Congratulations on passing your exam! Now its time to interview with brokers!

CONGRATULATION!

Now that you have passed your exam, you will go out and interview brokers if you don't already have one in mind. I did not interview with very many, just because I had heard great things about Keller Williams, and had family in the firm. 

When interviewing with a broker, don't think about it as them interviewing you for a job. You are interviewing them to see if you want to work with them. They already want you! Now you need to see if you want them. 

Here are some important questions that I believe you should ask before saying yes to a broker.

Do you provide training?

• This is important because if they don't provide training, then all they are doing is throwing you to the wolves. I'm sure they do more hands on training, than in a classroom, but I believe that you should be in a class with other agents that are either new to Real Estate, or new to the company, so that you get the most out of your learning experience, and you automatically create contacts right out of the gate. You can learn together, and do open houses together and feed off of each other. 
• Just an FYI, Keller Williams has the #1 training program in the nation over ALL  industries, not just Real Estate. It is a little expensive, but I am in the program right now, and it is definitely worth it.

Do you have a mentor program where I can shadow a top producer for a period of time?

•   It is a good idea even if the brokerage firm doesn't have a mentoring program, that you find someone in the office that you can mentor. Even if its just to ask them if you can rely on them if you have any questions, or help you with your first few contracts, listings, or open houses. Keller Williams does have a mentoring program, and eventually you could become a mentor. Mentors get a small percentage of every transaction you make, and that is an extra income for them. I strongly advise that you go with a firm that has one established.

At what commission split will I begin?

• Usually new agents will start at a lower commission split than more experienced agents. That is the norm. At Keller Williams they start at a 60/40 split (60 agent/40 broker) then when you get your first 4 closings, you will bump up to 70/30 split. Once you hit your ceiling, of what you have paid KW out of your 30% then you get the full 100% until your anniversary date. I think this is awesome, because if you reach your ceiling after the first 2 months out of the year, for the other 10 months you get all the commission. Minus the mentor fee, which isn't that much, so you wont even notice its missing. 

If they ask you to sign some sort of contract stating that you have to commit a certain time with them, before you can move to a different firm, in case you don't fit well with them, then do not consider them. You are supposed to be a free agent, and should be able to go where ever you wish to go. Keller Williams does not have that. 

These are some of the more important questions that I think you should ask when interviewing. Here is a link of some other questions that you could ask if you fee they are necessary.

I hope this helped out if have passed your exam, and are about to interview.

I am not sure what my next post will be, but stay tuned for the next bit.

Learn from my exeriences

I know I said that the next blog would be "Congratulations on passing your exam! Now its time to interview with brokers!" But I learned something that I would like to share. 

Before or after you take your exam, you need to get your fingerprints done. You can do it at any Pearson View location, and they will send it directly to TREC. It usually takes about 7-10 days for the back ground check to go though. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. It depends on TREC and how backed up they are.

So this is where I want you to learn from my experiences. After I found out that I passed my exam, I called Keller Williams and told them that I was a new agent and that I wanted to interview with them. They scheduled an interview for a week out. This is not a normal time frame. The person that I was going to interview with, was out of town for a convention.

When I got there, they told me all about Keller Williams and gave me all the payments that I will need to make. They logged on to the TREC website so that they could download my license, but they couldn't find my license information. They then asked me if I did my fingerprinting. I completely forgot that's what you have to do to get your license. So, I was able to start training, but I wasn't able to do any of the homework until I got my license. You are not allowed to practice Real Estate until you have an active license.

After I submitted my fingerprints, I didn't get my letter from TREC until about 10 days from the time I submitted them. So because I forgot that I needed my fingerprinting done, It took me close to a month to get my license after I passed my exam. I passed my exam on the 6th, had my interview on the 17th, started training on the 18th, did my fingerprints on the 19th, and got my license on the 24th. 

So you should try to schedule you fingerprints on the same day that you take your exam. It will save you a lot of time, energy, and driving in the long run. 

When you do finally get your license, you should go interview with a couple Real Estate firms to see which would be right for you. I strongly recommend Keller Williams. They now have the best training program in the nation over all industries, not just Real Estate. They have a sincere open door policy, and they work with a great amount of vendors to help you out. 

