Tailwind Talks

I Hate Sales - But I Got My Real Estate License Anyway

• Cole Baltz • Season 1 • Episode 13

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Forget everything you thought you knew about real estate licenses - they're not just for salespeople. My journey getting licensed eight years ago wasn't driven by a desire to chase commissions or become the next real estate mogul. It was a strategic move to understand the rental property business from the inside out, granting me access, knowledge, and financial advantages most investors never discover.

The results speak for themselves: I once purchased a four-unit building using my VA loan with zero down payment, earned a $7,000 commission representing myself as the buyer, lived essentially rent-free for two years, then sold it for over $100,000 profit. All because I had that little piece of paper that said I was licensed. And the best part? I'm probably the worst salesperson you'll ever meet.

Unlike traditional agents whose income swings wildly month-to-month, my steady income from my airline job, military position, and rental properties means I never pressure clients into decisions. This financial independence creates an unusual level of trust. People know I'm representing their interests, not chasing my next commission check to cover bills. The annual license fees (around $1,000-1,500) pay for themselves with a single transaction, while providing unrestricted property access, MLS data, commission savings, and industry connections that compound in value year after year.

Whether you're looking to build a rental portfolio, save on real estate transactions, or simply understand the market better - consider getting licensed, even if you're the most introverted, sales-averse person imaginable. I'm living proof that you don't need to be a "real estate personality" to leverage a license into significant financial advantage. What unconventional investment in yourself could transform your real estate journey?

Speaker 0:

I got my real estate license even though I hate selling and I really have no interest in it whatsoever. And here's exactly why I got my real estate license like maybe eight years ago or so because I wanted to learn the rental business from inside and out. And the fastest way for me to learn it was to learn how to buy a property. That was step one, and I figured I could go get a book about how to buy a property 101 or property buying for dummies I'm sure they have something similar to that. I could have done that, but I decided to get my license because I felt like it was a hands-on approach to learn a deal from the beginning to the end, from the perspective of a realtor. I wasn't doing it because I wanted to be a big-time realtor. I don't have that in me, I don't think. What I do have is a desire to learn how to work this business, and that's why I got the license. So I picked up the license. I studied for a couple months, I did an online course, took the test. I'm a realtor yay in a sea of many, many other people that have become realtors at some point in their life. But I got this license because I wanted to learn how to do the business. So everything from listing contracts, purchase contracts, how they're filled out, what's good on them, what's bad on them.

Speaker 0:

I remember I submitted a offer to purchase years back this is when I first got my license. I had no idea what I was doing on the paperwork. I just started putting stuff together, I was paying down points on the mortgage and this was a very convoluted offer. I had no idea what I was doing. If I can find it, I'll try to include it. But I submitted it to the agent and the agent called me and was like hey, man, what are you doing here? Can you explain anything on this? And I didn't answer because I was too scared. They left me a voicemail. I never responded. So like that deal, like nothing happened with it, but like I didn't know what I was doing. I was just like trying to make stuff happen. But that getting the license really to me was just an idea of getting my foot in the door, getting something started and trying to learn the business. So that's literally what I did.

Speaker 0:

Once I had the license, I moved into working for a broker who was also operating and owning properties in the city that I live in, and so to me it was a perfect opportunity because this person's doing the thing I want to do. They also have a brokerage so I can work for them, even though it doesn't cost them really anything to house me there. I can just kind of like hang my hat there at night, do a couple of deals here and there, and I've done some. You know I've done a couple million dollars for the deals, which is cool, but it doesn't really mean a whole lot. It's just kind of what happens over time if you're not a total piece of shit. I got these deals, worked them slowly over time and it helped me learn the business, but then it also helped me learn what I want to buy and what I don't want to buy and different ages of properties and what kind of common problems they have and all these things that you learn from being able to get into these properties.

Speaker 0:

That was a big thing. I can just go get a lockbox. I can go submit a showing for whatever property I want. I can just show up representing myself. I don't have to call an agent and text an agent and coordinate with them. I've dropped lockboxes when I'm five minutes away from the property. I just show up, go in, look around and leave. I can do that all by myself. I don't have to talk to anybody. I don't have to deal with anybody else, which is ideal for me because I do not want to deal with people. And when I'm looking at that stuff too, now I'm representing myself in a deal, so I'm not paying commission. I'm actually getting paid commission. And on the same side, if I'm selling a property, I'm not paying a realtor commission for that either. I can list it for myself and I have paid people from time to time to build relationships and things like that. But realistically I could list anything I want on the MLS anytime for $0. And that is worth its weight in gold. When you have a couple million dollars worth of properties, you start doing the math. That's tens of thousands of dollars worth of commission just on one side of the deal, let alone the other side. So huge, huge opportunity there.

Speaker 0:

There's an example I can give you right now. I had a VA loan on a four unit. I'm going to go in depth on this one at some point, because it was really an awesome deal. I represented myself as a buyer, as my own agent. I bought it for three. It was like 300 something thousand I think. I ended up getting paid like a $7,000 commission to buy the building. I bought it with a VA loan, so I put zero money down, so I basically got paid to buy the building.

