A Short Break, But I'm BACK!

Well I took a short hiatus from my blog but I'm ready to get back in the world of blogging...wherever that might lead!

Since my last post, I have had a closing on my first ever showing I did! That was so cool! Being a condo, it was a different experience than a stand alone home, but still! I also started showing two of my great friends homes. They started looking pretty casually, but after one home that we loved literally sold the next day, they decided if they loved one, they were going to get on the horn or phone I should say with the lender and get a preapproval letter sent!

 We looked at a few different bank owned properties. They ended up finding one they loved, which was a Fannie Mae property. Of course my second transaction would be a bank owned.....they are more complex than the standard sale.......but we put an offer in. We did it for quite a bit lower than asking so weren't holding our breath! I remember the day I received the email that they were going to counteroffer us.....not sure you would have been able to pick my jaw up off the floor!!! I called my buyers immediately and I think I put them in a state of shock! We countered back again, and ended up coming up with an acceptable price for both parties!

After that, an inspection needs to be ordered. I gave the buyers a list of some great inspectors and they got it set up. I went to the inspection and it turns out someone literally stole the Air Conditioning unit from outside! So from the inspection, we went back saying we wanted that replaced. We weren't sure what they would do since as a bank owned sale it is technically an "as-is" sale. They ended up agreeing to put one in as well so it worked out! Next step.....appraisal. The lender orders this when the inspection documents are all in. An appraisal is basically a value of your home. A lender isn't going to give you a loan for say $500k when it is only valued at $350k. In that case, you either have to come up with the cash difference or renegotiate.

Stay tuned for what's next!!!!

Working With Rentals/Renters...

So what is there to real estate besides buying and selling? RENTING! You will meet more and more people out there that would rather or can only rent for a variety of reasons. Bad credit, recent foreclosure, and those that would just rather rent than own! Whatever the reason, they can be your best clients. AND most renters become buyers at some point. Why not get to know them first? Rental showings are similar to real estate showings only instead of a commission percentage on sale price, you normally get a flat fee.

We offer property management at Friemann Companies and are ready to assist you! We run all the background checks, verification checks, and reference checks. We find the renters for your home, collect payments, deal with the fixes (well we do have a construction company as part of our office! :)), and make it easy for you to feel confident in your income property.

Whether you are buying, selling, renting, remodeling, or building new, we can help! What is fun (for me anyways......you might find it completely boring!) is finding fixer uppers with great potential and making it grand!  You make your image and dream home come to life with your own touch! Not everyone has the eye for that or wants/can do that, but that is a great way to turn a home in an ideal location but not your ideal set up into your own!!!

Why not right????

Now What???

Well, I passed. Let's get it started!

A week after I finished my last test, I got a call from an agent who was wondering if I could show her buyer a condo in my area since she lives much farther north.  I showed him the condo that day. Holy wow was that a lot to take in.....let's get it going though!

Guess what!?

He wanted to buy it!! My first showing ever and I was writing an offer....I had the assistance of my broker and Brenda and they helped me write it up. The condo was in multiple offers so we had to go in wisely and offer accordingly. It has been quite the experience but we got the home for him! I have been learning a lot now about appraisals, lending, and all sorts of stuff! It is a fun learning experience though!

I also have been helping with open houses. It's hard to get a lot of traffic for these but be patient...you might just find yourself a buyer! Last weekend, I did 3 open houses for Brenda. You need to be willing to work and put the time in to grow your business. It can be stressful but the benefits to me are greater than the sacrifices.....who does anything from 11-6 on Saturdays anyways! Ha.....

The Next Step...

So I passed the National and State Exam so now I am "home-free" right??? (Let's hope you kind of understand my humor in that phrase!)

Not Quite!

After Course I, you must complete Courses II and III. These are each 30 hours worth. This course goes over how to select a brokerage, understanding your agency and representation paperwork and rights, how to do walk-throughs and CMAs (Competitive Market Analysis), how to prep for a listing, how to represent your clients, financing options, consumer protection rights and laws, expense worksheets, and writing your very own PA (Purchase Agreement).

Sound simple? Maybe.....I thought it was a LOT of information to take in. Keep in mind you are getting an overview of EVERYTHING! You need this generalized knowledge but don't act like an expert in an area that you are not (i.e. mortgage bankers). You can give an opinion, but always direct them to professionals in the appropriate fields! You would hope that the mortgage banker wouldn't direct them to one home (that's your job - let them do their job and you do yours!).

After working for a couple agents, I learned so much more than I could ever by reading a book or watching videos. Don't get overwhelmed....take it all in and do your best. No one expects an expert overnight! It does help to get some prior experience assisting with other agents though!!!!

Yes, back to school....

