Basically to buy and sell real estate or mortgages in the state of California you need a brokers license.
Now a broker may hire agents to work for him/her and they can represent buyers and sellers to help sell real estate.
The criteria for obtaining a brokers license is more stringent then a sales agent license. To get a sales agent license you take a few rudimentary courses and then take the test. That gets you a conditional license. Once you have that and complete another course your license is no longer conditional.
Now once you have your sales license, or even your conditional sales license you can go work for a broker. Typically brokers employ lots of agents. Now even though each of those agents may have several listings, the actual listings ALL belong to the broker. The broker is ultimately responsible for the listings. A typical Coldwell Banker office may have a few brokers and 10 to 100 agents!
The criteria for getting a brokers license is that you first get a sales license, then there are several courses to take, then you may take the test for a brokers license.
A Realtor may be a sales agent or a broker who is a member of a local association of Realtors. A Realtor is not a licensed designation by the state Dept of Real Estate. As a member of the San Diego Association of Realtors I pay dues and I attend classes offered by the Association. In general it is good to make sure your sales agent is a Realtor. Realtors generally have a higher regard for ethics and have taken more classes, seminars, etc then sales agents and are more experienced and knowledgeable.
Brokers can also sell mortgages and can be involved in financing. Indeed, some brokers don’t know much about real estate at all as they simply got licensed and then went right into the financial aspect of our profession and do nothing but loans
Most of what you learn on the job in real estate is when you are hands on. At least it has been in my case.
****
The law about commissions and real estate in general varies. In San Diego, a principle (buyer or seller) cannot receive a commission directly. Here are some of your options:
1 – have the listing agent represent you and ask the listing agent (or the sellers) to credit you a portion of that commission.
2 – same as 1 but ask the agent to have the sellers reduce the sales price by some or all of that commission.
3 – find yourself a buyers agent and ask that buyers agent to do the same as 1 or 2.
One pretty popular misconception is that when people deal directly with the listing agent they will get a smoking deal. That is speculative at best… In many cases that listing agent will receive full commissions from the seller for both sides without a discount being applied. It all depends on what the listing agents broker will allow the agent to do. You really never know. Also many a time I have spoke to a buyer who felt they were not represented well by the listing agent who was also acting as thier agent. They felt that basically the agent wanted to just get the deal done.
I am not saying this is the norm, I am just saying it has happened. Personally I would recommend to get a buyers agent who will pass on a credit of that commission to you. That way you can feel good about your representation.
Hope this is helpful. If you have more questions email me at [email protected] and I will be more then happy to answer your questions or at least help you find more info.
