That's us. We are a team of 3 - including an agent as our Buyer's agent and assistant. Technically, he (my husband is the broker of record). It was just natural for us to be a TEAM. We've always operated that way, way before we started the real estate business. He became full time last year, and that was the best decision for us EVER.

We became an LLC once the business really started earning some good income (3 years ago). It also fell along the natural progression of our lives. We had assets we wanted to protect by that point. 

I'm not sure if you are referring to advantages/ disadvantages of working as a team?
For us, it is all positive. Just like any couples, sometimes the topics we are passionate about becomes a heated subject, the negative is that it spills over into the relationship/ marriage. Boundaries are hard when both husband and wife work as a team. It depends on how well you both work together. For us, we are joined to the hip. We tend to think alike, ask the same questions, etc.

The real disadvantage that I see (pray that it never happens) is if the marriage doesnt work out, it absolutely hurts the business side of things too. 

We have some clear definition of roles on who's naturally better at what. My husband does what I sometimes dont enjoy and I'm naturally the organized paper person too. Strength in marketing.

I'm the Visionary, my husband the Executor. For us, we work perfectly together.

It never hurts that our paycheck spills into one bank account and I love it! 

My wife and I are a team. Check with your Brokerage. Some Brokerage's have significant benefits for man and wife teams. At KW man and wife teams count as 1 unit so your office fees/splits etc are instantly cut in half. And there are other instant profit share advantages to husband/wife teams at KW. As far as entities go - I'm set up as an S-Corp. Whether or not I would recommend setting up any special entity is primarily dependent on how much business your are doing and what your long term plans are. If you are enjoying $120K or more and you are going to be making your own retirement (not going to rely on SS at all) then setting up an entity is a good idea. This next datum is totally my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree but it's my opinion that S-Corps are better for protecting "income" from tax hits but LLC's are a better entity for protecting appreciating assets. In other words, I recommend an S-Corp for protecting commission income but I would recommend an LLC for rental property or other appreciating assets.

The big disadvantage of forming an additional entity is the requirement for the additional accounting and the tax returns. Don't do it!

You will have better results by simply filing your usual joint tax return.

My husband Ron and I are Team Albert, KW Port St. Lucie.  We also have another partner, Jack who I worked with years ago at Coldwell Banker.  I am a PA.  In Florida Realtors and Attorneys can be a PA,  In the Keller Williams profit share it works well this way.  We each have power points.  Ron is much more detail oriented than I am.  I love marketing and people.  We compliment each other.  "Together we achieve more".  Just stay open minded and talk, talk, talk about everything  Our best efforts are when we have combined our ideas to form a new one

Oh, sweet Jesus.  I have 100 different answers for this question.  We have a team of 10 agents, 2 of them being my wife and I, plus an assistant.  

I have stories.  Plenty of stories.  

One team that should be in on this conversation is Amanda and Jared Christiansen  . . . Oh Jared!!

Hi Josh, you pose an interesting question.  In California, the BRE will not issue a real estate license to an LLC, a matter on which the attorney general issued an opinion a few years back.    But you can form an LLC for the purpose of buying and selling property. 

Like everything it depends on the couple.  Some know their strengths, weaknesses, what they each like to do and don't like and find a rhythm.  Others actually compete, overstep, get in each others and everyone elses way.  

Figure out if you two can function well and what each others rolls are and you may be fine. We've done well and we've figured it out for us.  If I were to ever team with someone else, it would be completely different, based on the other persons capabilities.  

Joshua,

Funny enough, I was just telling someone that Ron and I are like a precision team and always have been.  No task can't be done by both of us, we know our strenghts and our weaknesses and we compliment each other.  We keep in mind our vision, and we both agree on what that is.  To fight would be to undermine our goals...Not everyone can do that. 

As fas as legal entities, it is best to seek legal advice.  In CA a real estate firm cannot be an LLC...A

I own our Brokerage and Larry and I are both Agents.  We work independently of each other and also back up the other when needed.  We do showings for each other, meetings, closings, whatever is needed.

My wife and I work as a team.  We are an LLC. We fill in for each other for showings, inspections, errands, among others.  It's great.  We tell all of our clients upfront and they are fine with it.

I would advise you speak with a CPA and or attorney about the advantages of running a LLC, PLLC, LLP.  For liability and tax reasons, I choose to run my business thru a PLLC couple of years ago, and glad I did.  Good luck.

