"To be an agent" or "not to be an agent", that is the question!
I've run across a couple people that are interested in becoming a Real Estate Agent but don't know where to start. They always ask "What do you have to do to be a Real Estate Agent? So....here it is!
Disclaimer: Education requirements vary by state. The following info is for Illinois only!
Before beginning you must meet the minimum requirements;
You must be 21 years of age
Have a high school diploma or equivalent
If you meet the above requirements, you can register for real estate license class.
These classes are offered at many locations but here are a few:
Chicago Association of Realtors - of course this is limited to Chicago and surrounding cities. They offer fast "crash" live classroom courses, weekend and night live classroom courses. http://www.chicagorealtor.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=72
Real Estate Institute- limited to Illinois. Offers self study and live classes. This is the school I attended, I opted for self study. You register online, books and testing materials are sent by mail and you take the unit exams online, then you take the class exam at your nearest school location. You have six months to finish the class. My personal opinion, if I were to do it again I would opt for a live class. It was so hard doing self-study!
AHI Real Estate and Insurance Services- Classes are offered all over the US. The classes are offered as live and/or online. I have attended this school for live class room continuing education (after getting my real estate license) courses. The instructors are very knowledgeable!
After successfully passing the class, a transcript will be issued to you. This transcript will grant you the ability to take the national and state exams.
Here is the big secret, the classes offered do not thoroughly prepare you for the national and state exams. You have to pay a testing fee every time you take the test, most people don't pass on the first try. So....to save you a little money and headache I suggest you find alternative studying materials in conjunction with your classroom book. Here is a couple study methods I used:
Real Estate Exam for Dummies! I bought this book on www.ebay.com at a deep discount. This book was very useful because it has practice exams and focused subject material. This helped me because as opposed to studying the entire book, I could focus on concepts and read about them thoroughly. Great Study Tool!
Barron's Real Estate Flash Cards! I bought these on www.amazon.com. These were excellent, it comes with close to 500 flash cards with real estate concepts and terms including easy to read explanation of the answers. The box include a metal ring, which was very useful for me because the cards I knew I needed to focus on, I would slide on the ring, slip it in my purse and study whenever I had spare time during the day! I really liked the fact that the questions were worded very similar to the questions on the actual exam.
Applied Measurement Professionals were the administrators of the exam, so I mozied on over to their website http://www.goamp.com/testingServices.aspx, did some research and found out they offer a practice exam! You can't get any better than that! You are able to set up an online account take the practice exam , review your answers which always includes a thorough explanation.
The best advice for the exam is to have thorough knowledge of all concepts. This exam is nothing like tradition school. You know, where you can pass the test by knowing the term and the definitions! Not like that at all, you have to know the concepts and be able to apply them to different situations.
The National exam includes 100 multiple choice questions. The Illinois State Exam includes 50 multiple choice questions. You must read the question and all of the answers, because most questions included two possible answers but you have to choose the best!
After passing your exam, find a real estate agency and Voila! You are an agent!
No comments:
Post a Comment