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A Texas RE License Journey
I'm going to use this thread to hold myself accountable, and hopefully help anyone else who may learn from my experiences!
After launching my own website in 2012, Go To Thread Here...
Dabbling in direct mail with @Jerry Puckett in 2013-2014...
Working leads for @John Chapman & @Jon Klaus over the last 3 years...
And sending out some more mail in 2015...
I'm ready to take the next logical step for me in my real estate career.
The "License Timeline" starts in the next post.
RE License Timeline - Education - +/- $500, completed in 1 month
~June 1, 2015: Decided on and purchased education. I chose Kaplan's home study materials. They sent me the actual paperback books to read, and the tests were administered online. My cost was a little over $500. The Kaplan Texas RE Website is here.
~June 5, 2015: Received MOST of the books. 2 books were back-ordered. But that's ok, they wouldn't be needed until later. I immediately dug in and read through & quizzed on 2 units this day.
June 10, 2015: Finished the first course "Principles of Real Estate". Took "Principles" Quiz online, scored 96%. Took Final Exam online, scored 93%. Course Completed.
~June 12, 2015: Received final 2 books.
June 25, 2015: Finished 2nd course: "Texas Law of Agency". Took "Agency" Quiz online, scored 93%. Took Final Exam online, scored 88%. Course Completed.
June 30, 2015: Finished 3rd course: "Texas RE Finance". Took "Finance" Quiz online, scored 83%. Took Final Exam online, scored 80%. Course Completed.
June 30, 2015: Finished 4th course: "Texas Contract Law". Took "Contracs" Quiz online, scored 90%. Took Final Exam online, scored 85%. Course Completed.
June 30/July 1 (Midnight), 2015: Finished 5th course: "Texas Promulgated Forms". Took "Forms" Quiz online, scored 80%. Took Final Exam Online, scored 86%. Course Completed. All Education Completed.
RE License Timeline - Choosing a Sponsoring Broker
7/1/2015: Ran an MLS market report by agent and by agency for my town. I wanted to know who the top 2 agents and the top 2 agencies in my town were. Not to any surprise, Century 21 had the top agent and the #1 agency spot for dollar volume and units listed/sold. Keller Williams ran a pretty close 2nd. I knew I'd want to talk to both of these national brokerages, and one local agency.
7/2/2015 - Meeting with local broker: I had been talking to LOTS of people I know in town, for a referral of their "favorite" local broker. The overwhelming response was Eva Earl Rutledge / Rutledge Real Estate. So I set up an appointment to meet with her. She has an agency of 3 agents, with a combined experience of over 95 years. She's very low key, down to earth, and extremely active in the community, even in her advanced age. She's in her 80s. The office is pretty low tech and old school, but still felt great to me, based on all the referrals I received and talking with her for a couple hours.
7/6/2015 - Meeting with Keller Williams: I had been referred to KW by several investors. Saying KW is very investor-centered. Met with KW this day. The broker was extremely friendly, and a fast talker :) Nothing wrong with that. The split seemed to be reasonable, with decent caps. The fees weren't too bad. The training opportunities are incredible. They turned into the clear cut leader in my mind after our meeting of about an hour and a half. Even though they were a little "fast" for my style of selling, I could still see the fit.
7/8/2015 - Meeting with Century 21: Met with the clear market leader Century 21 this day. I didn't get to meet with the broker, she was out of town, but I met with one of the managers. She was great! They had a very well put together presentation for prospective agents. In short, C21 was a little "big business" for me. If I wanted to devote all my time to agent activities, I could see C21 being quite lucrative, but that's not how I want to spend my entire week.
7/8/2015 - Advice from good friends: After my 3 meetings, I was 99% certain KW was going to be home. I called on 2 of my favorite people to bounce things off of to let them know what I was thinking, and ask their opinion. They both told me exactly the same thing: "It sounds like you've made up your mind, and will do quite well with KW. You should probably call Eva Earl and talk to her again before you make your final decision.". Almost verbatim they both said the same thing. So I called her back...
7/8/2015 - Final Answer: So I called Eva Earl. I told her all about my meetings with KW and C21. She'd heard it all before. She also agreed that I'd do quite well with KW, and not going with C21 was probably good for my desired work style/schedule. She also told me about how 3 (yes, ALL 3) of her agents had previously been with KW. And she told me about their experiences. And why each of them ended up with Rutledge, a small, local broker. And their reasoning had little to do with anything particularly negative about KW, but more the "style" and knowledge of working in this office. One agent was the buyer's agent in a transaction a few years ago, that Rutledge had listed. Rutledge helped the buyer's agent get through that transaction more than the buyer agent's own broker. Year later she left her broker to go to work for Rutledge. After 40 years in the business, over 30 as a broker in this town, she knows what she's doing, and how to "old-school" prospect for long time clients. Relationship sales, 20-year client relationships. City and county contacts. No pressure, no ugly in-office competition. Ok. she sold me. Sign me up...
