Real estate license - progressive or regressive?
are real estate agents/developers on the opposite spectrum of urban planners? would getting licensed increase my marketability if i also have a masters in urban planning? is it a wise investment? how different are the two professions/fields?
i’m considering becoming a licenses real estate agent for the purposes of increasing my knowledge in development and having the dexterity to ‘ride the fence’ in the urp profession. i’m interested in knowing whether you have any insight on this dual capability - how closely do the two coincide and/or overlap? if you have any experiences in doing or knowing someone who did it, or if you see any benefits, what would you recommend in pursuing this route?
i won’t start a m. urp program until fall 2009, so if i pursue a license, it may be before i begin school. is it a practical and useful move?
RE License
Little connection between having a RE License and the planning profession. I am both a planner (AICP) and a RE Licensee (Calif. and Fla.). Interestingly, I was the only one in an office of sixty RE agents who had a planning background. I also work as a planner on a contractual basis (mostly in Arabian Gulf emirates during the past dozen years).
A RE (sales) License allows you to work as an agent for a Licensed Broker and to represent buyers or sellers of real property. A RE Broker’s License allows you to go solo as an agent (and join your local MLS without needing to be employed by a broker), and/or set up your own RE brokerage business, employing other agents. Either way, having a RE License is all about selling and marketing, both yourself and the properties for which you act as an agent. Success is all about getting (property) listings (thereby the need to sell yourself) and then (especially in the current RE market) being able to market and sell those properties. Having planning knowledge has very little to do with any of this.