I'm a licensed Broker and find it helpful to my RE investing. It is creates a liability that unlicensed investors don't have. Licensed buyers are held to a higher degree of accountability as they are considered a professional with special education and knowledge in the eye of the public and the courts. Additionally, any agent with access to the MLS is also a member of the local Realtor board through which they obtain access to the MLS, a member of TAR and NAR. As a member of NAR you are also bound by its Code of Ethics.
TREC also requires that licensed agents provide EVERY seller a CMA when they list their property or the agent buys a property for themselves. (TREC 535.16c). Buying a property under market from a seller who the agent did not make aware of the real market value is not permissible. There are hundreds of TREC actions taken against agents and their brokers for this. Once a seller learns that the property was worth more after the completion of the sale or before it closes and a properly done CMA or BPO was not furnished to them they have years to file a complaint with TREC. an unlicensed buyer doesn't have this responsibility or liability.
There are other pitfalls licensed agents must be aware of, for example.
A licensed agent, Bob, has a SFR investment property that he owns and leases under a separate entity such as Bob's Rental Homes. Bob also works for Big Top Realty as an agent. Bob's tenant of many years now wants to buy a house and wants Bob to help him find a property with Bob as his Buyer's Agent and Bob agrees. Bob and his tenant execute a buyers rep. agreement. After a couple of days of showing properties Bob shows his tenant a property that the tenant makes an offer on and the offer is accepted with a 60 day out closing. While the property is in escrow the tenant does not make 2 rent payments on the property he is leasing from Bob and still lives in. Because of Bob's fiduciary responsibility to his tenant as his agent if he files suit to evict and/or collect the past due rent he WILL face disciplinary action from TREC. His fiduciary responsibility to his tenant is to put the client's interest above his own, even when it is a separate entity he has an interest in that is the landlord.
This is a real case example of disciplinary action taken by TREC. IIRC, the discipline included hefty fines and license suspension/revocation. There are additional cases where the agent has a remodeling business where he made some repairs to a property his client purchased and the client did not pay for the agreed repairs under a separate contract. these cases ended in the same manner with the agent being disciplined by TREC. Not only does the agent receive disciplinary action so does his broker!
Hope this helps.
Howard
