Kory's Real Estate Blog

Since my last update and for quite some time, I have not visited the KGB website.  I did somewhere around three hours’ worth of work and they deposited about $10 into my bank account.  I still would like to pick up some extra cash if I’m not doing anything much more profitable, but I don’t want to get too caught up in it.  At the very least, I’ll try working for twenty hours over the next month and posting how much I earned for that time worked.
As for the real estate license, I filled out and sent all of the forms required to get the license.  I’ve checked my bank account and the check I sent to them (for about $125) to get the license has not yet been withdrawn from my bank account, so I’m guessing it hasn’t been processed yet.  I did send all of these documents via USPS certified mail and confirmed that they did indeed receive the information, so now it’s become a waiting game.  I shipped out the package on the 15th (the day after taking the exam) and they received it the following Monday.  I’m guessing processing is just taking a little while.
Finally, and unrelated (even more so) to the purpose of this blog, school has re-started up again, so perhaps expect updates less frequently (maybe at the rate of one per week, hopefully not fewer).
Anyway, pretty tired now, so going to try to get some sleep.

Well, as people who know me know, I’m 23 years old and have never had a driver’s license (I had a permit when I was 16, but something about driving scarred me back then and I haven’t come back to it since).

So I’m 23 and learning to drive right now, which is nothing in which to take pride, but I thought I’d explain the process for anyone who might be in the same boat.  Essentially, the DMV will guide you right through their process, which is pretty quick and efficient (if you can hear them over all the noises), but if you’re a bit worried you might want to read further.

I walked into the DMV, was given a number and before I even had a chance to sit, the number was called to a counter, I walked up to that counter and told the person behind it that I was there to get a driver’s permit, she asked for my state ID, which I handed to her and she filled out and handed to me a piece of paper with a bit of information on it (she asked if I wanted to register to vote — I already am and asked if I wanted to be an organ donor — I did not) and she directed me to the cashier’s counter.  I paid the cashier $10 (because I’d previously had a permit), and the cashier directed me over to the eye exam & testing person, passed the eye exam, the guy handed me the test and I filled it out, handed it in and was given nothing back (but told I passed, and to go sit in the picture area), went to go sit in the picture area, and about a minute later I was called up and handed a permit, the whole process took about half an hour (which includes all the lines and the test, from walk in to walking out it was 28 minutes, rather amazing when you hear the DMV horror stories, but it worked out well).  So that’s that, after getting insured and practicing, I’ll be going back to the (probably that same) DMV and taking the driving test, and after that I reckon I’m licensed, as for practicing real estate, I’d probably go with a four-door sedan so I’m able to drive my clients around (even through I’d prefer a Civic coupe, for a mixture of gas mileage [main reason] and sunroof [my most-wanted non-standard feature on most cars]).

Gah, best of luck to anyone who’s too ripe to be getting a driver’s license!

I opened up the forums, if there’s problems, please feel free to let me know (admin at virlo dot net) and I’d be happy to take care of it, otherwise, if you’re a real estate professional or consumer in Illinois (or anywhere else, or someone somehow associated with the KGB as a special agent, prospective special agent, quality agent, etc.; or just anyone interested in discussing relevant subjects at all) go ahead and join the forums.

So, if I’m honestly going to attempt to turn real estate sales into a “college job,” how can I go about this?  This is the question I’ve been asking myself constantly, so the following is just a bunch of stuff that has come to my mind:

1. I don’t drive, if I am allowed to be a salesperson, how would I get to showings?
   1. I do plan to get a license before year’s end, and could perhaps borrow a friend’s car
2. What would I do for the office?
   1. For useful experience, I would be willing to do essentially anything, though I’d prefer to manage escrow accounts, be doing the math or be an active salesperson.
3. How often/when would I be working?
   1. Very strictly, I cannot work during hours when I have class (currently, during the day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and just before lunch Tuesdays and Thursdays)
4. Why would I hire me?
   1. I have a broker’s license and am earning a degree in finance from a local school, I am reliable and, so long as class isn’t interrupted I’m responsive and willing to work around other peoples’ schedules.
5. What do I hope to gain from this experience?
   1. I’m interested in gaining experience, and let that lead me in a direction, if I feel confident in my abilities, I may want to open my own firm somewhere else in Illinois after graduating, or if I’m uncomfortable with the idea of opening my own office, but enjoy the industry, I may stay with the firm that hired me in college.
6. How long would I want to stay in the employ of another broker?
   1. Well, as mentioned above, it all depends on my comfort level after graduation, if I like what I’m doing and am comfortable where I am with no want to proceed further, I’ll stay at my original broker’s office, if I’m feeling ambitious, I may expand out and open my own office, probably closer to Chicago.
7. What’s the bottom line (how much will I get paid)?
   1. This is almost impossible to tell because it would depend on me and my ability to attract buyers and sellers, though (according to the website Payscale), the wages for full-time salespeople (hence, not brokers and probably not owners) is competitive with average salaries in the area (35k in Macomb, IL and ~40k in Chicago, IL)
8. What can I expect, how long will it take (and how much will I spend) before I’m a profitable salesperson?
   1. Again, too tough for me to currently tell, through I have read that it can take 60 to 180 days to become profitable, according to Century 21.
9. If I’m only doing this on a half-time or less basis, can I be consistently profitable (even if the profits are razor thin, I need to make some money: I can’t go bankrupt for all the experience in the world)?
   1. I honestly think I could be, I’d be committed to the job at least 70% of my free time on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, as well as the afternoons of Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, this gives me quite a few hours to work, so as long as buyers and sellers could work just a bit around my schedule, I’d be available and I could do the office work in the afternoons, including the fees I’d have to pay my broker from MLS access and office space, I’m sure I could make enough to be in the black.

