It’s the classic debate among real estate investors and I hear it being discussed at almost every seminar I attend: is a license necessary? helpful? a waste of time? 

As investors, sometimes we like to use agents, sometimes we won’t use them, sometimes we like paying them, and sometimes we try to get creative with their commissions.  Couldn’t we sidetrack a lot of the busy-ness we get ourselves into if we just had our own license?  Wouldn’t it be great to have full access to the MLS and to score some commissions here and there?

In the past I never saw much use for having a license.  I had access to certain Realtors and I could get the information I needed any time.  After all, I didn’t like the idea of going to school, taking a test, and worrying about all the regulatory stuff and continuing education credits.  That was then, this is now.

My husband got his license recently and a whole new world of opportunity has opened its doors!  We didn’t know what we were missing before.  He can scour the MLS without limits, anytime day or night.  He’s also fulfilling a deep desire he has to help people, and incidentally he gets paid a little something for doing it now.

Last week we stumbled across another benefit of having the license - the best coupe yet!

We found a builder that’s offering a 10% Realtor commission on spec homes.  These are great homes!  And they’re taking significant price cuts too, making them great deals for any buyer.  I really didn’t want to buy any more single family homes, but it looks like the buying spree isn’t going to be over quite yet :)  

We’re buying a home for $212k 5% down.  My husband gets the 10% commission after closing, which will be $21k.  So he’s going to reimburse himself for the down payment, and then have about $10k leftover.  Then we’ll implement our re-fi strategy and use the instant equity that we have (because of the builder price cut) to get ourselves into a 90% LTV loan with better terms.  We’re planning to lease option this house then, which means we’ll get even a little more in our pocket when we place the tenant-buyer.  How great is that?

The market is ripe for this strategy right now.  We are seeing so many great builder deals on spec homes right now, along with commissions that are creeping up here and there.  My husband paid just over $400 for real estate school.  If you can dedicate full time to it, you can get your license in less than 2 weeks here in Arizona.  Might be worth a double-take if you’ve ever considered it.