What’s Principles of Real Estate all about? It’s an overview of the entire field and it’s great that that’s the first one we get to study. I found a lot of it very lawyerish, with laws and terms everywhere, but it gives some really interesting insights into how money and property works. Although at first I thought I liked a different book more, I’m actually really happy with the Huber’s California Real Estate Principles. It does a great job and has solid breakdowns of everything. After taking notes from it and doing the quizzes I feel I learned a whole lot.

So what’s the plan now? Further studies: Real Estate Practice and Real Estate Financing or Economics. I really want to take an online business course, but I think staying healthy and getting at least five hours of sleep might be worth not taking on too much. Licensing: sign up to take the test at the end of the semester. Work: take the time to visit a few Real Estate offices, shadow a sales agent, appraiser, and broker within the month and a half.

Amazingly enough though, it turns out getting started is really easy. To get going, all a person needs to do is take the Principles course and pass the DRE exam. This gives a conditional eighteen month license. If during these eighteen months the person finishes Practice and another course, the license can become four-year. To maintain this license a person just needs to keep taking courses (45 hours for four years). Isn’t that fantastic, your required to keep learning. To become a broker, one must take a few additional courses (eight total) and have two years of experience or a BA/BS degree.

This just blows my mind. If a person started taking these courses in high school, they could become a broker by twenty (you must be eighteen to get any of the licenses). I really wish I explored all my options before going to a big university and getting a degree before figuring out something I’m passionate about. At least I’m taking some steps now.

Also, I found an absolutely ideal job. It’s at a real estate office and I applied tonight. Again, I’ll kee you posted. Planning to get up in five hours to start studying and to change classes. Goodnight.

Here’s the economics course:
This course covers the advantages and disadvantages of various types of Real Estate Investments and the causes and effects of value fluctuation. This course applies toward the educational requirements of the state real estate sales—persons and brokers license exam. It also analyzes various real estate investments.

Here’s the finance course:
This course analyzes various topics about real estate financing, including financing for residential and commercial properties, and development opportunities. This course summarizes information required for the State of California real estate license examinations. This course also applies toward the educational requirements for a California Real Estate Broker’s license, and can also be applied as an elective for the Real Estate Salesperson’s license requirements.

S: It sounds like the finance course offers everything the economics course offers plus it teaches you a bit about the money behind it. I’d say take that one.
B: Thanks.

My current courses and books:

Principles of Real Estate :
This course covers the basic understanding, background and terminology of real estate and applies toward the educational requirements for both the California Real Estate Salesperson’s and Broker’s license examination.

California Real Estate Principles 10th Edition (New Exam Edition)
By Walt Huber
(www.etcbooks.com)

Real Estate Practice:
This course introduces students to the fundamental operations of a real estate business and procedures used in a typical real estate transaction. This course summarizes information required for the State of California real estate license examinations. This course is required for an unconditional Real Estate Salesperson’s license and for a Real Estate Broker’s license.

California Real Estate Practice
By Kathryn Haupt and Megan Dorsey
(www.rockwellinstitute.com)

Front office by community college:

Secretary: Hi, how can I help you?
B: I’d like to talk with the counselor.
S: About what?
B: Advice for classes.
S: I don’t know if she can do that. Are you a registered student?
B: I was a couple years ago.
S: Umm, OK. Do you have an ID?
B: Yeah, here is the paper they gave me.
S: Alright, have a seat in the hall.

In the office:
Counselor: Hi, how may I help you?
B: Basically, here’s the story. I got my degree last summer and started a web dev job. I hated it and quit. Now I’m still in high tech and I need to get out. I’ve been reading some books and getting a lot of advice to go into business and real estate investing. I’d like to get there as soon as possible. What should I do?
C: Well you can get licensed very fast and then start earning your hours. Here are the courses, you can sign up for these two (Fundamentals and Practice) for the Winter Session (only one month). After them, you just need one more course to get your license.
B: Perfect, I’m already waitlisted for this one. Tell me, do you think it’s worthwhile to take the Business Administration course?
C: Well, that’ll get a bit more into investing and such. You know they’re different fields, real estate and investing. It’s worth your time to see if you’d want to pursue a business degree. We have an agreement with the state school for a degree in Business Administration.
B: Hmm. I’ve taken quite a few of these already, but I don’t know if going back for a second bachelor’s is what I really need. Perhaps I should focus on getting a license and getting going first?
C: The choice is in your hands. You can always take it in Spring. Oh, also if you plan to take two courses, since the courses are only one month during winter, just know that this is pretty much going to be your entire life for a month. Do you plan to keep working?
B: At this point, I’m really ready to move on. If that means my job, so be it.
C: Well good luck.
B: Thanks for your help.

