If you are a wholesaler or working with one, or just researching this niche in real estate
for yourself, you will come across many uninformed individuals who will tell you that having a realtors license is needed to wholesale. These people are wrong and misinformed. They just don’t want you to promote yourself as a real estate advisor or consultant unless your licensed, which is what they are trying to tell you. Just remember this, as a wholesaler you are acting as a buyer and any contract is assignable to another person. Simple as that.
BUT regardless of the fact that you DON’T need a license, here are the reasons why you SHOULD and why it will make you MORE money in the long run.
- Access to MLS. This is the mother load of information and you need access to it. I know guru’s say that you should get a realtor to give you access but that is no longer easy since new technology can track the IP address from where you sign on and give out $2,500 fees for sharing passwords. So throw that idea out the water, and any guru who tells you to do so. It’s 2010 and most these guys are teaching 2005 stuff.
- You want to be the most knowledgeable at the table. When negotiating with homeowners and trying to purchase a home, they will tell you that they spoke with a cousin/sister/brother/neighbor who is a realtor and they told them blah blah blah… If you have a license, which you tell them upfront and on your mailings, you say that you too are a realtor and that will squash that objective.
- The REO market! So you go out and create tons of relationships with investors who are currently buying and flipping real estate and you want some action. What do you do? You buy REO Rockstar and try to wholesale REO’s, right? Wrong! It’s a ton of trouble and headaches, just put out offers for your buyers and act as their agent, you will still get commissions. I know agents who just sell to REO investors and are making 100K doing just that.
- You shut up the haters. That’s right I said it, haters. All the other professionals who are all snooty and nag about wholesalers taking deals and how they need to be licensed. Just get it and save the argument.
- Retail buyers are still out there and they will respond to your marketing! I have let about 15 end buyers go because I couldn’t do much with them at the time. As a wholesaler I put out advertising looking for cash buyers and many end up being financed buyers who want a home. If you just refer these out to an active agent who can close the deal, you still get % commission and you don’t have to jump through hoops to get some money.
I hope that helped you realize that if your going to do this, do this all out. For more information, please visit my site, http://www.ChicagoCashFlowProperties.com