7/9/2015 - Sponsorship Form!: I met Eva Earl at her office and she signed my broker sponsorship form and mailed it to Austin.
RE License Timeline - Application Process & Broker Meetings
7/8/2015: Paid the $205 application fee, and submitted my app for TX RE Salesperson license. There was nowhere (that I could find) that told me how to attach or send my education credentials. This is important later. The state says their processing time is 10-15 days. C21 and KW both told me that for some reason, the state is backlogged right now, and it's taking closer to 3 weeks. So I got ready to wait...
7/14/2015: Eva Earl invited me to sit in on their weekly broker/agent meeting so I did. Met 2 of the 3 agents, and a guest. The guest was a senior loan officer for a mortage banker. Ironically, it's the same mortgage banker I just bought my personal residence with. Small World.
7/21/2015: Attended weekly broker/agent meeting. Another prospective agent was at this meeting. He may switch brokers over to Rutledge as well. No word from the state yet...
7/21/2015 - continual: Ms. Rutledge gave me "homework". She gave me all the copies of Realtor magazine since January and told me to read them. So I've been doing that. Great source of info! I guess Print isn't totally "out" yet. :)
7/26/2015: 18 days since I applied. Tried to call the state multiple times, never could get through
7/27/2015: Tried to call the state multiple times, never could get through. Sent the state an email through their contact web-page. Received a reply within a few hours, letting me know that I needed to email my education credentials to a separate state email address I had not previously seen. And I should allow 10-15 days for processing. Really? Another 10-15 days? Was it my error? Did I not read everything properly when I did my application? Or were the instructions not shown properly? I guess it was probably me. Live and learn. More waiting.
7/28/2015: Attended weekly broker/agent meeting. Started BP thread to track my progress!
Congrats Shane! Eva sounds like a small town Ebby. What kind of agent prep stuff can you work on now while you are waiting for your license?
Attending their weekly meetings has been immensely helpful already. Broker and the mother and daughter more seasoned agents have lots of contacts all over town. They seem to know everyone. And the newer agent has a great deal of FB success generating leads. She's only been in this area a couple years and already has quite a bit of success.
I've been spending a lot of time just watching things list and sell locally. I've been so imersed in the Austin market the last year, its a completely different ballgame here in my smallish town west of DFW. But the market is heating up here. I'm seeing 2 bed 1 bath houses, smaller than the 3/2 residence I just bought, listed for $10k more than we paid. Days on market is going way down for well priced houses. Overpriced houses seems to be the norm right now...which is interesting.
The 3rd and most important thing I'm doing right now, is getting the word out to my circle that I'll be an agent soon. Asking everyone I know if they or someone they know will be buying or selling soon. I'll ramp that up quite a bit once I have my license.
Have you talked with your broker about a yellow letter campaign? What does she think?
Good luck! And if for some reason this doesn't work out I know a broker here in Dallas that is looking to hire a go getter such as yourself for the Tarrant county area.
@Jon KlausWe're not quite there yet. :)
Shane this information is super helpful! Sounds like you are going to be very successful.
Thanks Eric! I'm looking forward to sharing my journey. I'm excited, and this thread will hopefully keep me that way!
Hi @Shane Woods,
I appreciate you doing the timeline because I have been confused about the process.
I am too completing my real estate license online. I am completing mine through Real Estate Express. Unfortuntley, they don't explain the final testing process too well.
I see you did the Final Exam online. I am not sure about Real Estate Express, but I will call them and find out for sure.
I just wanted to clarify the proper steps to take. From what I read above you,
1) Finish the education and take the online final exam.
2) Begin to meet with brokers and apply for the inactive license.
3) Once you receive the inactive license, you get a broker to sign the sponsor form, it gets mailed back to Austin and its time to go to work?
Thanks again for the time. Good luck to you.
You Almost got it!
1) Do the education. The final exams I spoke of were for each course in the education. Print and download copies of the certificates of completion with test scores for each of the 5 completed courses.
2) Start talking to brokers during or right after you finish education. Pick one before or after step 3.
