It's Rude to Talk About This...

There's a list of things that we're not supposed to talk about in polite conversation, right? And money is one of them. But sometimes things need to be said and we have to get real and get honest because when we do we can help other people save money or make more of it.

The former is the reason for this post.

When I meet with aspiring agents, or with people who are starting to consider real estate as a career, I share the information that I think is critical for them to know. And some of that is about the costs associated with studying for a license. (There are others associated with actually being an agent, but I'll address those in another post.)

The online course I recommend, and the course we follow in our office when we teach the live version of the class, is Rockwell. It's not cheap. It runs approx. $489 plus tax.

Yeah.

That face you're probably making now is the same expression I see on the faces of many of the people I meet with during career orientations.

And some of them look at other education providers, many of which are less expensive than Rockwell.

So why do I recommend such a relatively expensive study program?

It's really, honestly because I think Rockwell is the best. That's all. The curriculum is comprehensive and strong; you get access to online courses AND textbooks with quizzes and final exams; and their test prep (the CRAM section and 12 sample exams) set you up for success on the real thing like no other system I've reviewed.

I have had students who chose one of the less expensive options succeed on the exam. But more often than not, I'll get an email or call from them because they're frustrated by the material or because they took the licensing exam and failed after weeks or months of studying. They then usually end up paying for the Rockwell courses, so when it's all said and done they've paid the $489 plus another $200-$300 for the other course and a failed licensing exam.

Not a huge savings after all.

Success rate-wise, Rockwell boasts an 86% and 87% first try pass rate on the National and State exams, respectively, in Washington. The average for the others is 58% and 63%, National and State. So, if you're a person who prefers statistics to anecdotal data from an agent and blog writer, that's for you :-)

(By way of a disclaimer, I'm not on Rockwell's payroll, they don't send me free stuff and they have no idea I'm writing this post.)

As always, feel free to leave your comments and questions below or watch my 1+1=4 Math Video here. Thanks and I'll check back in here again soon!

Are You Stuck in This Vicious Cycle?

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What percentage of people in the United States would you guess are living paycheck to paycheck? Are you one of them?  If I told you that 50-percent of us fall into that category, would you believe me?

If you think that's a high estimate, hold on to your hats because the actual number is worse.  

More than three-quarters of workers (78%) who earn less than $100,000 per year, are one unexpected expense away from a big financial mess. I don't know about you, but that number is scary to me. (You can check out the full story here.)

Additionally, and very much relatedly, 71-percent of full-time workers say they have some kind of debt. Of those, 56-percent of them say they don't believe they will ever get out of it. Think about it--if you're living paycheck to paycheck because of debt, and something unexpected comes up, you go into more debt to pay that expense. So, it's kind of a vicious cycle, right?

Consider the emotional toll that belief takes on a person. Working full-time, unable to get ahead financially, operating under the anchor of debt, and believing things will never be any better. What does that do to our collective mental, emotional and spiritual health? The cost of our debt-culture goes beyond a financial one.

Let's talk about the culture of debt while we're at it. It's become more than just acceptable--it's marketed as desirable. Many people get their first credit card offer at 18--I've heard stories of credit card applications being included in freshman move-in packets at colleges! College itself has become synonymous with debt too. Can't afford tuition? Here's a student loan you can spend the rest of your adult life paying off. Want something now, but can't afford it? Why wait? Just fill out this credit application and walk out of the store with it. You deserve it.

We think it's an unavoidable part of adult life, but it doesn't have to be and it really shouldn't be. It is crippling. If you're struggling with debt or just want to learn how to create a budget and make a financial plan you can live with, I cannot recommend Dave Ramsey's books enough. The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness is one of my favorites and a good place to start.

Freedom

In contrast to that 78-percent number, only nine-percent of full-time workers earning more than $100,000 per year reported that they struggled to make ends meet.

What does that tell us? Well, it tells me we need an increase in income and a shift to a debt-is-not-okay mindset. And it reinforces for me one of the big reasons why I'm such and advocate for real estate and Keller Williams in particular.

Streams

I’m a self-help junkie and every book I read about entrepreneurship or financial freedom says we should have multiple income streams. That we should be diversifying where our money comes from so that our financial futures are not subject to the whims of one bad boss or the ups and downs of one market. 

If I told you that as a Realtor I have four businesses functioning simultaneously and generating four income streams for me, would that pique your curiosity? The first is the most obvious--I represent buyers and sellers and earn commissions on each transaction I close. Income stream number one.

