Realtor®

I guess every RE investor when they started out, asked themselves if being a RE agent would be worthwhile. By some accounts I'm sure many newbies in the field have even asked if they HAD to be a RE agent in order to buy/sell properties.

I, too, have considered the pros and cons of being both an investor and an agent. With the recent follies of my RE agent, I was once again drawn into the "should I get my RE license" foray again. This time, though, I haven't been more sure in my life of being one. Actually, aside from a hefty up-front cost in education, fees, and whatnot, and the occasional cost for education and renewel fees, I really don't see much of a downside. On the contrary, I think the pros far outweigh the cons, IMHO.

Another reason I am thinking about this so heavily now is time - both my time (which is more valuable to me now than money) and the time of the year. Thankfully, the two will coincide soon to enable me to persue my short-term goal of being a real estate agent. While I will still be considered working next week, my boss has already informed me that I can work from home, if I want, and to not expect too much in the form of actual work, since all the projects will be in hibernation until after the holiday season and most people will be or are already gone for the year. So, I can actually come to work and do some work, but also use some of the time for studying for my license. I'd prefer working from home in most cases, but there are just too many distractions to get ANYTHING requiring thinking done there, so I'll probably just come into work all next week. I'll be on vacation the week of Christmas, so I can probably get some study time in those days as well.

Believe me, I will not be taking this lightly at all, so don't think I'll just study off-n-on those two weeks, pay my exam fee, take the exam, and pass. I know it will take a LOT more studying than that and a LOT more time. The requirements in Texas are:

150 Core Credit hours in the following for prelicensing ...

Principles of Real Estate I (30hrs)
Principles of Real Estate II (30hrs)
Law of Agency (30hrs)
Law of Contracts (30hrs)
Additional Core Course (30hrs) *

(*) - I'll probably take either the Marketing or Property Management course.

And, another 120 credit hours (4 courses) in either from this list, or from previous education. Now, this point really got me as they define "previous education" from these course. Having a Bachelors degree seems ot me like I will cover most, if not all, of those requirements. It all depends on when I submit my package to TREC for review (this occurs AFTER I take the core courses, though) as to what they'll accept or not.