3) Apply for your inactive license on the TREC website. Cost is $205.
4) HUGELY IMPORTANT!!!! Email your education documents to [email protected] AND cc [email protected] just to be safe. Do this IMMEDIATELY after you receive confirmation they received your application. Took about 2 minutes for the confirmation email. I didn't email my education, and it cost me 3 weeks of unnecessary waiting.
5) As soon as you can after you apply and submit education, have your chosen broker sign the sponsorship form and mail it to the state. The form and the address are on the TREC website. If you don't get it to them before they process your app, the process takes longer. ( see step 8-9)
6) wait. TREC says 10-15 days. Word on the street is 3 weeks. The state will contact you with an ID number and fingerprint information. This is also your authorization to schedule the state licensing exam and get fingerprinted.
7) Schedule the exam. & get fingerprinted. Take the exam. Exams are graded immediately. If you pass, go to step 8. If not, repeat step 7.
8) IF your sponsorship form was processed before you took your test, you're IMMEDIATELY an active agentagent with your broker.
9) If not, you'll have to go online and change your broker through the TREC website. I think it may cost $20 and be a few more days.
Hope this helps!
RE License Timeline - Application Process & Broker Meetings
8/4/15 - Checked the TREC website: my education & scores haven't been processed. Guess I'll keep waiting. I know the state has them because I received confirmation auto-responders from the education address and the info address. Nothing like waiting on the state :) I'll be attending another broker meeting this morning as well. I enjoy them. It's like I'm already part of the team, even though I'm not quite yet.
RE License Timeline - Application Process & Broker Meetings
8/4/15 10am - Had my meeting with the broker this morning. Went well. We talked about addendums and future development in Weatherford. There's a new road (loop) which will cause much property to be converted to commercial over the next few years. And The city is annexing all the property surrounding the new loop. Which will be interesting to keep up with from a planning and zoning perspective.
8/4/15 12pm - I GOT MY LETTER FROM TREC!!! (See Pic)
So tomorrow, I'm going to contact PersonVue and schedule my test and fingerprinting. If it works out, I'll be able to get fingerprinted and take my test Thursday. I as I mentioned earlier, if TREC received my signed broker sponsorship letter in time, I'll be an active agent as soon as I pass the test. Fingers Crossed!!!
You're almost there, Shane!
Yessir! And my broker is completely immersed in the Planning & Zoning and Ordinances boards. I'll be able to take what I've learned working with you, and hopefully have a little bit of a knowledge edge when it comes to folks buying/selling/subdividing/converting all this rural property that's about to turn commercial. There's also several new residential subdivisions planned along the new loop, "behind" the areas that will become commercial. I can't wait to get in and start listing & selling some of those properties.
Shane,
Thanks for the post! Very informative. I am along the same line with where you are and just passed my exam today. I am also looking to hang my license with KW locally.
Let us know your progress update soon.
RE License Timeline - Application Process & Broker Meetings
8/5/15 Logged into the Pearson Vue website to search for available testing sites. There was one available on Friday 8/7 in Waco, about 100 miles away. Otherwise I have to wait until next week to take a test closer to me. Since we have plans all weekend anyway, no reason to waste most of a day and gas driving to Waco. I'll log back in tomorrow and schedule the test for one day next week in Fort Worth.
@Shane Woods, it looks like you took the balls-to-the-wall home study approach knocking out the license course in 30 days. I did the same thing last winter. It was daunting at first, but chipping away at it before work, during lunch, and later in the evening was worth the struggle. I wish I did it years sooner.
For anyone wondering, I used the Real Estate Express course and found it very easy to use. I passed my exam on the first try. I never went through the trouble to find out what my exact score was though.
Awesome story Shane! Your story has just inspired me even more to pursue my RE License!
Congratulations, Shane! Now, you just need to get through that exam!! I do have a test prep that help me get through the state/national course. Let me know if you need it. Great choice with KW. I chose them too. Look forward to watching your journey!
RE License Timeline - Taking The Test!
8/6/2015 - Logged into the Pearson website to check test date availability again. The one available in Waco on Friday 8/8 was now not available, but one came available in FW on Friday 8/8. By the time I could click on it to reserve the spot, it had already been taken. I decided on Wednesday 8/12/2015 in Carrolton. My test is scheduled for 6:30pm. The cost for the test is $54.
RE License Timeline - Taking The Test!
8/11/2015 - Took National PSI Exam Prep Pre-Test online, scored 86%. Printed off the exam prep outline to study the areas I missed on the pre-test.