In today’s newsletter from inmannews.com, I came across an article about “How real estate distress can scar credit scores?”. We all know that Shortsales, foreclosures, Bankruptcies really make a big dent on the credit scores. But when those situations happens, people really don’t have time to think about their credit score instead they were thinking […]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
Experian’s Annual State of Credit Map – Things to think about…
October 27th, 2011 
Vijaianand 
Posted in Credit card, Economy, Education, Emgerency Fund, Finance, Financial Literacy, News 
No Comments »Another exam, Another license – Why I took Texas Real Estate Salesperson License Exam?
March 28th, 2011 Vijaianand Many of friends were puzzled after hearing my recent action about passing yet another exam. That’s right, I took the Real estate Salesperson license exam and passed with flying colors last weekend. Being an IT guy, they know that I already went out of the league to clear the CFP exam inthe first attempt and now Real estate license exam. What’s going with this guy? Is he going crazy by just taking exam after another?
I did answer few of them but decided to post this blog so it might also help others out there who is thinking about making a career change or add more feathers to their hat to take a part time career when it gets tough in these hard economic times.
Real Estate Investing
I started my real estate venture in 2007 when I bought my first rental property. I am well experienced as an investor and part time rental property owner by taking on all sorts of issues with my property staring from fixing problems, hiring handymands to evicting the tenants. After all that, I bought my another property last year and currently both of them are paying themselves with few issues now and then.
With this rental propert experience, I been encouraging and mentoring few of my friends to invest on rental property. Few of them already invested and reaping the rewards of the current good real estate investors market.
Why do I need Real estate license?
With this sound background in real estate and CFP knowlege, I thought why don’t I start putting the dots and dots together. That way I can help out people in setting their financial house in order and also assist them buying their new home or invest in the rental properties to include in their portfolio.
In order to do that, I felt it’s better to have the real estate license so I can legitimately help the clients on their home search, negotiate offers for them and also get into property management in the future. Depending on the clients risk tolerance, I am planning to offer different strategies in real estate so it won’t be burden for them. That’s the whole idea behind getting yet another license so I will have flexibility to help people by doing things in the right way possible.
What are other benefits of having Real Estate Salesperson license?
At the same time, I figured there are other added benefits in having the real estate license.
1. When I buy another property for investing, as buyer’s agent I will save time sending offers quickly instead of depending another agent. Also I even get 3% buyers agent commission which can help with my closing.
2. I can also help friends and families by giving commission rebate who are either planning to buy new home or resale home . It is allowed in Texas if disclosed in papers. That might help with their closing as well.
3. Finally, I can also able to earn some commission out on purchasing investment properties for the clients even after giving some commission rebate.
It seems like lot of advantage to have the real estate license. As always there are two sides to a coin and so far I talked about the good things. But I didn’t talk about the other side. I came to know about expenses and other hassles related in getting and carrying a valid license which I will discuss in the later post.
BTW, I came to know if I need to practice my CFP before getting CFP certification as a independent planner I need to have Security 65 license. I also need to be registered with State and FINRA which is lot of paper work and more fees. So I havn’t decided about going through that route or find a way out. Don’t be surprised if you hear I am preparing for another exam.
Tags: Clearing the CFP Exam…
February 3rd, 2011 Vijaianand The wait was over last month when I finally got my CFP Exam result. It was a mixed feeling when I opened the result. I wasn’t so sure about the result because of the performance. I was told by many that I will pass but I myself wasn’t really sure. It was a tough exam and I was told by instructors that nobody can be sure about passing after taking the exam.
It took almost 8 weeks to get result because of the special grading process carried out by CFP Exam board to take every possible situation to grade the exam. It is little robust but it seems to work in favor of candidates in many conditions. To know more about the grading process, check out this article. Also they won’t annouce the results publicly instead send out the result to each candidate via post mail. I wasn’t here to see it immediately as I was in vacation in India. I paid visit to the mail box as soon I got home.
I opened the mailbox and saw loads of letters and ads. It took me a bit to find out a envelop from CFP board. I found and opened up to see the form to send my experience proof. So I turn it around and found the Congratulation letter. I just wanted to yell out loud which did as soon I got home. It was a surprise for sure. There is no score or percentage. It was just merely a comparison of my performance with the threshold level. I scored 4 modules little above threshold but 1 module just about and 1 module just close to the level.
Anyway, I am happy to pass as one among 51.3% people who passed the Nov 2010 CFP exam. It was an amazing feeling. I never worked so hard after my bachelors and never had to wait so long to see the result. It was worth the wait for sure.
Special Thanks to my wife who always supported me on this adventure. Thanks to all CFP Course Tutors, CFP Dalton Review group of instructors.
The journey is not over yet. I just reached one more destination in getting my CFP. I still have to get through the last hurdle of showing my work experience for atleast 3 years. Let’s see how it goes and will keep you all posted.