I passed!

I recently decided that I want to go back into real estate. BK (before kids), I worked for a builder, and had been licensed for several years. I loved doing it. Once I had a couple kids, and dh started traveling a lot for work, it really wasn't easy for me to work. I put my license on "inactive" status, and started raising my babies.

A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted to go back into it, part time. However, when I went to reactivate my license, I realized I'd forgotten a key aspect of the inactive license. A fee is required yearly to keep said license alive. I didn't pay the fee, so I had to go back to school and pass the state test all over again if I wanted to get back into it. All 90+ hours of education. Ugh.

So, I registered with Stringham Real Estate School because they are highly regarded and most of their classes are online (they are now ALL online). I managed to get through the classes in six weeks, which I think is a bit impressive, given I was holding at least one kid for most of the class time. Their online courses were still a bit buggy, which was irritating.

Today I had the state exam. I got my preferred location (Salt Lake), but not my preferred time (12:30pm). Instead, I had to be there at 8am. In hindsight, that actually worked out better, but it sure sucked to wake up at 5:30 this morning. I know, wah wah wah. DH took the kids to his parents' house before he caught a plane. As it turned out, he left just as I was leaving the test, so my ILs only had to babysit the kids for about 15 minutes. I then had them all afternoon and was able to do my regular Saturday lunch with my mom, grandma (who is recovering from surgery nicely, btw), and my sisters. We then dyed easter eggs because we're celebrating easter a week late.

Things have definitely changed with the exam. Last time I took it (in 1996), it was with a #2 pencil and coloring in the dots. I brought a calculator with me, but in some weird accident, the batteries started leaking battery acid on me. Never happened before, and will hopefully never happen again. They are very strict about what you can and can't do, and you weren't supposed to get out of your seat unless the administrator came over and gave you permission. Supposedly, you weren't really supposed to get out of your seat at all. Luckily she believed me and took pity on me, and let me go wash up, and even lent me a calculator.

I will admit I examined my calculator pretty carefully this morning, and hoped that buying a dollar tree calculator wouldn't hurt me.

This time around, they took your picture beforehand. Then, the test was on a computer. The monitors were in the desk, so it made it impossible (I would think) to peek at other people's papers. There was 8 or so other people testing that fine morning. I was the last to arrive.

The school test was much more difficult and tricky than the state test. The school test asked many ambiguous questions and made a lot of assumptions, which I hate. Lucky for me, the state test was much more straight forward.

I tend to test pretty quickly, so I went through it fast. I will admit that it made me a bit nervous that I pulled out the fake HUD statements well before anyone else. The questions that were asked regarding the HUD statements were the last few of the tests. I kept my ears open for other people to mess with them, but never heard anyone do it. I then went through the test a second time, which about killed me, but I wanted to be sure. It costs $59 each time you take the test, and I REALLY didn't want to fail.

After going through the test a second time, I decided that for better or worse, I was done. And the first one done. I took my scratch paper out and let the nice ladies know. It took a few minutes for the computer to grade my test. They announced I passed (yay me!) and then they went over some paperwork, and fingerprinted me (a new thing since 96). The fingerprinting machine was really cool, it was like a scanner for your hands. Kind of like the movies. I was really interested to see my fingerprints blown up really big on the screen.

This week I will have to decide which real estate brokerage I want to affiliate with, and then start raking in the big bucks.

So, if you know anyone wanting to buy or sell a house in the northern Utah area, I'm your girl!