I think as long as you do separate tasks, you'll be fine.... when two people do one job, the troubles start....if you each go in different directions and have different job descriptions, you'll be a well oiled machine....

I'm not a huge fan of teams. The last husband wife team I dealt with were like dealing with a couple of clowns. I would call and wife answered, her answers were" i don't know, i'm not sure, etc,... you'll have to ask my husband..... that's my husbands listing.. I'm not sure, you'll have to call back and ask my husband,. Husband would never answer his phone.

I felt there are no disadvantages if we look in the professional way. Both of us can work by defining proper working hours and can also adjust the time according to our children's timings. My wife always supports me in the work and I always find her helpful. 

Gita, isn't that EXACTLY what this post is?  A question to AR members about advantages and disadvantages of forming a husband/wife team?

Always good to work with someone who you can trust. LLC perhaps.

The entity type is just a technical detail. More importantly, working together as a team needs to increase your income dramatically.

There are many husband and wife teams in my area. As far as I know, they are not listed as LLC or LLP but there is an arrangement where one or the other gets all the money or produciton credit.

Umm this may work for a select few but I think having the team be your spouse could be a potential problem. Not that you dont care for her or love her but you need space and being with that person 24/7 could lead to issues down the road.

just food for thought I fired my wife about 20 yrs ago and we are still married so...lol

My husband is not on my Team but my son and daughter-in-law are and it has worked out great yes we have our ups and downs but in the long run we have a pretty awesome business.

Janis and I have been partners in family, life and biz for 40 years and have never missed a beat. But then I guess when you marry your secretary  (terminology circa 60's & 70's for those PC sensitive types) and promote her to your wife it's for life. 5 kids and 14 grandkids later life is very GOOD!

That stated, I will say that partnering with your soul mate isn't for the faint of heart. There are those tumultuous zones and times filled with stress, strife, challenge and attitude.

But it's certainly worth a shot. G O O D  L U C K in any event.

 Definitely study the good ones. I find that the folks who have a strong marriage to begin with do well. If you don't start with a strong foundation is it bound to crumble

My husband and I have debated about becoming a team of real estate agents. A big concern is the additional cost involved with little upside.  We work as a "team" but in a different way. As most couples we compliment each other with a different skill set.  My husband is not a licensed real estate agent but he is great at marketing and all the technical aspects of the job including the professional real estate photography.  I am good with people and knowledge of my area. We are always up front and throughly explain that he is not licensed and anything he says is his personal opinion. He can't and won't answer questions about real estate or the process.  My clients really like how we work together. 

We constantly talk about real estate and it is not a downside because we both love it! 

  Great question.  I would love to hear how you solved this as a busienss structure.  I do know that you will be taxed twice, once as a business entity and then again, as a married couple.  It will be interesting to see how you handle the nature of our beloved deductions.

I have been in real estate 8 years. Tom White got his license 2 years ago. We work very well together and it seemed like a natural way to grow the business. He initially got his license to work as an assistant to me. We run all the deals through my name. We did open an independent brokerage this year as an LLC. For now, it is just the two of us. We both know everything about all our deals. Eventually, he will take over the listing side and I will work with buyers. However, we will continue to share information so buyers and sellers can speak to either one of us to get answers. There are many husband and wife teams in our area who are very successful. Usually one spouse is the team leader. Like our situation, one spouse started in real estate, experienced success so the other spouse joined them in the business. There are lots of advantages. Disadvantages...real estate seems to work itself into every conversation. With both our kids in college and living away from home, it's hard to talk about anything other than real estate at the dinner table. Also, egos may get bruised at times. We have very different abilities that we bring to the business. He recognizes that I'm more knowledgeable about our area and I recognize he's better with people than I am. Our clients like working with us because it feels like all the bases are covered with no gaps in the outfield.

Joshua Clemons you got the answer from Larry Johnston and there are a few that I can think of immediately - Lawrence "Larry" & Sheila Agranoff. Call 631-805-4400 (c) , Ron and Alexandra Seigel , Tammie White & Tom White (sorry can't tag more than 5, Tom).

You can surely pick up the phone and ask for their experience - I am sure they wouldn't mind.

I think there are lots of advantages to working as a team. there are many spouses working as teams on AR. You should try to reach out to them and ask .