Failure Can Be Good...But I Like Success Best!

Well, after thinking about it for nearly seven years today I finally became a real estate agent! Even though I don't have license in hand yet, I did pass the exam today and the rest is a matter of paperwork and sending the Tennessee Real Estate Comission a check for $130! So I considermyself an agent.

The process of obtaining my license has been quite and ordeal, much more difficult that obtaining two bachelor's degrees and completing 18 hours of grad school but also more rewarding.

I first became interested in becoming a real estate agent about 7 years ago, but I let a Century 21 agent in my then=hometown of Senatobia, MS, talk me out of it.
Then about 18 months ago when Steven went through the prelicensing course, I decided to go for it, too. I decided to take the class at night even though I was not working full time during the day.

I went two nights and dropped out! I am not a nighttime person by any means. We'd get out of class around 9:30 and I'd be hungry because all I'd had was a light dinner around 4. It was a 30 minute drive home, and then at 10 I'd be in Wal Mart, perusing the aisles looking for something easy to fix--like frozen pizza. Then I'd watch TV for awhile to unwind, and wind up staying up waaaay to late. So I dropped out, thinking it would be easy to resume later.

Then it just never seemed like the right time--until this summer. Again, a friend who's been an agent about 30 years tried to talk me out of it but I did not listen. I listened to myself instead, and enrolled in the class again, this time in the daytime.

It pushed me to sit in class 7 hours a day for two weeks, crammed in a tiny room with 49 other agents in training. We had a test each Friday on the material we'd covered so tension was high. Our class was rowdy. One day I audited another class and they were so quiet! I wish I had been in with them two weeks. Oh, well...I made it.

I studied my butt off for the national exam, and lightly skimmed over the state law portion. The teachers had not made too big a deal out of the law portion so I didn't either.

To my total surprise, I failed the law portion! In the meantime, Steven, who was thinking about going ahead and getting his license (since he had already completed the course), and I had interviewed with 8 companies. I narrowed it down to two, one small and local, one a franchise with fantastic training.

About two weeks after failing the law portion, I retook it. I called myself studying this time, but since I have never really studied before what I was doing wasn't really studying and I failed the test again!

It was a blow. I felt like I let both Steven and myself down, and wondered whether I had a future in real estate. The worst part, or so I thought, was that I had to wait 30 days to retake it. If I did not pass the third time, I would have to wait six months and then retake the entire thing, even the part I had passed the first time, again. Not fun. And--what would I do in the meantime?

I had told the small local company I was going to sign with them, but during my 30 day waiting period I reconnected with a different branch of the franchise. I loved the training and high energy and knew this was where I was supposed to be. I realized that if I had passed the test the second time and gone with the small company, I would not be getting off to the successful start that I need as a new agent.

I still had my dilemma of how to pass the test, when Maggie suggested I get Steven to ask me the questions in the practice test book. It worked! Everything about Tennessee real estate law started to make sense, and better yet, I was retaining it. It helped that Steven had been through the course, too.

So today I took the test and passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steven told me when I got home that I looked younger because the stress had been alleviated!

We celebrated with sparkling organic pear juice since neither of us drink alcohol. I also made some yummy chicken parmesan which turned out great even thought initially I forgot to brown the chicken first. I had to tear apart the whole casserole, brown the chicken, then put it back together but it was none the worse for it.

All in all, it's been a wonderful day and I am excited aobut the wonderful future ahead of me as a real estate agent. I know it will be an exciting adventure!