mine is taking the re class starting in june!

was curious if anyone on here has a spouse in the business.

ups?
downs?

i am pretty(very, very, very) excited!

Congratulations on getting married!

Yea I do. Make sure you have understood duties. It's best if one list and one works buyers etc. In other words....stay out of each others way as much as possible. BigC

My Wife is a Broker in my our Firm . . . . but I am vicariously responsible for all of her activities. She's had her License hanging on the wall here for 16 years. When it shows up on some other Broker's wall, I'll be taking the hint. We had been married for over 23 years before I took her on as a Business Partner; so she was somewhat of a known quantity.

So far she hasn't picked up any bad habits (can't get any from me !). Sometimes I wish she had experienced working in a large brokerage with all that entails before working for "US"; because there's value in seeing how other people play the Real Estate Game. It's a little late for that now.

If you're living and breathing this stuff 24/7, I can't imagine being in an environment where there wasn't a receptive ear to empathize with the issues that arise daily.

And in spite of the fact that we are "One Financial Entity", we still maintain a bit of internal competition over "Who" will take credit for each little Listing and each little Customer and any little Sales that might happen to fall down upon us. But when Trouble comes a knockin' . . . . then it's the Principal Broker who has to face the music.

Set up like this, there is no back-up plan . . . . you succeed or fail together !

My husband and I started within a few months of each other in 2004. Both full time and a team from day one. We both love what we do, but except for Tim coming on tours with me, we both have very different roles in the business, that suit our different personalities. Works great and we're told we complement each other. Good luck.

My wife is a homemaker so "NO" she has no interest in real estate.

She loves to decorate for every single holiday out there. I basically let her do her thing but the office is my space and isn't touched.

I beleive anykind of partnership is about balance and negotiation. It's when you don't talk upfront and different expectations breeds resentment and confusion which can be destructive to any partnership.

For every success story with these I also here a nightmare one. So it can work and jus tlike starting in real estate having a plan creates better odds for success.

All my wife know is real estate makes us lot's of money and she does enjoy that.

My husband and I are agents together. He became an agent to help when I overloaded.
We have very different styles, but it is nice to discuss potential problems

The downside is he now knows when he gives advice and I don't take his advice. He never says anything, but I know he knows.

I think this partner idea is very subjective to each partner's personality. I am sure it can be good and hard at times.

I took one of my ex girlfriends through real estate school with me when we were 18 years old. We had a big plan to get into the business together and work hard at it. Well, that didn't work and neither did the relationship. Neither one of us got licensed and I ended up having to go to school again 3 years later. I then went in with another ex girlfriend of mine. Same results. I think I enjoy pain. I guess I don't learn.

My husband would not be a good realtor. His experience in the construction business can spot a "shoddy" (in his opinion) job a mile away. Most homes would have him rolling on the floor laughing after stepping inside...lol. He's very fussy about how things should be done construction wise, and thus he has no patience for DIY's or MLC Company Specials (Moe Larry Curly Company, that is...)

We've worked together for the past seven years. Our company is set up with my wife as the majority stockholder and me as the Managing Broker. That way all decisions require an agreement. Most operational decisions are my responsibility and most financial decisions are her's.
But we seldom disagree on business decisions.

My husband and I are in the business together. We don't handle things the same way and try to keep our mouths shut, but there's a fair amount of "I told you so" going around. And we don't mention it aloud to each other, but we are competitive with each other. I guess that can be good because it keeps us both plugging away when you'd rather just crawl under the covers.

All in all, I love it. This business can all-consuming and I can't imagine having to turn it off because my spouse didn't get it or was tired of hearing about it. When we turn it off it's a much more natural transition, we (mostly) care about the same things at the same time.

My husband is a g/c and builds homes and, if they're spec, I sell them. My son is licensed agent and works with me. I feel bad sometimes for my youngest daughter as she has no choice but to hear real estate talk all around her.

I met my husband years ago when we worked in the real estate department in the corporate office of a large department store. We've been on the "same page" since Day 1. We talk on the phone several times a day about real estate/construction issues.

Sounds smothering when I write that but it's not...I love it!

I was in the business fulltime for 4 years before my husband came on FT. He had gotten his license 1 year after I got mine to help in the crisis. He was working for a company we knew was closing and basically waited for them to pay him to leave (severance package)....

Pros-

When you have been standing in line for 45 minutes at Chilis for a table and someone calls and wants to do another walk thru on the house and then write a contract- he gets it and understands with no complaints.

He helps when all the balls get up in the air. When I cant be in 2 places at once - he can go where I cant.

Cons-

At times We have a hard time figuring out my role and his. Also, he sometimes has a very hard time taking advice from his wife. There have been times that I have had someone else in the office tell him something and then he listens.

Since we are both in Real Estate sometimes it is the only thing we talk about. We have had to have Real Estate Free Dinners. We have to make sure we schedule times to just be a couple and not a couple of real estate agents.

This is just a couple of pros and cons. In general I really am glad we do this together. He gets what I do. I have friends that have spouses that dont get the weekend work or the evening work. I dont have that. We are also really good together because my strengths are not his and his are not mine. But there are days when I look at him and think I really just cant see your face anymore today.

Good Luck!