Speaker 0:

I know it doesn't exactly work out that way, but that's how I was looking at it. I lived in it for two years. I lived there for basically free and once the two years came up I was free from capital gains. I ended up selling the property, so I listed it for free. I sold the property and I didn't pay a commission on that and I paid for the other buyer's fee. But I ended up making over a hundred thousand dollars just doing that and it was literally no brain required. Just literally go do something, and that's something that's really worked for me in my career. It's a very simple plan of just go do something and hope something good happens. You know some of this involved, but that's exactly what I did and ended up working out really well. So I think I would recommend it to anybody that's looking to try to get their foot in the door.

Speaker 0:

If you don't have a ton of money to start out with, a really great way is just to get your license and then start to learn the business from somebody that's actually doing it and implement it into your own deals eventually. And that may take some time. It may be a couple of years before you actually start implementing into deals that you're buying. But getting the license to start with is a great way to start. You get to meet people. I mean, it's a relationship business. There's people I met when I first got my license that I still know now and have kind of tracked their career the whole way and eventually will intersect again at some point and I can look back and say, hey, you know me like we met eight years ago when I got my license. Even though I'm not active with it very often, it still helps build those relationships and this is a relationship business at the end of the day. So there's a lot of different ways to work it.

Speaker 0:

I know that it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I want to say from my perspective I'm not a salesperson at all, I'm not a, you know, like a used car dealership is like one of my least desirable places to spend any amount of time ever in my life. So I don't have that in me at all. I don't like it. I don't like being sold to, I don't like any of that stuff. But having your license doesn't mean you need to be a salesperson. And I've gotten so many deals to sell for people just because they know that I'm that kind of guy and I don't live off this income and I'm not.

Speaker 0:

That's the big problem with realtors is realtors are one month they made 30 grand and the next two months they made zero grand, and so their life is very cyclical like this. And guess who gets to go along on that ride? It's the buyers. The buyers and the sellers that they're representing are dealing with this ups and downs, because one month they're living high in the hog and then tax month comes and oh, I forgot to pay taxes for or save for taxes last year and now I'm strapped for money. And then they're hounding you to say, oh, we really got to reduce this price or we really got to list this house soon. And it's not because they think it's the best time, it's because it's their own interest bleeding through and trying to get you to list your property.

Speaker 0:

So I think that's something that's worked really well for me is I don't care about any of that. I have a full-time airline job, I have a part-time military job and I have my rental properties. I could never list anything for the rest of my life and I don't give a shit. But that attitude is what people like, because they know that I'm going to represent them the best as possible. If I am going to, because I don't care if I get paid, I don't care when I get paid, I don't need any of that, so it doesn't matter to me, and I think that people can.

Speaker 0:

I think people are receptive to that and they realize that this guy's not BSing us. He's not trying to just like buy himself another watch or a freaking car or whatever. He's just doing it because he knows us and we like him and he likes us and it's all going to work out okay. So I think that's something to really consider. I know that doesn't apply to everybody, but if you're watching this, you're probably somebody that this might apply to and I hope that that resonates with you, because you don't need to be a salesperson to be able to do this. I'm doing it and I'm the worst salesperson maybe of all time. So I think that's something to think about, because I think there's so many people in the real estate space that are the used car sale. If they weren't doing real estate, they'd be selling used cars and that's the vibe I get from about 90% of the people that are doing it. But this is for that 10% and for the audience listening to this that are considering something like that. But they're not that kind of person it's worth looking into, especially if you want to buy rental properties.

Speaker 0:

I would say that's an amazing investment. It's going to pay for itself quickly. One deal you can pay for a couple of years worth of your license fees. For me they're about $1,000, $1,500 a year, something like that and it's expensive. It's not the cheapest thing in the world but, man, it's an easy, simple investment. You get to learn the business and then you can leverage that with using the MLS to look up properties and get insider information about when it was bought and sold most recently. I know you can get that on Zillow and Redfin and all these other websites, but on the MLS I feel like it's pretty packaged nicely. You can get a lot of information pretty quickly on there, so I think there's a lot of benefits to it.

Speaker 0:

I'm not a representative from the Realtor Association or anything like that. I'm probably I'm just a guy talking and I think to me it worked really well. So hopefully someone gets something out of this and they can implement it in their own life. But that's my thoughts on that quick video. It's just something that's worked for me and I hope that it could work for somebody else and it might be some way to frame things in their mind so they can actually implement it and make a business out of this whole thing. So I appreciate everybody that's watching this. I think I'm still. I got a couple comments now. I think I got two comments, so I'm excited to get a third comment or somebody that I can interact with a little bit more. So anybody that leaves a comment, I will interact with you and I'll keep making videos until I either don't have electricity or I don't know what else would happen. I guess no electricity, my phone gets stolen, maybe something like that. I'll keep making videos until then. You can bet on that. So I'll see you guys soon. Thanks,