Posted by John Merchant on October 15, 2003 at 12:52:10:
First, no RE Agent, in any state, is allowed to operate just solo, by himself, with NO Broker…so you’d be licensed to operate as an agent in some licensed broker’s shop. And not otherwise.
So YES, you have to operate with, under a Broker. Who owns all the business, listings, deals done by ANY agent in his/her brokerage. Who then splits income with his/her agents as per their internal agreement.
Therefore, it would behoove you to do some shopping for a Broker to see whose shop you might like to be in, who you could work with…and who you could not!
This is a very important relationship since the broker owns all the business, has to know & approve of all deals you might do as an agent or with any RE in that state, etc…so it’s worth spending your time doing early homework to find the right place for you to hang your license.
Secondly, as to out-of-state activity, most states operate under some mutual reciprocity, whereby agent in State A can work with a property or client in State B, without being hassled for unlicensed activity.
BUT,I’d want to check with the particular “other” state to see what their RE Commission says, what they’d want you to do, etc.
I know an agent who actually spent a night or two in the “other” state’s JAIL (!) for showing a property in that state with no license there. I’m confident he wishes he’d asked some hard questions first.
This might just be enough to mess up an otherwise great day.