John Marion

Three weeks ago I enrolled in an online course to study for my real estate license. Today I took the exam at the school which I expect to have passed (I will know tomorrow).

After I get the test results back, I will be qualified to sign up for the final exam with the State of Georgia Real Estate Commission. I hope to take the exam on Friday or Monday.

For anyone thinking about studying to get your real estate license, here is my recommendation. I have some suggestions. I hope these will be helpful to you as you consider how to go about getting your real estate license.

SELF-STUDY REAL ESTATE LICENSE COURSE

I took an online course and finished in two weeks. Since I had a background investing in real estate, a large portion of the course content was not new to me. I have been talking to professionals such as real estate attorneys, lenders, agents, appraisers, and full time investors for several years in the normal course of my business.

Even with my experience and knowledge, there was a lot of new content and concepts to learn.

I would recommend the online self study course for anyone who is highly motivated to get through the material at their own pace. This option allows you to go through the material FAST, especially if you have some previous knowledge and background in real estate. I think it would be difficult and slow going this way if you are new to real estate.

TWO DAY CRAM COURSE FOR REAL ESTATE LICENSE

After finishing my online course, I decided to enroll in a two day cram course offered by Barney Fletcher Schools in Atlanta. I'm glad I took the cram course, as it helped me in two areas:

1. LEARNING HOW TO TAKE THE REAL ESTATE LICENSE EXAM - The cram course opened my eyes to how one's knowledge is tested by the use of different types of questions. Evidently the exam questions can be very tricky and it takes some practice to understand what different types of questions may or may not be asking. It is easy to assume a question requires a particular answer, but when examining the question carefully, the information being asked becomes clearer. I learned not to read too much into the questions!

2. EXPOSING AREAS OF WEAKNESS IN MY REAL ESTATE KNOWLEDGE - During the two day cram course, the teacher exposed the students to every area covered in the course through the use of questions. There was no new content taught in the class but through the use of the questions, I became very aware of the particular topics that I needed study more. This enabled me to focus my final study time to that content which I needed to learn in order to pass the exam.

I would highly recommend a cram course such as the one I took in order to prepare for the real estate license exam, unless you have previous experience taking exams of this type. The questions can be tricky and if you are not prepared, you will get tripped up during the exam.

CLASSROOM REAL ESTATE LICENSE COURSE

I would suggest a full classroom course for anyone wanting to get their real estate license who has no background in real estate. I honestly can't imagine absorbing all the content required to pass the exam by going it alone with no previous real estate experience. Taking a live class with other students in a classroom environment may be your best option.

The Nature of Real Property

I've completed module one on the online real estate license course. The first module called The Nature of Real Property consisted of the following topics:

Introduction to Real Estate Principles and Practices
Physical and Economic Characteristics of Land
The Nature of Personal Property
The Real Estate Business
Types of Real Estate
Land Descriptions

The most difficult section for me was Land Descriptions which went into some detail about methods of description used today:

Monuments method
Metes and bounds method
Government survey method
Lot, block, and subdivision method (recorded plat)
Vertical land description
Reference to other recorded documents

Today's quiz question which caught me off guard was the one that asked about ownership boundaries of a parcel of land. I hesitated with my answer but made the wrong choice anyway which said ownership in a parcel of land includes the earth's surface, extending a reasonable distance up and down.

The reason I picked that answer is because there are laws limiting the rights of owners.

The fact that rights are not unlimited made me hesitate from selecting the correct answer: ownership includes the surface to the center of the earth and upward to infinity. The comment made on my incorrect quiz stated, "ownership of a parcel includes a pie-shaped wedge from the center of the earth to infinity."

I'm 15% finished with my study before I can take the test. At this rate I can be ready in a couple of weeks, maybe sooner.

I began my journey toward getting my real estate license today by enrolling in the Georgia Pre-License Course. I signed up for an online course with a school recommended by my business partner Sandra Watkins.

The course is with Barney Fletcher Schools and claims to be "one of the largest providers of Real Estate and Appraiser Education in Georgia." The Course consists of four modules, two appendices, a Georgia Study Guide and a Georgia Homework Package.

