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  I’ve checked my bank account and the check I sent to them (for about $125) to get the license has not yet been withdrawn from my bank account, so I’m guessing it hasn’t been processed yet.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.

I practiced driving a little bit yesterday and today, quite in line with what people have previously told me, it’s quite tiring, and I’ve only done it in very quick (15-minute) spurts, and haven’t really driven on a real street yet.  If I’d known putting learning how to drive off until I was 23 would be so stressful, I probably wouldn’t have done it, but what’s done is done and hopefully I’ll be able to get my driver’s license either over winter break or next summer.

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!

Got an 80% on it, not great, but not too bad, and within passing.  My teacher says not to expect too much of the information from that portion to be on the state/national exam.  For this section, I’d suggest students review the terms (definitions) and calculations in relation to income properties, as that make up a great deal of this exam.  I’d also suggest students review information about “how to build a house,” or, probably better, the basic components of a house as well as the cost, comparable and income approaches to appraisal.

I’ll be taking the appraiser exam for the real estate office on Thursday, the quizzes I’ve taken to prepare me for it are about 50% law and 50% math.  I need to go over a bit of both, probably the law more than the math (just need to learn how to do the math first, which wasn’t in the study material, but there is an answer sheet for the quizzes, so I’ll learn it from that).

This is another short (and “unimportant,” according to my teacher) portion of the broker’s series, though she said she’s going to give me a quick refresher before taking the exam.  I’d like to do better on it than the previous test (Contracts and Conveyances, on which I got a 78%) so as to prevent any refreshers I’m going to take before the state/national exams.

Well, I’m assuming I’ll probably be taking a test next Thursday, also (not sure which one, though), assuming everything goes well with this portion.  Let’s see what happens and I’ll drop an update after the test!

I just signed up for my second battery of shadow shifts with KGB.  I’m getting sub-par reviews at best (using Wikipedia as a source often = bad thing), but might keep going until I get bored or they tell me to go away.

I’m really spreading out my shifts, as I realized how boring and unrewarding doing four hour or more shifts is (I didn’t complete either of those two four-hour shifts, it’s just so boring).  My schedule is the following:

Hi Michael,

This is a summary of the shifts you are currently signed up for from Wednesday 15 July to Tuesday 21 July.

All times are in EST.

Thursday 16 July, 19:00 to 20:00: normal shift

Thursday 16 July, 20:30 to 21:00: normal shift

Friday 17 July, 11:00 to 12:00: ‘try me’ shift

Friday 17 July, 14:00 to 15:00: ‘try me’ shift

There’s a chance I won’t make the later ‘try me’ shift even if they do e-mail me, as I’ll be away at school this weekend.  Maybe it’s because I’m at home and taking real estate courses that I’m getting bored and kind of angry with the KGB job, but hopefully (like I’ve been going on about, when my schedule evens out) I’ll be able to do it while in school if I’m not able to get a more real job there.  Guess we’ll see how that goes.