After reviewing and thinking about all of that, after I obtain my broker’s license (whether that be before summer’s end or before spring session starts), I’ll talk to my teacher and see if she can’t get me a job down at Century 21 in Macomb, if that’s not a possibility, I’ll talk to my friends to see if any of them know a broker who may be willing to take a chance by hiring me and try that, and if that fails or nobody knows anyone, I’ll talk to the local (non-franchised) office, Key Realtors® and attempt to get hired by them.  Finally, I’d try to get hired by the non-Century 21 franchises (RE/MAX and Coldwell-Banker).  If nothing works out at any of those offices, I guess it’d be safe to assume I wasn’t meant to work in real estate while in college and I may give up until I graduated, or perhaps altogether and I’d just keep my license for its own sake, but I rather doubt nobody would hire me.

I just got the following e-mail from KGB payments:

from: Special Agents Payment

Special Agents and Shadowees,

We’ve deposited payment into all of your accounts for your work from June 1st – June 30th, and have once again disregarded the $40 minimum. Great news!

We wanted to publicly congratulate our top five (with ACE Quality!) in two categories – Top Earners and Top Questions Answered. Some cool kgb_ swag is on the way for this group, plus some free texting credits!

Drum roll, please…

Our Top Five Earners – including contest winnings – for June are:

Special Agent Sean C (seancoa…) – $1,115

Quality Agent Pandora F (thesimpl…) – $835

Special Agent Kaci B (lendra…) – $830

Quality Agent Ashley A (ashley86…) – $750

Quality Agent WL C (idein…) – $729

Our Top Five Questions Answered for June include:

Special Agent Sean C (seancoa…) – 10,725

Special Agent Kaci B (lendra…) – 8,107

Special Agent Kay G (krwg…) – 7,727

Special Agent Josh E (joshtheha…) – 7,633

Special Agent Jeremy B (jbb3…) – 7,488

Everyone, keep up the great work and thanks so much for all that you do.

Regards,

Special Agents Payment

So, wow, it looks as through some people are really making bank, I’d like to know how that Sean C guy can have 10k+ answered questions in one month, I don’t think I could click quickly enough to get 10,000 questions answered.  I’m not sure I’d even want to answer 10,000 ore more questions, think my time might be more valuable than that, but it all depends on what kind of questions KGB routes to me after I’m “active” (still training now, and it’s not paying well at all, trust me, any normal job (perhaps besides minimum wage, but not even sure about that), even part time, would outpay the KGB, and $1000 isn’t all that much, anyway, but it might be something for which to strive, especially if you can pull it off by working only 5 hours a day.  Be interesting to find out, but I’m still not sure if it’s worth it.

Yea, I know this is going to sound like an advertisement or something, but I’ve actually been (practicing) day trading in the forex market.  So far, 75% of my trades have been successful and, starting with $25, in one day I’ve kicked that number up to $34, so not bad I’d say.  Most of my trades stay open for less than an hour, and I have one trade that is currently long term (days, weeks, possibly months, whenever it’s stop is hit is when the trade will be closed).

That’s pretty much the reason why I haven’t updated my status on the appraisal portion of the broker exam that’s coming up, it has quite a few pages of material and I should definitely give it some thought, but have been wasting time with the above nonsense.  The teacher said she’s going to give me a quick review before taking this portion of the exam, so hopefully that’ll help, as the quizzes don’t appear to be overly difficult (at least one is exactly what I’ve taken before, for the salesperson portion).  As usual, I’m expecting to be prepared to take this exam (hopefully more so than the previous one) and I’ll again pass it.  I have, unfortunately, been contemplating delaying the acquisition of my broker’s license until winter break (December-January), but I’d still like to be at a milestone (like having completed all of the office’s tests, for example) before school begins on August 20th.