You might be surprised how many agents don't leverage the other three opportunities: referrals, profit-sharing and investing in real estate. Please don't be one of them! I love talking about possibilities and coaching other agents, so click here and let's schedule a time to meet!

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The End of the Studying Road!

Hi all! Erin guest-blogging for Rebecca again today about being an aspiring/new agent. There was a clue in there about how my broker's exam went...Did you spot it? Yep, I said "new agent," which means I passed my broker's exam! It is such a huge weight off of my shoulders and I cannot tell you how happy I am not to be spending all of those hours studying anymore. It was interesting material, but man oh man, knowing you're going to be tested on something takes almost all of the fun out of it :-)

Today I thought I'd share a bit about my test experience and the things I did study-wise that I think helped me the most.

After I finished my clock hours, worked through all of the course material and taken all of the final quizzes, here's what I did next.

Took a Baseline Sample Exam. Rockwell has 12 sample exams and I took one to get a baseline of how close I was to being ready to take the test and where my areas of weakness were. I can't remember my exact score on that, but I think it was something like 86%...

Anyway, the sample exam will show you the questions you got wrong (very helpful), but also will break down the test by topic area (very, very helpful). So, it would tell me which chapters and sections I scored a below passing grade on. I wrote those down after the first sample exam, and those were my points of extra study attention for that first day.

Scheduled my Exam. I spoke to Rebecca shortly after I took that first sample exam and told her my score. I took the sample exam on a Thursday and then my first opportunity to take the exam was the following Monday afternoon. There were a couple of other days/times, but the only other one that would have worked for me was about 10 days away. Rebecca said, and I believe this is a direct quote, "You're ready. Take it on Monday." So I did.

You would think that having the exam on the calendar would up the stress factor, but weirdly it decreased it. I think knowing that it was going to be over by Monday afternoon and having a set date to work back from in terms of arranging my study time, really helped.

Reviewed Areas of Weakness. As I said, I took the sample exam on a Thursday and wrote down the 8 or so places where I failed the practice exam. That sounds worse than it is, really, because there were like one or two questions per topic area. So "failing" it often meant missing one question on that topic.

So, after each sample exam I would write down those areas of struggle and review them. I'd review them first in the textbook and then again in the Rockwell Broker's Cram lesson. What happened for me was that after each subsequent sample exam, the number of areas of weakness decreased. Makes sense, right? By the last sample exam, I was scoring in the high nineties, and once even 100%, so by the end there were very few areas left to review.

Took Every (and I Mean EVERY) Sample Exam and Quiz. There were 12 sample exams on Rockwell and I took every single one of them. I worked back from the date of my broker's exam and figured out how many I needed to take each day in order to take them all by noon on test day. This was probably the most helpful thing I did because it got me used to how questions on the exam would be structured and helped me identify places where wording baited me into picking the wrong answer. They were GREAT preparation. I also took every quiz in the Broker's Cram lesson along the way. By the time I finished the last sample exam I felt really confident.

Reviewed Every Sample Exam Result. When I finished an exam I would look at the questions I got wrong first and I would make sure I understood where I went wrong and why the correct answer was correct. Then I would review the whole exam, looking at the questions I got right too. Here's why: sometimes I was just guessing between two answers I was unsure of and happened to pick the right one. So, I made sure I knew why each correct answer was correct, regardless if whether I got it right or wrong on the test.

Accounted for Memorization. The sample exams often repeated questions, as did the quizzes. They tell you not to rely on memorization, but the reality is that I did remember some answers after I'd seen them a couple of times. So, what I tried to do was when I recognized a question and remembered what the answer was, I would go through each of the other answers and say why it was the wrong one. When those terms or concepts then appeared on the final exam in a different context/in a different question, I knew what they meant and could apply them in whatever context they appeared. So even if that exact sample exam question didn't appear on the real exam, it still helped me prepare for the real exam. Does that make sense?

Made a Few Flash Cards. There were a few areas where I continued to have a hard time, so I made some flash cards and would review those for 5 minutes or so throughout the day. Formulas were one and then I also did a few for laws that I was having a tough time differentiating from one another. In all, I probably had about a dozen or so.

Read the Tips for Multiple Choice Questions Rockwell Provided. These were great. I wish I'd known them when I was in college. Highly recommend you read these over if you can. They're located in the Broker's Cram lesson, I believe...

