The Story of Strings

Just stopping by the blog quickly today to share something I thought you all would appreciate. It's about the power of sequential mastery, which is a really interesting concept and the focus of Gary Keller's (yep, the "Keller" in Keller Williams) bestselling book, The One Thing. I'd highly recommend you read the book, but in the meantime, you can check out this quick video.

Click the link below to purchase The One Thingthrough Amazon. (In the interest of full disclosure, if you use this link I do receive a small commission on the sale.)

Adding One More Thing Into an Already Full Life

The older I get the more difficult it seems to take on new adventures. Not because I don't want to. Not because I'm lazier than I was before. Not because I'm not as smart or dedicated as I used to be. Not because my work ethic has changed. So, why is it so much harder now to do this whole real estate thing than it would have felt a decade ago? What's changed, if it's not me?

I think it's because the rest of my life is already full. And I mean that practically, not emotionally. I have a job. Well, two jobs, technically. I have family commitments. Social commitments. Financial commitments.

I'm tired at the end of every day. I go from one thing right into the next, often only knowing where I'm supposed to be because my day planner tells me. If you have kids, I can't even begin to imagine how impossible it might feel to add in: One. More. Thing.

I don't claim to have the answers that will work for everyone or make this experience easy. But, I can share some ideas. And maybe one of those ideas will help you. Or maybe it will spark another idea that will be the difference between whether this whole thing seems like a pipe dream or whether it starts to look so achievable that you can see your name on that real estate license.

I think one of the big keys is to be realistic about how much time you can devote to studying. This is dense stuff. And if you're going into it with little or no knowledge of the ins and outs of the real estate biz (I did!), it's going to be a lot of information to cram into your brain. Maybe it will take months instead of weeks for you to get through the material. Better to spend one or two hours on it a day, than to try to cram in two or three times that in order to finish in a few weeks. Whatever it is, I would emphasize taking that number and then figuring out how long it will take you complete the requisite study hours. Having a target date to work toward helps you stay accountable, but it also reminds you that this won't last forever! A refrain I've repeated to myself many times over the weeks I've been studying.

Give something else up, temporarily. There are only so many hours in the day. If you've got a full schedule already, chances are something is going to have to give in the short-term so you can find those hours to study. You could get up an hour early and spend that time with a cup of coffee and your study materials. (Make sure you're still getting your 7-9 hours though!) Or maybe you sacrifice your lunch hour at work a couple of times a week. Or maybe TV time has to go and you use an hour of that for studying. That's what I did some days. (There are some studies that suggest that information we learn before bed sticks with us better than information we learn earlier in the day anyway.)

No matter how many hours you do, be consistent. Working on it a little every day (or over several days) is way better than trying to hit your 10 hour/week goal on one day.

Write down your study time goals on a calendar or in a journal and then cross off the hours as you complete them. I don't know about you, but I need visual representations of progress to stay motivated. Crossing off one study session was really gratifying. I also set rewards for myself each week. If I met my study goal that week, then I got to go to a movie, or buy new music for my iPod. One reward at the very end was a spa day. Whatever little or big things would be nice rewards for you, plan some of those regularly.

Be sneaky with studying. Take some flash cards with key terms or concepts everywhere you go. Keep them in your coat pocket, your car, your purse, or the bag you take to work. When you find yourself with time on your hands--say sitting in a waiting room or waiting for a friend to show up for a coffee date--break out your cards and do a few minutes of studying. It all adds up!

Give yourself permission to say "no," and then do it. You will inevitably be invited to something or asked for help on a day and at a time that conflicts with studying. It's okay to say "no." And you're probably going to have to in order to save your sanity. There are obvious exceptions--work requirements, family commitments, etc.--that aren't really voluntary. But don't spread yourself too thin by agreeing to optional activities if you're already managing a jam-packed life and study schedule.

As always, please share any tips you have for fitting studying in to a busy life below. Thanks!