Which Real Estate program should I choose? There are plenty of online programs but most community colleges also offer classes. Each has its advantages, and disadvantages. After returning from Thailand, I knew I had to get started. The question was how?

The Options:

Online Courses
My cousin got his license through an online course. He studied a few hours a day for about a month and then passed his exam in New York. California’s laws and exams are a bit stricter, but an online course sounds extremely convenient. You can learn as fast and as much as you like and you can do so at home. At my mom’s company, an appraisal/investment firm, people use this option to get other licenses. So once you’re in, you can learn this to study after work as well.

Seminars
My dad used to take Real Estate seminars every weekend. It was a course that explained the laws and got people prepared for the exam. The advantage to these is that there’s someone there making sure you’re learning at a certain pace. For anyone who needs that set time and support, this is perfect. My dad never took the test nor really looked at real estate as his next career. He wanted the rest of us to get into investing in properties and to offer his help in the background. I have my doubts about mixing business and family, but as far as the industry, I couldn’t agree more.

Taking Action
About a month ago, I sat down with my parents to talk about the future. I wasn’t making anything at the start-up and I hated my work. My actuarial studies were moving along, but all my close friends would ask, “Do you really want to do this? I can’t imagine you at a desk crunching numbers. That sounds almost as bad as programming.” Honestly I didn’t. I wanted to work with people, I wanted to help people find what they were looking for, I wanted to invest, to travel, to show, and to call. I really needed to do something and stop wasting time.

My mom’s company was slowing down a bit. She’s an engineer and a buyer, but after bubble busted she started at her place. Her job is to manage all the appraisers and give each person their assignments. One of the reasons she joined was she also planned to go into the business, but again with worries about mixing family and business. In her spare time she looked at houses for the last ten years, and if you ask her she’ll give you a breakdown of properties and prices anywhere around this area, and closer to our city, she can name all the properties for sale. With things slowing down at the company she finally decided it was time to get started and making the move toward making business rather than watching on the sidelines.

We sat down and followed our cousin’s advice and looked at an online course. The one we chose was from Allied Real Estate Schools. It came with books, cd’s, and online quizzes. It also gauranteed that you pass with a full refund. Not bad. Unfortunately, after the package arrived, we didn’t do anything. It just sat there in the living room. It worked for my cousin, it worked for my mom’s coworkers, but my family didn’t take the initiative… yet.

Upon returning frm Thailand, I knew this couldn’t continue. I wasn’t going to just sit there and waste time. I also knew, from my attempt to prepare for the actuarial exam, that I needed something more structured. So I went and looked at the West Valley College catalogue. They had quite a few courses and every one of them applied toward the exam. If I quit my job, I could finish all the coursework in less than five months, and I could make enough part-time to support myself. This was the ideal option.

Furthermore most of the classes were online or offered at night. It was the best of both worlds. We’ll see how it turns out.

Online Programs like Allied:
Benefits:
Flexible and Fast (study as fast as you like, when you like, and where you like)
Comprehensive (outstanding materials, quizzes, and preparation)
Guaranteed (refund if you don’t pass the test, refund if you want to return it)

Drawbacks:
The flexibility is a two-way sword. If you have initiative, it’s to your benefit. If you don’t, it’s to your loss. With anything in life, you get what you put in, but especially with online programs it’s all in your hands.

Community Colleges:
Benefits:
Structured (a teacher sets the schedule and forces you to keep up)
Associates (your gain a network of peers)
Cost (even with books, it costs very little)
Feedback (you have a teacher you can talk with)

Drawbacks:
The schedule is set and you can’t rush ahead of it. Furthermore in comparing the materials, the materials from Allied seemed far better than those at the college. There’s also no guarantee. You also have to deal with group projects, which force you to deal with other people’s schedules.

Community College Online Classes:
Benefits:
Flexible and Fast (study from anywhere and the classes can be just a month long)
Comprehensive (looking at the syllabus, there are weekly classes covering very many topics)
Structured (the teacher set the schedule, you know what you need to do every day)
Feedback (the teacher gives daily feedback and answers questions)

Drawbacks:
Some classes may have group projects, meaning flexibility goes down a bit.
You have to use the online interface the college chooses, which may or may not be the best. Again, there are no guarantees.

In the end I chose to take two online classes simply because they’re online and because they only take one month to finish. After these I just need one more class to get going. Also, the college offers classes (online too) in business and many other important topics, which I can take during the regular semester.