But please keep in mind if you go with Keller Williams, that you will be paying a good amount of money upfront for it. You pay for the training, but that includes business cards, a photo shoot, name badge, key deposit and 4 weeks of training.

Hope this post helped! Now stay tuned for the next blog: Congratulations on passing your exam! Now its time to interview with brokers!

So you've finished your classes. Now what?

After you have finished all 6 of your courses, you are now ready to apply for your inactive Real Estate sales persons license and sign up for your exam. Before you will be able to sign up for you exam, you will need approval from TREC.

To get your inactive Real Estate sales persons license, you will need to gather all of your certificates from your classes, and either fax or email them to TREC. To do this, first you will need to create your username and password on the TREC website at www.trec.texas.gov. You will need to sign up as a registered user and fill out the application. There will be a $205 application fee. Once you get all of that situated, you can email your certificates to education@trec.texas.gov or Fax them to 512-936-3863.

Once you have finished the application and sent in your certificates, it should only take about a week to receive your email with your code to sign up for your exam. Once you have your code, you are can either go to the Pearson View website and sign up for your exam, or you can call. The Pearson View website is  pearsonvue.com/tx/realestate, and the phone number is 800-997-1248. I feel like it is easier to sign up on line, just because it shows you a calendar of what days are available. When you call, you have to give them a date to start with, then they can tell you what days are available. If you need to reschedule, you can easily do that on the phone with no charge. You will have to pay $54 each time you take your exam. Hopefully you will pass on the first try. However, the statistics are 50% of students do not pass on their first try. So if you don't pass, don't feel too bad, I passed on my second try. 

While you are waiting to take your exam, you can study the Pearson View study guide that I acquired from a woman that I took one of my classes with. It will tell you what to expect when you take the exam, and it has 5 practice exams. Click the link below to get this study guide for yourself.

Pearson View Study Guide

The study guide will tell you this, but when you go to the testing center, you will need your drivers license and your Social Security card. They will do a couple of things to make sure you are not trying to cheat. They are very secure when it comes to taking this exam. You should also arrive about 15 minutes before your exam time, because they will give you a piece of paper to read with all the rules and guidelines when taking this test.

The test is administered on the computer at the testing center with an easy to use program. It is all multiple choice, but don't let that fool you. The questions are a little tricky. I would recommend that you read the questions a couple times before you answer them. 

Once you have finished the exam, you will receive two pieces of paper from the front desk attendant before you leave the center. One is for the State exam, and the other is for the National exam. It will either say "Congratulation..." without a score, which means that you have passed the exams. Or they will have a couple of scores, one for the passing score, and the other for your score, this means that you did not pass the exam. If you did not pass, your print out will also have the categories that the test covered, how many questions were in that category, and how many you answered correctly. This will help you study for next time. 

Below are some examples of what you will receive when you finish the exams.

Whether you don't pass either exam or pass one of them, you will still need to pay the full $54 the next time you register.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this entry, and I hope it helps.

Stay tuned for the next blog labeled: Congratulations on passing your exam! Now its time to interview with brokers!

What to expect when you start Texas Real Estate classes

If you choose Champions School of Real Estate, this will inform you of what to expect when you start taking classes.

First of all, you can either pay for all 6 classes at once, which will save you some money. Or, if you cant afford $933 up front, you can pay for each class as you take them. The classes cost $155 each. 

The school offers a couple different options for taking the classes depending on your work schedule. They offer a couple different online classes, and different scheduling options for in class classes. The options are below.

Fast-Track Correspondence 

(Formally called Classroom Fast-Track)

Champion's Fast-Track Correspondence course format is an instructor led correspondence course. The official approval through the Texas real estate commission is as a correspondence courset but the Fast-Track courses, you have a scheduled class time which you will be taught the most important points of the course material but remember you are still responsible and will be tested on all the material in the course.