How to Succeed at the Studying Game

(Originally Written in September 2017)

Last week FedEx delivered a small box to my front porch. I had started on the Rockwell courses online several days before and was feeling pretty good about myself. I was moving through the lessons, taking notes, and thinking I ought to be ready to take the exam in a few weeks. No problem. And then... This cardboard box thudded onto my doorstep. And it was full of books.

Heavy books.

Dense books.

Books heavy and dense not just with paper and ink and words.

But heavy with reality. Heavy with responsibility. Heavy with the realization that I wasn't going to skate my way through this in a couple of weeks.

Before the books arrived I wouldn't have told you that I was taking this process lightly. At all. I knew it was a big deal. I knew it was important. I knew those things in theory. But in practice--well, that was another matter.

And that's where I found myself last Friday--vacating the land of theory and thrown headfirst into the land of practice.

I'm not going to say I freaked out about it. That wouldn't be accurate. But I did think, "holy moly, how do I do this?"

Do I read the books and then do the online lessons?

Do I do the online lessons first and then read the chapters?

Do I figure that with a multiple choice exam I have a 25% chance of guessing the right answer, and just cross my fingers?

When I emailed Rebecca I don't think I sounded panicked, but I think she got the gist because she emailed me back and said, "let's talk." So, we did. And she gave me a path to follow for studying, which I'm going to share with you now.

The Method. I'm doing  all the online coursework first. Working through each lesson, taking all of the pop quizzes and chapter tests. Saving the books for later, if I need them.

Rockwell has a feature called, The Cram with Sample Exams. So, now I'm working through that and then reading the chapters in the book that correspond to the areas of information that I don't have as strong of a grasp on.

Here's my advice for structuring this process, outside of how you approach the material.

Set Realistic, Time-Bound Goals. Take the total study time in hours and then look at your schedule. Figure out how many hours per week you can realistically devote to studying. If you have a full-time job it's probably less than if you are working part-time or not working at all. If you have children or other family commitments, that probably decreases your study time too. In my case, I decided I could do 20 hours per week. Then I literally penciled into my calendar the hours each day when I would be studying. I made it an appointment and didn't schedule anything else during those periods.

Identify the actual hours on the actual days you'll be studying. Picking 20 hours a week as a goal is useless if there's no way you can realistically complete that many hours.

Set an Exam Date. I couldn't actually schedule my exam until I finished my required study hours. But, I counted out how many weeks it would take me to work through the material, given the weekly goals I set for myself, and then picked a week when I planned to take the exam. And I wrote it on my calendar and told my accountability coach (see below) what it was.

Track Your Time. I noted in an Excel spreadsheet when I clocked in for studying and when I clocked out. I also made note of the lesson I worked on that day and if it was particularly difficult or if I scored lower on the final quiz, I made a note to study that topic more in the book or revisit it online during my review period.

Create External Accountability. Find someone who will serve as a check on your adherence to your study plan. I email Rebecca every Friday afternoon and tell her whether I met my study goal for the week. It's really easy to skip a study session if there's no one who will know if you do.

Leave Time for Review. But Not Too Much. I built in a week and a half after I finished working through the requisite hours for general review, and for concentrated review of those sections that particularly challenged me. But I also know that I'm a perfectionist, so if I didn't limit my review time I'd keep studying for months and maybe never feel ready to take the exam.

Hello Fellow Aspiring Agents!

Hi everyone! My name is Erin and I’m guest blogging for Rebecca. Nice to (virtually) meet all of you! Like many of you, I’m in the process of studying for my real estate exam. I literally just finished lesson 9 of Real Estate Fundamentals this afternoon on Rockwell. And... ...it's been really interesting. But the sheer volume of information I need to learn can feel overwhelming sometimes. So, if you're looking at your giant pile of text books and wondering how to tackle it or whether you'll ever get through them too, you're not alone :-)

Rebecca thought that the questions that have, and will, come up for me as I navigate this process might be universal. And I thought that, since I have access to Rebecca and all her amazing insights and experience, I could ask her those questions and then pass along the info to all of you.