Okay, on to the day of the test. I took my last practice exam at about 10:30am and my test was at 1:30pm.

It took me about 10 minutes or so to settle down once the test began. My hand was shaking a bit on the mouse at first, but that stopped fairly quickly. I made sure to read each question carefully--that was key. I also tried to answer the question before I looked at the possible answers (this obviously works better on some questions than on others). I then read each answer carefully. There were a few I was uncertain about, so I marked them for review and then moved on.

Because I was so nervous for the first handful of questions, I decided to review all of my answers. This is something Rebecca told me not to do and I totally understand why. BUT I made some rules for my review. I only changed an answer if I realized that I had misread the question. If it was a question where I was just torn between one answer and another, I kept the answer I chose originally. I think I changed 2 answers and I think they were math-related. All were from the first quarter of the exam, as I recall.

Then I was done. I went out of the room and the proctor accessed my results and told me that I passed. So, huge relief there.

If you're studying right now, I wish you the very best of luck! And if you've already got your license, please share any of the study/exam preparation tips you found helpful below.

How I Make My Big Dreams Come True in a Day

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What do you dream about? A happy life? A peaceful one? A financially successful one? One where you have control over your time and energy? What would your life look like if you achieved all of the things, large and small, that you yearn for in the quiet moments when it's just you and your thoughts. Those moments when you allow yourself to dream as big as you can about what life could be? Would you believe me if I told you that whatever your dream is, you can have it, or at least a piece of it, before the sun sets today?

You can. I swear.

Finding your dream.Have you ever made a dream board that depicts your hopes for your life? I am a very visual person, so I have made many over the years. And it isn't just because I love crafty projects, although I do :-) It's because until I identify what I want, I don't know how to get there. And I need to know what I want--I need to know my big why--because that's what drives me to work as hard as I do. So the pictures and words I paste on to that piece of poster board are the visual representations of my why. And looking at them every day cements that why and motivates me to keep going, even when things are hard. 

But frankly I don't want to wait years to experience the dreams depicted on my dream boards in my real life. I want to bring some of my future in to my present. So, I seek out items or experiences that symbolize the big dream and give me a taste of it while I wait.

Joy

My process for identifying my dreams is pretty simple. I ask myself: What do I enjoy most? What brings me joy? When do I feel most at peace? I write my thoughts in a journal and I create dream boards of images and words that line up with those answers. During this process, I don't edit myself at all. If a thought comes into my head I write it down. If a picture grabs my attention, I cut it out and paste it on the board. Even if I'm not sure why I'm having that thought or being drawn to that image, I still document it. As the process goes on, the extraneous things kind of filter out and I'm left with what's really important.

Waterfront

My big dream of 2015. "I feel most at peace when I'm near in on or around the water. I enjoy music of all kinds. So, surrounding myself with wonderful music, and having a waterfront or water view property would bring nourishment to my soul." That was my takeaway for 2015 and I shared it with my coach. 

Don't wait. My coach had lots of questions for me, urging me to dig a little bit deeper. Why should I wait until I owned a home on the water to get the feelings I imagined waterfront property would give me? Why couldn't I go and meet the need now by getting into a boat or kayak? One afternoon my coach told me my homework was to get on the water over the weekend. I went down to Thea Foss Waterway and rented kayaks with a friend.  At first we were reluctant to go too far out, but eventually we got some confidence and really enjoyed our time. We saw people bringing brand new boats out of the warehouse and into the water.  And I thought to myself how nice it would be some day to own a boat of my own.

I saw a woman unfolding a kayak and I thought to myself, "Wow, she found a way around every excuse I would have come up with (no space at home for one, no roof rack on the car to transport it). And now she has a foldable kayak!" 

After that afternoon it was clear that the water really was my dream. But while I couldn't buy a home on the water that day, I began to surround myself with items that symbolized it. I looked for watercolor paintings. I looked for beach cottage-inspired décor and found the most magnificent burlap lampshade and a driftwood table lamp for my office space. I eventually found a art piece that fit the part perfectly and painted a wall in my house a color that gave me that same feeling of peace I felt that day on the water.

What you focus on expands!2016 brought a new home for us...on the water! And love into my life. Right now you may not have exactly what it is you desire (i.e. house on the water) but if you can identify your dream, you can surround yourself with a piece of it today regardless of how far off that dream might feel. And you get a daily dose of motivation for the work it's going to take to get there.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. A few more of my favorite coastal-themed décor items are below :-) 

My Top 10 Study Tips

(Originally Published October 2017)

I've written in the past about how I'm working through the study materials, both online and textbook. I realized it was kind of a general approach, and that there were some additional, specific, tips I have for successful studying.

