the profession and now i'm questioning it.. Back when i was deciding on what to do i was debating between real estate and nursing and this was around the time when the market was very stale and many of the RE agents i knew growing up were struggling in the profession... so i went the other route for stability.....

My question is this, how many peeps on here are prior nurses that switched over... dont get me wrong i enjoy the nursing profession in regards to helping people, but i feel that my body cant handle the labor as i had 5 knee surgeries while in the service and boy my knees have been crying since becoming an RN along with my back with heavier patients and my mental state with the annoying or aggrevating patients who just dont care....

Also what do yall do when your not able to sell, to maintain a sustainable living between houses?

So this post got moved and now i get no more advice :(

 I want to, but i am still unsure what im looking for.. i have a property in NC that has lost me probably 40K+ in 5 years.... but thankfully im selling it to a wholesaler to dump it.. granted he is getting a lot of hardwork from me since its the nicest unit in the entire neighborhood.. but ive just had nothing but bad luck after bad luck with it.. i know most of the house is nearly new now because of all the repairs ive had to dish out money for.. but still just been a crappy journey with the property im just wanting to get rid of and move on and learn from my mistakes. 

 are you sure? because the $200 i am getting every month now already, so its only an increase of 286, so using your math that would be 8.8%, which is still higher than im getting from lending club.. so i am not sure if its still better to just pay it off...

Since i made it clear the increase if i pay it off is only $286 in passive income, then maybe ill get better advice...