Isnt it better to get a real estate license to sell your own house if your going to be selling a lot?

If you are going to be seller of your own houses, the last thing you want to do is have a license. By virtue of having a license you are held to a higher standard. In any dispute with a buyer, you are going to get creamed by either a judge or jury regardless of what your attorney drawn contract says. You don't want a contract that your attorney drew up, in any dispute it makes you even more of a bully. You want the MLS sanctioned contract because it has already stood the test of time and has been adjudicated many many times, so it only provides more protection in a dispute than any attorney drawn up contract. Let me ask you, are you paying an attorney to draw up a contract to protect you and your interests or the buyers. Yours, of course. You're going to get creamed by virtue of the contract it has not been tested in court but if you're a licensed agent, you have an obligation to bend over backwards to be fair to your buyers. By not being an agent but hiring one provides you with an extra layer of insulation and protection against trouble in your made transactions. The agents come with insurance. Plus they know more about your market than you do. It's the old saying "an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client". Sam Zell, Donald Trump and every other real estate billionaire DO NOT have a license and always hire agents to do their transactions. You think these guys don't have the best real estate lawyers in town but they still hire an agent because it either makes them money or saves them money. Plus they only have to pay the agents when the are satisfied. Those attorneys get paid either way. Go find the best Realtor in the area you're going to concentrate on and hope you make him/her the riches agent in town. Why, because if you do that it means you will have made a ton more with a large number of successful deals and made few, if any, costly mistakes. Hope this helps

There are 2 problems with your idea that I don't think anyone else mentioned. 1/ some people do NOT like to buy a property from an owner/agent. One of our agents, who was also a friend, wanted us to go in business with him and his wife, although their business was doing good, for just that reason. We would have gotten a fee just to be the official owners. 2/ If you only work as an agent for your own properties, how much will you really know about the market? You need to get out and about to really know what's going on. Neither one of those 2 is a big problem, but... ...for those two reasons, plus some more mentioned in the other answers (like time spent. While our agent was selling our houses, we were busy buying more), we decided against getting an RE license. For a while we paid full commission to one agent (buyer's) and reduced commission to the other one (listing) because we told the listing agent he didn't have to do anything more than list our properties and send buyer's agents our way. It worked because our properties where priced right. We knew enough about the market to price them where they would sell themselves and we would make enough of a profit to keep us happy. Later on we negotiated a better deal with another listing agent (the one mentioned earlier who became a friend) because by then we could show proof that our properties actually sold themselves and our first agent was too greedy to give us a better deal. His loss. Our new agent understood the deal because he and his wife (also an agent) were doing the same thing we were. Later on, after we became friends and spend many hours talking about life and the RE game, they asked us to go into business with them. And if it wasn't for the fact that, by then, we wanted to live in a totally different area, we would have done it. All that to say, sometimes it seems like you're going to save money by doing something and, you do, but you also give yourself more work and headaches and if you weigh the pros and cons, you realize that it may not really be worth it. Good luck to you. RE is a very good game with very good, honest money to be made in it. Don't get too greedy and you'll probably do better than you though you would.

Just alot of headache to just list your home. First you have to pay for school to get your license with cost atleast $300 for salesperson and then you have to get your brokers license so that you dont have to list it with a firm which is another $300. Then you have to pass a state test another hundred. apply for a sole proprietor ship so that you can have your own company to hang your license with. When that and your license finally come in the mail. Then you have to pay for mls and realtor and that is over $1,000 after you pass their class. You would have to use a real estate contract because you are an agent and would have mls so you have access to them. And you had better disclose anything and everything about your home because now you are an agent and you arent ingnorant of the law, if you didnt the buyer would sue you. If it were so easy dont you think other people would sell their home this way? You end up wasting money on everything just to get it to be able to sell your home on mls and not to mention your time. You can either stop being cheap and let the professionals do it. you can list it on line with FSBO and have everyone wonder what is wrong with your home that you wont list it with a realtor. Or you can go an get your license and make it a career. Good luck!!

Unless you are a sole proprietor, you have to work under the supervision of an experienced broker. The term for this person varies by state, but basically this is the person who would be your "boss". Many brokers will allow people to carry their license under them and their transactions, but they get a piece of the pie. Requirements for a sole proprietorship vary by state, check it out and that is probably the way for you to go. Good luck!

It depends on how often you are planning on selling. There are lots of classes and costs to keep up a license so you may end up paying just as much as you would pay in commissions. I think someone else already mentioned that you don't need to have a license to sell your own home. This is correct. The advantage of becoming an agent and using MLS is the advertising. It opens you up to a much larger market. There are alot of advertising costs you should think about before attempting to sell your home yourself. You may end up spending about the same you would with an agent that it would cost you to do it yourself.

Keep in mind that if you buy and sell properties frequently where you are a principle in the transaction you can be labeled a "Dealer" by the IRS. Meaning if you do any owner financing, you will owe taxes on the full amount of the sale in the year the sale is made, even though you may be getting paid over the span of 20-30 years! You'd better get good at using Land Trusts. BTW, the IRS doesn't specify how many house purchases and sales will get your status changed to "Dealer". I've seen it happen with 3 houses/year and I've seen others do 20/yr and not get caught.

I think you mean well, but as tough a time as I'm having in understanding what you're trying to say, the tougher it will be for you to prove that you are capable of selling real estate. Currently you can sell your own property without needing a real estate license. Some listing agents will list your property for a nominal fee, just so that you get the exposure. They won't charge you 2.5%. More like a few hundred dollars. Then, you're only paying a Buyer's Agent for bringing the successful Buyer. The Buyer's Agent may insist on using their own Offer to Purchase forms because they have already been approved by the local bar association (in some states). They may also insist on holding the Buyer's earnest money in their escrow account for safekeeping, until closing. Either way, your property is getting sold with very little involvement from you. Except for your having to be there every time a Buyer wants to show the property. Which some Buyer Agents won't want to do, because we need the flexibility of being a few minutes early or late, and would prefer to consult with our clients without interference.

you don't need a REL to sell your own property.