I have been talking for years with Mark Madsen about opening my own real estate brokerage here in the Las Vegas Valley. I finally stopped talking and took action! On January 1st, 2011 I officially opened my own Las Vegas Real Estate Brokerage, Shelter Realty Inc.
Prior to making the decision to start my own real estate brokerage, I weighed the pros and cons and spoke with several broker/owners to hear firsthand of their experiences. I also calculated what I paid my broker for the last two years and what I expected to spend this year if business continued to grow and it was eye opening! It became evident that the only decision I had was to open my own real estate and property management brokerage.
After making the decision to move forward, I wrote out a business plan and tried to account for everything that needed to be done prior to opening. Little did I know that it is almost impossible to account for everything!
So, if you’re thinking about taking the plunge like I did, here are top 5 issues that I didn’t account for when I opened my own real estate brokerage.
- General Liability and E/O Insurance (More expensive than I estimated)
- Business license requirements (As a property manager, you are required to be licensed in all cities in which you manage a property, not just the city in which your office is located, like I had thought)
- Client/Landlord Response (It took much longer than anticipated to get back signed addendums from landlords authorizing the transfer to the new company)
- NAID Number (I forgot to apply for an NAID Number. Can’t sell a HUD home without one!)
- Peer Support (Others around you aren’t always excited to see you succeed)
Even though it’s only been a few weeks, I feel re-energized about real estate as if I was a newly licensed agent again and I am looking forward to sharing my experiences as a new broker/owner with others.