Kory's Real Estate Blog

As the title says, I booked three more KGB shifts (my first shifts as a special agent, not just a trainee), one for each today, tomorrow and Friday.  I accidentally booked an hour earlier than I was hoping (due to their system being on EST and me being on CST), I tried canceling the shifts for tomorrow and Friday and re-booking them for the proper time (they’re scheduled around classes those two days), and they’re currently in the status “looking for cover.”

I’m going to set the goal of booking at least three hour-long KGB shifts each week over the next month, which will give me at least 15 hours of work with them, since I’d like to be able to stick with them, I’ll probably do a few more shifts just to get up to 20 hours.  I figure this should earn me 40-50 dollars for the month (at minimum).

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  I’ve checked my bank account and the check I sent to them (for about $125) to get the license has not yet been withdrawn from my bank account, so I’m guessing it hasn’t been processed yet.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

Sorry for the lack of updates, I was away for the weekend.  The hour and a half shift that I had on Thursday went swimmingly (just normal, answered the questions I could and did the best I could on other questions), the two ‘try me’ shifts that I had planned on Friday they didn’t e-mail me to join.

Now that I think of it a bit, I probably wasn’t e-mailed because I am still in training and, since I’m not answering “live” questions (I’m only answering questions that somebody else already answered, and my responses never make it to customers), there’s no real reason why I’d be needed if they needed a real shift filled, so I’ll have to wait until when (or if) I’m a live agent to see exactly how ‘try me’ works out.

So, while the pay still isn’t great, I’m doing decently and I guess the people who answer enough questions are making a decent wage, though answering 10k+ questions in one month does not currently seem feasible to me, maybe I’ll see how that works after I go ‘live.’

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.

I’m currently working as a KGB Special agent, between 4 PM EDT and 10 PM EDT.  It is pretty boring, and I’ve actually been pretty busy (more so then my job last year, where I worked 10 hour days and made 40k/year).

I’ll keep chugging along for a little bit to see how it turns out, but it’s not very therapeutic for me, I’d rather be thinking, reading or just relaxing, but it could be better, it’s worth hanging on for a bit to see if I like it more or if something changes that will possibly lead to me liking it.

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!

I received the following two e-mails today (2009/07/07) at 10:12 AM CDT from the Knowledge Generation Bureau (so they just barely made their predicted one-week time frame):

E-mail 1:

Hi there,

Our team of Quality Agents has looked through your answers.

Check out your reviews and see how you did: N/A

(Your username and password is found in the email we sent you to first access the Simulator.)

A recommendation has been made and we’ll let you know what the outcome is of that recommendation within the next few days. You are required to read your reviews before you hear the results.

Special Agents Training

E-mail 2:

Great work on the Simulator!

Now that you have successfully completed Special Agents Training, you are ready for the next step – Special Agents Registration. Here, all you have to do is complete the required paperwork.

There are four steps in the Registration process:

Step 1: Enter your Personal Data – including name, address, phone number, etc.
Step 2: Read and agree to the Independent Contractor Agreement
Step 3: Submit your W-9 (will need to input your SSN or Taxpayer ID #)
Step 4: Enter your U.S. bank account information so we can direct deposit your Payment (includes bank name, routing number and account number)

After you complete all four steps above, your details will be transmitted to kgb_. Data transmission is protected through SSL encryption.

You will have two days (48 hours) to complete Registration.

Register Now: N/A

Your password was sent to you when you first accessed Simulation. Please reference that email for your password.

After you complete Registration, we will send you details on scheduling your Shadowing shift within the next five days.

Any questions, email us at N/A.

Special Agents Registration

I’ve reviewed their comments, mostly positive with some small mistakes (not supposed to cite wiki sources, and did get one question technically wrong [it had to do with comic books and they thought my answer was decent, though not perfect]).

Next I had to give them my information, including social security number (or EIN), bank account (routing number and account number), home address, etc.  This is all standard procedure for an independent contractor.  So, it looks as though I’m expecting to hear back from them in the next five days, hopefully it’ll be less than that, but that goes without saying.

Best of luck to prospective and current applicants, it seems like a nice, (possibly easy), straightforward and cool way to pick up some extra change.  Hopefully they are not overstocked with agents so the agents they have are actually able to make somewhat decent money, as if I’m not able to pick up at least $100/month for doing 6-10 hours of “work” per week, it probably won’t be worth my time.  Although it may help my social skills a bit and make me a bit faster on my feet, which would be a nice added value and something to take into consideration after working there awhile.

Anyway, best of luck to all and will update when I hear back from them!

Update:

I’ve created a forum for discussion amongst KGB Special Agents or those who are prospective of the position: http://blog.virlo.net/forum/kgb-special-agent-discussion/.  Feel free to direct all questions/comments to that centralized location!

Original Post:

I’ve received a question about my status as a KGB agent; however, was not able to respond because the contact form is broken.  Please either leave a comment on the post of interest or contact me at admin at virlo dot net.

Now, to answer the question that I received via the contact page, KGB has not gotten back to me, but they still have one more day to get back to me, as the last e-mails I received from them was from June 30 at 2:34 PM, so they still have until tomorrow.  And they did add the qualifier “should,” so it would be within reason that if they were extremely busy with new applicants, it could take longer than their predicted week.

Here is the entire contents of the latest e-mail from them, received on June 30, 2009 at 2:34 PM CDT:

Hi there,

Well done on completing the test!

We’ll review your answers and let you know how you did. You should hear back from us within the next seven days.

Remember, the possible outcomes are:

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.

So keep an eye on your email inbox to see how you have done. If you do not hear back in seven days, please email us at SpecialAgentsTraining@kgb.com.

Thanks,
Special Agents Training

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!