The argument for augmenting your real estate education by obtaining your real estate license is a common one. However, what about the main other related licenses that are available?
Constantly improving your level of real estate education is wise, but is there any real value in obtaining licensing as a mortgage broker, property manager (CAM), contractor or appraiser? In some situations actually having a license can be a draw back to real estate investing and certainly in many cases you cannot use your license in transactions for flipping homes that you have a financial interest in. For example, you cannot do the appraisal on a home for a lender if you are buying it for yourself. In other circumstances you can definitely benefit from referral fees if you have a relevant license, though intelligent companies already have programs in place that will allow you to legally receive referral fees.
There is certainly nothing wrong with at least taking the licensing classes for the above designations and it can of course help you keep people you do business with in line. However you will most certainly find that the real estate education that you pick up in these classes is generally just for passing the relevant state exams and normally has no correlation to how business is conducted on a day to day basis. For example the real estate education received in real estate salesperson licensing courses may teach you the wording of the law and how you should answer test questions, but won´t by any means teach you how to buy and sell homes. So while no form of real estate education should be discouraged, you will certainly find your time and money much better spent on learning how to actually flip homes and getting out there and obtaining some real world experience for yourself.
