Surely now this is the last obstacle cleared, or nearly so, right? I can't imagine what brick walls are left that I haven't run up against thus far. I finally called the commission office again, and said hey, when I called before, the information I got came at me so fast that I didn't absorb a word of it. I know I made missteps. Help me figure out what is missing.
Turned out what was missing was huge. But it was also so glaringly obvious that I'm embarrassed I failed to understand the first time. I didn't actually have a real estate license in my LLC's name. This is what that first person I talked to at DORA was trying to tell me. If I had thought to slow her down and say hey, I need to take notes, I might have gotten it the first time. I made a new login, as instructed, and applied for a license for my business entity. That was painfully expensive. It was another $700, the same as buying my contracts from the lawyer who pointed out that the license number was missing. But it was also necessary, because doing this kind of work without the legal protection of an LLC is just asking for some litigious nutbag to destroy me and all I own.
When I was having my freakout last week over this, in front of the neighbors over dinner, Mr S-P made a casual comment regarding barriers to entry, and I can't stop thinking about that phrase. It's totally how it feels, like it is intentionally difficult to penetrate the walls around being in the real estate business club. Not only has this been confusing, with conflicting instructions and no clear order of operations, but it is also insanely expensive. Hundreds of dollars for licensing and legal documents. Thousands for insurance. And I just realized today that I'm one bank account short. I opened two, but I may need two separate trust accounts, apart from my business operations account. It is draining, both physically and financially.
Sweet baby jeebus, I hope I can snag some more clients tout suite, just as soon as my latest obstacle is cleared.
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