Real Estate Agents Lease Agreements
De BISAWiki
Lease agreements are usually prepared by real estate agents and/or lawyers and this forms part of the whole service package offered to consumers. These days, however, you no longer need to consult with professionals for this. Many of these real estate related websites can give you tips on how to prepare a legally binding lease agreement. There are sites where a sample is presented to you on the screen, and there are also websites where you are able to purchase and download these contracts. The forms, such as the residential lease agreement, though found on real estate websites were created by professional real estate agents, thus you can be assured that the format and contents are valid. These can be opened using any word processing program and you can easily modify the contents to plug in the rules and conditions for you expect your tenants to follow.
After gaining some years of experience in real estate sales, a salesperson may decide to become licensed as a real estate broker (or Principal/qualifying broker) in order to own, manage or operate their own brokerage. In addition, some states allow college graduates to apply for a broker license without years of experience. College graduates fall into this category once they have completed the state required courses as well. California allows licensed attorneys to become brokers upon passing the broker exam, without having to take the requisite courses required of an agent. Commonly more course work and a broker's state exam on real estate law must be passed. Upon obtaining a broker's license, a real estate agent may continue to work for another broker in a similar capacity as before (often referred to as a broker associate or associate broker) or take charge of his/her own brokerage and hire other salespersons (or broker) licensees. Becoming a branch office manager may or may not require a broker's license. Some states such as New York allow licensed attorneys to become real estate brokers without taking any exam. In some states, such as Colorado, there are no "salespeople", as all licensees are brokers.
To become licensed, most states require that an applicant take a minimum number of classes before taking the state licensing exam. Such education is often provided by real estate brokerages as a means to finding new agents.
Compensation is conventionally based on a percentage of the sales price, split between the buying and selling brokers, and then between the agent(s) and his/her real estate agency. While a split based on the percentage received by the broker is generally normal, in some brokerages agents may pay a monthly "desk fee" for office costs, monthly fee, etc., and then retain 100% of the commission received.
Times have changed now and many real estate agents are more open to the idea of lease options or rent to owns. That's because the real estate market is down and more and more agents are willing to be creative to get things done. But there are definitely still some holdouts who only want to do conventional sales. The reality is that some of these agents will never change their mind but some will, especially if you are their client and you insist on it or suggest you'll find someone who will. So bear in mind that the suggestions I'm going to offer will work with some agents (the ones who still want to make a living in this market) and won't work with others (the ones who absolutely refuse to do anything besides conventional sales).
BUT, conventional sales are a lot harder to come by now. The mortgage crisis is affecting everyone, even A+ credit buyers need to have larger down payments than before. This means that if a real estate agent is only doing conventional sales their income has dropped. Look, I'm not saying that rent to owns are the perfect solution for EVERY situation. They aren't.