In addition, I’ll write about my study strategies and other things unique to this process and share them here. The goal is that these posts will help you wherever you are in your journey—whether you’re just thinking about becoming a real estate agent; whether you’re in the trenches of studying like I am now; or whether you’re a newly licensed agent.

If you have questions, please post them below so that I can incorporate answers into future posts. And if you're a licensed agent already, please share any advice or info you think might be helpful to us aspiring and newbie agents. Thanks everyone! I'm looking forward to going on this journey with all of you.

Considerations for Part-Time Agents

For a while now, I've wanted to write a post about the topic of being a part-time real estate agent. But it's a bit tricky to strike the right tone, so it's taken me a while to organize my thoughts and get them in writing. On that note, a quick disclaimer before we get started. It is possible to be a great real estate agent even if you aren't devoting 100% of your work life to it. (I started out part-time myself.) So, by no means do I want anyone to interpret this post as a criticism of part-time agents. In fact, part of this post is about how to effectively serve your clients and make a living when real estate isn't getting 100% of your professional attention.

But it is also important for new agents to know some of the disadvantages to pursuing real estate as a side business or a part-time venture, and to have a plan for addressing those potential challenges. So that's what this post is about.

Let's start with what I mean when I say "part-time." Unlike other jobs where part-time is defined by the number of hours you work per week, in real estate I think of part-time in terms of the professional attention and energy you're devoting to it.  If real estate isn't your sole professional obligation--if it's not the sole way you generate your income--then I consider you part-time for the purposes of this discussion.

Time for Change

There are many moving pieces when it comes to the laws, rules and forms that govern what we do, and they are often changing. This is one of the challenges to being part-time. We have monthly trainings for agents at our office about all of that, because it's so important. Attending trainings and getting lots of repetitions completing transactions, and their accompanying paperwork, is crucial to serving clients well and feeling confident as an agent. If you're working another full-time or part-time job, it can be difficult (and sometimes impossible) to attend those trainings, get that daily practice and stay on top of industry news and laws. And the financial/business consequences for missing something or making a mistake because there was a bit of information you didn't know, can be serious.

The more transactions you close, the better you get at negotiations. This is a really critical point. The skill of negotiating and communicating on behalf of your clients is one you get better at the more you do it. It's like a muscle that gets stronger with practice. I pay attention to things that the agents I'm negotiating with do and say. The things that are really smart and effective, I remember and use myself the next time I'm in a similar situation. The things they do that are ineffective, I make note never to do. You can learn so much by observing agents on the other side of the table from you. Learn from their successes and mistakes.

Ask

You might be wondering what to do if being a part-time agent is the best fit for your life right now. As I said, I started out as a part-time agent, and I want to leave you with some advice if that's the road you need to, or want to, take yourself. There are two ways to structure a part-time real estate career that I think are really solid approaches.

Join or build a team. On a team you'd have someone to serve as your transaction coordinator. This person would manage the extensive paperwork process involved in the buying or selling of a property and provide you with accounting and administrative support. Someone else might host showings for your clients, or conduct the initial meeting with new listing clients for you. At Keller Williams you can do this by paying these support positions on an as-needed basis. Transaction coordinators are paid per transaction completed and other admin support is paid on an hourly basis. So, if you're devoting 50% of your energy to real estate, in this scenario you're hiring out the other 50%.

Build a career on referrals. I think I mentioned this in the post about ways to structure a real estate career, but this also applies if you want real estate to be a part-time or side venture. Get your license but don't fully activate it. At Keller Williams, if you refer a client to another agent within the company you will receive a percentage of the commission on whatever transaction comes as a result of that referral. You don't actually show any homes, represent any buyers or negotiate any transactions in this career model. This works really well for some people.

These are probably not the only ways to structure a successful part-time real estate business, but they are my favorites. If you're a part-time agent who's had success using another model, feel free to post about your experience in the Comments section. And as always, please ask any questions you wish via Comments or by contacting me here.