I have set up two shifts with KGB: Wednesday and Thursday, both between 3 PM and 9 PM CST.  I’m excited, but unsure about scheduling, as I run an inconsistent schedule, especially over the summer and while I’m at home, hopefully when I’m in school, things will stabilize and I’ll be working more consistently, if I’m still with KGB (again, depending on what kind of inflow it creates).

I’ll post my results when appropriate, and will probably update often at first and then slow down in an attempt to show a bigger picture.

Ultimately, planning in the short run (before I can stabilize a schedule) will probably be my personal biggest difficulty, as I’d still like to fit getting a broker’s license into the summer.

Anyway, I’ll let everyone knows how it goes tomorrow and probably update often for a week or two then slow down to show the bigger picture.

Wish me luck on today’s salesperson exam and KGB shift and I’ll be in touch!

Wow, I just did something I almost certainly shouldn’t have done: began search the Internet for people who have failed the real estate broker’s exam.  It seems there are quite a few people out there who fail this exam, it sounds very difficult; however, the material I’ve gotten from my school does not make it appear to be very difficult at all.  I’d like to know what the rate of failure in Illinois is exactly, but imagine it would be difficult to collect data from the various schools.

The material I received from my school includes much of the Real Estate Act of 2000 and some sample quizzes, which are not very difficult, and I’ve already began and am about half way done with the first package.  I believe myself to be well-versed in contract law and general business law (as I took a college course in this subject), and have noticed that much of the material covered on the quizzes includes such material.

Given the fact that I’m going to take the national and state exams for both salesperson and broker at the same time, I hope I’m able to remember the important legal information as well as be able to do the math necessary (which includes both financial and property calculations).

On seeing all this information about people failing, I’m going to try to ignore it as best I can and continue on with my course of study, I’m confident in my ability and believe that when, not if I pass the exam, the difficulty of the exam will work to my advantage, as it has the ability to ultimately limit my competition (if real estate becomes my profession) and boost my resume should I pass.  I can say that I’ve read the book and the material, reviewed the book and material and have done everything I believe necessary to pass the coming exams, and if I fail, the margin will be thin and recovery will be possible.

I’ve taken the special agent simulation portion and am now waiting to hear back from KGB about what to expect, I was told to expect one of three responses in the next seven days:

1. We are delighted with your efforts and you will move on to the Registration phase.
2. We think you have the potential to be a great Special Agent, but need to make some improvements.
3. At this time, we do not feel you are compatible for the role. In 30 days, you are eligible to re-apply.

Still not sure what I’m expecting, I did well throughout the training and will let you know what their response is and update accordingly (if I failed the last portion and they send me the #3 answer, I don’t expect to attempt to re-apply).  In any case, stay tuned until then!

Update:

The testing forum (which is still being configured and hopefully reviewed) is available at the following link: http://blog.virlo.net/forum/.

Original Post:

Well, in the course of attempting to draw more relevant traffic to my site, I’ve began to realize that there are essentially no legitamate forums and very few blogs committed to the practice of real estate.  Sure, there are plenty of blogs that are dedicated to the advertisement of real estate and various websites similar to trulia for searching for real estate, but I can’t quite find something that allows consumers to ask questions and agents interact, and I think such a site would be helpful, for the betterment of both agents and the public, so I’m hoping to start such a community before the end of July and would like feedback as to how it should be organized, through I have my own ideas that might be a good starting place:

• There should certainly be separate boards separating posts by relevance to their involvement in a real estate transaction (consumer, client, leasing agent, salesperson, broker, attorney, appraiser, lender, etc.)
• Perhaps there should be a separate board for each state, as I would like to accommodate the expansion of the site to include multiple states
• I think two designations (possibly per state) would be sufficient: real estate professional and customer, a real estate professional would need to submit his/her licensing information so it could be verified against the IDFPR’s website
• Certainly, the site will be meant to be a forum that encourages interaction and inquiry and posting properties will (as much as I hate to say it like this) be strictly forbidden
• Everyone should have access to all information on the site, that is, consumers can view what lawyers, brokers, appraisers, etc. are saying, but consumers probably shouldn’t be able to post in the forums dedicated to professionals, if a consumer would like something clarified, a private message may be sent or an inquiry can be made on the consumer forum

If you’re having trouble imagining what the site will look like, hopefully I will have a prototype up shortly (before the end of the week), with the above ideas implemented; however, absolutely any ideas would be welcome before the go-live date (which I’ll set as Monday, July 27)