The day I graduated college I swore I would NEVER go back to school.....like NEVER! I hated the homework and classes and I just did not enjoy school. So when I was told I had 90 hours to complete on the courses and 5 tests, I figured "OK, deep breath.....don't think of it like school but like a fun new experience...." If that kind of thinking works for you, then great, do it. Didn't work for me, I just wanted to be done! As mentioned before, I took my courses online. You can do this through Kaplan, Continuing Ed Express, MN Realty School, etc. I took my Course I through Kaplan. You can also purchase an exam prep package. I can't speak for that because I didn't order it, but that is an additional 15 prep course.

In Course I, you learn the basics and essentials of real estate. What it is (literally they give you the definition of real estate and realtor....um....I am sorry but if you don't know what that means before you sign up for the class, you might have troubles), the facts for the MN Real Estate Exam (or whatever state you are from), and the groundwork on what you will run into in the real estate world. You have a few books for this Course. They send you 1 huge book on the main real estate information you will need as you jumpstart your new career as well as a workbook and a smaller MN laws book. These are good tools to have throughout the process.

The online course I took was all videos. It of course is timed so you can't skip through the videos and say your hours are done. You do need to play out the videos. After each section, there are small quizzes you take on what you just watched to move onto the next portion (you can take these as many times as you like and actually the questions change so they are good to review). I think this was the hardest part for me. I didn't know what parts I would need to know (they do give some clues throughout saying you should REMEMBER this point.....meaning, learn it for the test!). I took a lot of notes, went through the books, and worked really hard to get it done which still remembering what I just took in. It's hard to make time in your life to sit and study and listen, but if you can focus on that a little each day, it is well worth the end result.

When you finish the course online, you call to schedule your proctored exam. I scheduled my proctored exam for the next day so I would still have it fresh. Then you need to schedule your National and State Exam which you can take together. I was optimistic and took my Course I proctored exam in the morning and then scheduled my National and State Exam that afternoon (through psiexams). I studied and studied and studied and when it came to the test was still really nervous....I hadn't done this in a while! The test wasn't too bad and if you studied, you were most likely going to pass. I then had my National and State exam that afternoon and then passed those. They are STRICT going into the test. They make sure you have NOTHING on you, no hat, no purse, no anything you might have answers on. Go in there and be confident in what you learned and you will be fine.....

Now what?

Along my journey.....

Along my journey, I worked for a real estate company for a while before I worked for Friemann Companies full time and I loved looking at all the houses. I loved digging in to the prices to see what we could get the customers and finding ways to get everyone their dream home! I took a short stint away from that and followed some other career paths but in the end, I came back to Brenda and joined the Friemann Companies team! I think I always knew deep down I would!

After working a while on office management and marketing for Friemann Companies, it was brought to  my attention that maybe I should think about getting my real estate license. You think that would be a no brainer but it is a little scary at first thinking about it!

Think about it...of course it's fun to look at homes (I guess maybe not everyone loves it as much as I do!), and it's fun to be a part of everyone's home journey, but what happens when you are the one with the responsibility to make sure the paperwork goes through and the inspections are done and the home appraises for your buyers and sellers and that everyone goes to closing and leaves closing happy....then it gets a little more real!

I knew I wanted to pursue this and decided to jump right in! It helps that I had a great mentor to talk to me about the process and knew I had someone to talk to when I finished and help me whenever I ran into any issues. So I signed up!

The courses as a whole are divided into 3 Courses. Course 1 preps you for the MN and National Exam. I will dive into these a little more in the next posts but to just give you a general idea..... After Course 1, you take your proctored Course 1 exam (if you completed the course online), then you sign up for and take the National and State Exam. After that, you take Course 2 and 3 and take the proctored exams (again if you took it online otherwise you take the exams in the classroom) before you can continue. After you complete all of that, your broker (I will get into that as well later) needs to send in all your paperwork to apply to get you your license.........at that point.........welcome to the world of real estate!!!
 

And the Realtor Journey Begins!!!!

"I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we're all teachers - if we're willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door." - Marla Gibbs

I believe everything we go through in life serves a purpose. Whether it be a lesson learned or to help us figure out who we are, or to give us an answer that we are looking for - it may not help us now, but later we will see it had a reason for being part of your journey.  I look back at myself a couple years ago and I  must have been crazy! Within a 6 month period, I moved to the Twin Cities, planned my wedding (or was in the heat of planning), got a new job, moved into a cousin's house for temporary living arrangements, got to know a whole new area and how to drive in all this traffic, and bought a house! Oh that's nothing right? Well I look back wondering how I actually handled all that without pulling my hair out, but I did it!

Somewhere along the way, I met Brenda. I remember calling my dad one day about what I should do for living situation and how I hated my apartment hunting (if you don't know that story, look back in my blog!). He mentioned to me how awesome the interest rates were and I should talk to my husband (fiancé at the time) about it maybe being a good time to look at purchasing a home. Well I shared that whole experience with you but what I didn't share is how much I came to LOVE homes and looking at them in the process. Brenda became one of my best friends in the process and has been my mentor and inspiration to get my license. And now, I have it!!

But, what does that take to get!!?!! And how did I know enough about real estate to decide it's for me??!?? That you will find out in the next post!

Stay tuned!