EVENINGS

Monday - Thursday

6:00 PM - 9:45 PM

WEEKDAYS

Monday - Tuesday

8:30 AM - 4:45 PM

WEEKDAYS

Wednesday - Thursday

8:30 AM - 4:45 PM

WEEKENDS

Saturday - Sunday

8:30 AM - 4:45 PM

Correspondence Online

Champions School of Real Estate® offers you a convenient correspondence-online course format in which you study the course material at your own pace either on your computer in a pdf (portable digital format) format or from a textbook. You then take the exams for credit in our online testing system. The quizzes and exams can be done from anywhere there is an internet connection. The textbook for any of our correspondence-online courses can be picked up at any of our locations. We can also ship any of our textbooks nationwide for a small fee. **Textbooks are not provided for online Appraisal and online Loan Courses**

Home Study Correspondence
Home Study Correspondence course format is a self-paced individual course. That means you will be given a textbook with which you are to read in its entirety and a homework quiz. When you have completed the homework, you are required to come into our testing centers and take the final exam for credit of the course. In many cases, you can take the exam for credit during a break of a classroom course.

If you want to take online classes, I would suggest taking at least one at the campus. That will give you an idea of how you should study for the course. I took my first two classes on line, and I wish I had taken them in the class. But that is just me. I work better when I am being instructed.

If you take the classes online, you will receive the text book via PDF. At the end of the PDF file, there is homework. I would suggest printing out the homework and answer the questions as you read the text. This will help you when you take the exam when you have read through the text.

If you take the classes at the school, you should take a couple highlighters with you. You will receive your text book when you arrive at the class, unless you had the book delivered to you. The instructor will tell you what is important and if its on the homework or on the class exam.

I hope this helps a little. Stay tuned for the next blog labeled: So you've finished your classes. Now what?

How do you know if Real Estate is for you?

I live in Texas, so every link in this blog is going to be for Real Estate in Texas. However, the general aspect of this blog should pertain to everyone. Every state will have their specific requirements for getting your license. Just search for "(insert state) Real Estate classes."

If you are reading this, then you are wondering if Real Estate is right for you. Well, I'm sure everyone figures it out in different ways. I will tell you how I came to realize that being a Realtor was the career for me.

I started my working career in the restaurant industry, much like a lot of college students do. I liked being on my feet, and meeting new people everyday. After about 6 years, I wanted something new. I always said that I never wanted to be stuck behind a desk 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. After about 2 years of sitting behind a desk, I realized, that is NOT what I wanted for the rest of my life. Now, some people are happy with desk work, and that is great for them. I am not one of those people. However, I did enjoy my time learning different organization skills and working with different computer programs. I just needed something where I would have a little bit of computer time, and a lot of social interaction with different people. I realized that Real Estate was the perfect job for me.

With Real Estate, you can pretty much set your own schedule, and can switch between working from home and working from the office. This makes it a good job if you have children. The only downfall is you don't get an hourly wage or salary. The only time you get paid is when you make a sale. You are an independent contractor for a brokerage firm. This means that they can not tell you what hours to work. Because you are and independent contractor, when you do get paid, taxes will not be taken out. Therefore, you will have to pay taxes quarterly on your own. I have not come across that just yet, but I will write about it when that time comes.

When you figure out that Real Estate is where you want to be, you need to find a school to attend. There are a lot of different schools out there. I chose Champion School of Real Estate (www.championschool.com).The only thing you need to look for, if you don't go with Champion, is that they offer all of the courses you need to be able to apply to the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC). These courses are listed below:

1. Principles of Real Estate I
2. Principles of Real Estate II
3. Law of Contracts
4. Law of Finance 
5. Law of Agency
6. Promulgated Forms

You don't have to take them in that order, but I would suggest getting the two principles classes out of the way. They will give you the general knowledge you need, to understand the rest of the courses. Champions has a lot of different choices for scheduling, so that everyone is able to take their courses no matter what their working schedule is like. You can find the schedule here. To find out what all of the steps to getting your Texas Real Estate license are, go here. This will give you an idea of everything that is expected of you before you are able to schedule your national and state exam.

Well I hope this helped you determine a little better if Real Estate is right for you.

Stay tuned for the next blog: What to expect when you start Texas Real Estate classes.