Just a caveat that I used Rockwell online for my clock hours. I don’t know whether all online clock hour courses have the supplemental materials I reference below.

Don’t Make Your Own Study Guide. As I worked through the first four lessons, I was copying and pasting information from the Rockwell slides into a Word document and making my own study guide. But I stopped for a couple of reasons. One is that I noticed that I was having to refer to my study guide for answers quiz questions. I wasn't retaining much of the information. Second, my textbooks arrived. So, I knew I could refer to printed materials for review time that way. And finally, Rebecca told me about the "Cram" course on Rockwell. It's part of the test prep and sample exam feature and it walks you through the crucial concepts. So, I essentially had an electronic study guide at my fingertips. In the end I did just as well, or better, on the quizzes when I didn't have the study guide to refer to than when I did.

Teach it to Someone Else. I found that having to explain concepts or terms to someone else, helped cement those things into my memory. And the people I "taught" weren't aspiring real estate agents. They were my mom, or my best friend or my brother--anyone I could get to sit still and listen to me.

Take Breaks. I'd limit the number of hours you devote to studying at one sitting. I set mine at 1 hour before I took a break to rest my eyes, get up and walk around, breathe some fresh air.

Get Some Context. I work part-time for Rebecca in her real estate office, and I do some work for her from home. The time I spend doing those things and talking to Rebecca about some element of her business, have given me context for the things I'm learning about as I study. If you don't work for a real estate agent, maybe there are ways you can get a similar experience. Chances are someone you know, knows an agent. Could you call them and ask some questions? Or do an inventory of your skills. Are you a great writer? If so, maybe a local agent would love some help with content for their website, or writing a blog, or managing social media. Offer your help for free a couple of hours per week in exchange for getting some experience in the industry. There are legal limitations on the kinds of activities you're allowed to do without a real estate license though. So, make sure whatever you propose or whatever they suggest, complies with applicable laws.

Pay Attention to Your Study Space. Give yourself the gift of a comfortable space that's conducive to studying. Make sure you have enough light to see properly. Get yourself a comfortable chair and a desk with enough space for your computer, notebook and whatever else you need close at hand. Have some water nearby, turn your phone off (or switch it to silent).

Conduct Periodic Reviews. I didn't wait until I finished working through all of the material before reviewing it. After completing 2 or 3 lessons, I'd look through those slides again and make sure I could pass the lesson quizzes. It reinforced the material and didn't take much extra time.

Take ALL of the Pop Quizzes. I took every single pop quiz in Rockwell. And because I did, I spotted the areas where I missed little details that made huge differences in my understanding of the concepts. When I got a question wrong, I made sure I understood where my thinking went off track, so that I could pass the final lesson quizzes. I learned that reading the questions is really important. One word can change the whole meaning, so you have to pay attention to what the question is actually asking. The quizzes also helped me get comfortable with how the exam questions would be structured.

Get Out. I used to do this when I worked full-time in an office and noticed fatigue and/or lack of focus setting in. Go outside for 5 minutes and stand on your deck, walk around the neighborhood. Breathe in fresh air. Get your eyes away from the computer screen. It makes all the difference when you come back. You need a variety of sensory stimulation in order for your brain to work properly and for you to feel your best.

Prioritize Sleep. This is good advice for all of life, but is especially true when you're trying to learn something new and/or when you're preparing for a big test. There is also some evidence that if you study for a few minutes before you go to sleep, your brain will retain that information better than if you'd studied it that morning. If you are going to try that, I'd recommend studying from your textbook or other notes rather than online. Screen time before bed is associated with a difficulty falling asleep and more restless sleep. I'd also recommend doing your reading somewhere other than bed. Read in the awesome study space you set up for yourself for a few minutes, and then hit the hay.

Take the Sample Exams. Take as many as you can. If you're going to fail or get something wrong, you'd rather do that on a practice exam than on the real deal. The practice exams often have the very questions you'll see on the real exam, or at least questions that are close enough that acing them will leave you in good shape for the big day. Also, I found that the more practice exams I did, the less anxious I got about the exam experience in general.

There you have it. The 10 or so studying rules I lived by. Feel free to share your tips or questions below!