can a realtor wholesale properties?

[chrisfrmphx]

I was thinking about getting my real estate licence to help jump start my career of investing. Is this a good starting point? What are the pros and cons of having a licence when it comes to wholesaling? Thanks in advance.

[Rob in Atlanta]

There is nothing to prevent a licensed real estate agent from wholesaling a property or buying and reselling a property.  The agent needs to make full disclosure, whether or not he/she is earning a commission. 

The full disclosure and all of the other regulations over a licensure is what prevents alot of investors from getting a license, if they have a propensity to invest and plan to be active.  I personally have chosen not to be licensed but have worked with many investors who made the choice to get licensed. 

You need to examine what your intentions are with a license and how it fits into your goals and plans for investing.  If I were to have made the choice to get a license in the past 20 years that I have invested, I would have used the MLS and other services to find and secure exceptional deals, tie them up under contract, and resell them to investors.  I would have specialized in developing investors and had them lined up to bring my deals to so they could buy them as soon as they were found.

In retrospect, I really did the same thing, only as an investor, not an agent, and developed my buyers prior to putting deals together.

Hope this perspective helps.

Rob

[ReCoachDennis]

If you're thinking about getting a license for wholesaling, you can certainly do it without a license.

With a license, you are able to get into homes by yourself, get good comps, and when you are dealing with othe realtors, you get a better welcome from them since you are colleagues.

YOu just need to disclose on your contracts that you are a licensed realtor

Dennis

[davewindsor]

I was thinking about getting my real estate licence to help jump start my career of investing. Is this a good starting point? What are the pros and cons of having a licence when it comes to wholesaling? Thanks in advance.

Don't let full disclosure rules discourage you from getting a license.   I would recommend getting the skills, education and experience working on commission as a realtor.  Once you're ready to wholesale and don't want to disclose your background as a realtor, just cancel your license.  You're not scarred for life by getting a license.  Who knows, you may even want to continue to be a realtor.

David
Realtor, Landlord, Investor

[chrisfrmphx]

Thanks guys. You have answered my question

[ReCoachDennis]

YOu got it Chris.

Having a license really does have it's advantages. You can use your comission to make a deal go through that otherwise may have fallen through.
YOu can use your comission as a back up way to get paid on a wholesale deal (ie short sales or other flipping methods that discourage or wont' allow assignments and such.

Please give us updates on what you've decided.

Dennis