Being your own RE agent?

Bay Area
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One of my friends recently said “You should get your own RE license and do the purchase yourself, you’d save a lot of money.” I responded “yeah, that’d make sense if I was flipping houses” but I ran the numbers and it’s worth about $25K savings even working with Redfin.

I certainly understand that for your 10th purchase or if you’re flipping properties, you might as well get your own license, but what do you guys think about doing it yourself for your first purchase? Would you do it, or would you have someone else do it just to make sure things go well?

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You only do things yourself when you are an expert at it. When you are talking about RE that is so expensive and you are presumably a novice at the legal E’s of RE disclosures it makes sense to have a pro handhold you through.

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Ok. That was my sense as well… That the people here who have their own license also have a lot of experience.

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Well, I too plan on getting a license only because I think it would be cool to have and slowly get into the business, but would I feel comfortable giving advice to people about the full battery of disclosures needed these days? Absolutely not.

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I was thinking more about doing my own transactions.

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I do not plan to do RE license unless I flip or more actively involved in real estate. As of now, I would prefer to have my agent represent me.

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Right, and the suggestion is to not do it yourself until you become an expert at it or see enough of the paperwork that it is ingrained in your head. My god, in my recent sale, I filled out and sent back so many papers it was ridiculous…

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Honestly, in this market I’d work without an RE agent. I’d use the listing agent, so they can double end the transaction. Maybe they’ll offer a discount for that. It’s more important to win a bid than save $25k. You’ll lose more than $25k while you aren’t winning bids.

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I am not so much worried about the money or the commission lost, but I would be concerned if something material about the place was hidden from you.

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There are companies out there that will hire you, no problem if new. You just pay a monthly fee, they will take care of the paperwork, you will have your own secretary per se.

I forgot. You need to be a good student, a promise you shouldn’t promise, and you are done just the first year.

Then, as a newbie, good luck! It is a killing field out there and you will be competing against blood suckers. And, the diminishing inventory.

Oh, it is about what? I forgot how much but around $2K a year between MLS fees, this and that fees.

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You have your license right @manch ?

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I do. I got it just so I can open doors for myself.

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So do you have another agent to transact with?

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That’s cool :):sunglasses:

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I usually work with LA for buying. I did sell a flip I did couple years back by myself.

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I always try to use LA for buying but I been turned down surprisingly number of times… Maybe it’s just me?

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If you are searching and selecting properties yourself, paying a full service buying agent doesn’t make any sense. If buying with LA doesn’t work, use a fixed fee buying agent. That way you get substantial discounts. There are many who will take 6k-10k commission and refund the rest to you. Keep in mind that for such RE agents, you’ll mostly have to shortlist and go see the houses yourself.

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Have always been the case in SV :smile: If my memory didn’t fail me, there are about 20-30 bids when I was bidding for the SFH in 2011 :crazy_face: The top 5 got to re-bid :cry::joy:

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One more thing to consider. IIRC you have more liabilities if you have a RE license and own rental units as you are considered a professional. So from reducing your liabilities, better not to have a RE license. OTOH, if you have a RE license, you can more easily claim “RE professional” for tax purposes which allows you to write off losses on RE against other income streams

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Not to change the thread topic but I was thinking about getting a contractor’s license. That to me would be quite valuable…

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