I have finished the first section in the first module, Introduction to Real Estate Principles and Practice and The Nature of Real Property.

In module one I read about the difference between real estate and real property and learned about such things as fructus naturales, riparian rights, littoral rights, and appurtenances. This is going to be a lot of fun.

I passed the quiz at the end of the introduction and am ready to get started on the next section.

By the way, thank you all who posted words of encouragement and advice on my previous post, Is It Time To Get My Real Estate License?

Yes! I have decided to take the plunge and get my real estate license.

For several years I've been buying and selling real estate as an investor. I have assigned multiple purchase contracts to other investors. I've worked with several agents and other real estate professionals along the way.

I've avoided getting my license simply because my primary business is investing. Many of my investor friends started out like me but then eventually decided to get their real estate license.

Investing in Real Estate

Like my investor friends who have become agents, I plan on keeping the investment side of the business my primary focus. And being a licensed agent will give me some extra opportunities I have to pass up now because I'm not licensed.

Real Estate Investing Has Prepared Me to Get My License

Over the years I have done many things in my real estate investment business which has prepared me to be an investor / agent:

Property Valuation - I evaluate comps like a nerd! I analyze data on a potential investment property before I buy. The process of placing an accurate value on a property that I am going to buy for investment purposes gives me great insight into the market conditions. I think the way I do property valuation is more like an appraiser than an agent, which I think will come in handy when I have a client that needs a more thorough analysis than comps usually provide.

Home Inspection - I've learned to inspect homes thoroughly. I can see what repairs need to be made in distressed houses to bring them up to full retail market value. I go up into attics, on roofs, and under crawl spaces to find anything that may need to be repaired on a house. I have purchased houses with structural problems and fire damage. I have the capability to help clients who may want some factual information about the property condition before they decide to put in an offer and bear the expense of hiring a professional home inspector.

Home Renovation Contractors Expenses - What does it cost to make repairs on a property? When I first got started investing in real estate, I didn't know much about the costs of home renovation. Now I have experience fully renovating distressed real estate. I am actively doing this as an investor, therefore I know what the actual real-world costs are to make various kinds of repairs and updates on a house. I work with investor friendly contractors who I can recommend to my clients. With all the distressed foreclosures on the market, my connections to good contractors is a powerful tool to assist clients.

Investor Network - I have a cash buyer list of investors who I've done deals with over the years. Whenever I get a great potential investment property listed, I have buyers I can market to right away. This is a good thing!

Lenders - I have worked with many types of lenders. Many lenders will not lend on the types of properties I find. This has forced me to find lenders who have the capability of providing funding in today's market which is flooded with distressed properties. Mortgage lenders, hard money lenders, and private money lenders in my network are all eager to loan money for clients to purchase distressed real estate.

Now that I have finally made the decision to get my license, I plan on studying hard and getting it done as quickly as possible. I'm going to enroll in my course on Monday.

And I plan on blogging about my learning experience.

Any advice from agents is welcome and please wish me luck please!

My most recent article about Assignment of Contract has been published by NVAR in the Law & Ethics section of their website.

I have written several times about Assignment of Contract. My latest article on the topic focuses on that section of the NVAR Regional Sales Contract.

For some reason many agents in Northern Virginia mistakenly believe that the Regional Sales Contract cannot be assigned. In my real estate investment business, the misunderstanding is a reoccurring issue.

After giving the issue some more thought, I decided to sit down with the contract and my laptop to write both my experience in assigning the contract and giving specific reference to the paragraph in the contract dedicated to assignability.

The article was posted online in several places, including ActiveRain. Soon I received a call from the legal department of the NVAR requesting permission to republish my article.

http://nvar.com/index.php/law-ethics/article/is_the_nvar_regional_sales_contract_assignable

I believe that many agents cut themselves short by not taking advantage of the many opportunities they have to make money practicing real estate as licensed professionals. I hope agents in Northern Virginia find the article helpful.