Community College or Private Company

The first step toward starting a career in Real Estate, as most of the people and websites said is to get lisenced.

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.