I just finished talking to one of our students. She needed a copy of her Continuing Education Certificate, because her entire office is being audited by the Board of Licensure. That’s right its not a typo. On Monday the office was notified that every agent in her office has to send in their Continuing Education Certificate.

So, while I was talking with her I could hear the stress in her voice and she only needed a new certificate showing she finished the classes. I could only image the stress and anxiety an agent is feeling that has not completed the 12 hours of continuing education and stated that it was complete when they sent in their renewal.

As agents we already have enough stress and anxiety in our day to day lives. We really do not need to be adding anymore. While on the phone I thought to myself, “How can I help relieve the stress some of the agents are going through about this audit?” I quickly created a $50 off coupon (Coupon Code: EE75) that she could share with everyone in the office that needs to take the 12 hours of continuing education. So, if you have not completed your continuing education for your license renewal don’t delay. You or your office could receive an audit letter from the Board of Licensure. Go ahead and register online today.

Each of our online continuing education classes are a 2 hour video presentation with no tests or quizzes. Our program also keeps track of your time, so you can pick up where you left off when you log back in.

Please feel free to share this offer with agents in your office. We always appreciate and value the referrals we receive from our students.

Visit us at http://baystateacademy.net

Coupon Code: EE75
*Cannot be combined with other offers Expires 05/30/2013

Real Estate agents are so dedicated to their clients.  No matter what the weather predication is.   We’re out there going from one appointment to the next.  I remember at one of my showing a few years ago, when we had 15 feet of snow everywhere.  My clients and I had to almost swim through the snow to reach the front door.  The property was bank owned and no one had come by to shovel the walk way.  Lucky enough it was the last home on our tour.  It all worked out because they fell in love with the inside.  It’s always a great feeling when you see your clients become really excited about a property.  They wanted to talk a little bit more about the property and write up an offer.  The inside of the house was as cold as an ice-box, so I decided to take them to a local coffee shop to warm up and relax before writing up the offer.  I always remember how relaxed my clients became while sitting in the corner couch of the cafe.  Not only did the cup of hot chocolate and latte help regain the feeling in our hands and feet.  The warmth also helped melt away all their concerns and fears about putting the offer. With the cold weather on our heals I thought I would share a few spots that you might like to take your clients.

Boston:

• South End Buttery – 314 Shawmut Ave.Boston, MA 02118

• 75 On Liberty Wharf - 220 Northern Ave.Boston, MA 02210

• Finale - 1 Columbus Ave.Boston, MA 02116

• Modern Pastry - 257 Hanover Street Boston, MA 02113

• Mike’s Pastry -300 Hanover Street Boston, MA 02113

South Shore:

• Strawberry Fair – 14 Pond Street Norwell, MA 2061

• Arthur & Pats – 239 Ocean Street Marshfield, MA 2050

• Blueberry Muffin - 2298 State Road Plymouth, MA 2360

• Crossroads Cafe & Deli -216 Rockland St Hanover, MA 02339

Worcester:

• Bagel Time – 194B Park Ave.,Worcester, MA

• Bagel Inn - 785 Main St., Holden, MA

• Bean Counter – 288 Boston Tpk. – Rt. 9, Shrewsbury, MA

• On the Rise - 1120 Pleasant St., Worcester, MA

Pioneer Valley:

• The Student Prince Cafe – 8 Fort Street, Springfield, MA 01103

• Sylvester’s Restaurant, Cafe - 111 Pleasant Street, Northampton, MA 01060

• Amherst Coffee - 28 Amity St Amherst, MA 01002

• The Dam Cafe - 2014 Northampton Street, Holyoke MA

• Sal’s Bakery and Cafe – 513 Belmont Ave, Springfield, MA 01108

Massachusetts Real Estate Prelicense Exam Tutorial

The Real Estate Exam in Massachusetts can be confusing but only because of the volume of real estate terms that need to be learned by the students. When I am teaching, about halfway through the first day, students will ask if they really need to know everything that we are covering for the test. I wish that I could tell them that they only need to know a few terms but that is not the case. The test covers over 1200 terms. Which can seem intimidating at first but once we get familiar with the basics things more along quite nicely.

I am sure that most Real Estate Trainers would agree that the only way you are going to pass the exam is to know the vocabulary. But how should the students go about learning the terms is the question?

I teach a technique that I call pointing the test. The exam is made up of 135 questions.  There are 85 questions on the general portion of the test and 50 questions of the state portion of the exam. The students have 4 hours to complete the exam and they only need a 70% on each portion of the test to pass.

It is important to note that all of the questions are not worth the same point value but the student will not be aware of which questions are worth more points on the test.  This sounds like we are going in circles until you realize that the test stresses particular subject areas.

If you go to the Pearson Vue Website and download the content outline of the test you will discover that some of the subject areas have substantially more questions than others. In talking with student both before and after their exam I have noticed a pattern.

Students that concentrated their studying on the subject areas that had more questions got higher scores on the test. I know this might sound obvious but you would be surprised how many students start studying for the test with out any focus.

So it should come as no big shock to hear that focused studying is the first part of the process that I call pointing the test.  The second part of the process has to do with how the students actually take the exam. Here are the rules of the second part:

• On your first pass through the exam read all of the questions in detail. Then answer all of the vocab questions that you feel confident about first and skip all the hard vocab and math questions.
• On your second pass through the exam answer just the hard vocab questions. If you do not know the answer try to guess the best that you can by eliminated 1 or 2 of the choices. Please remember to answer all of the questions as blank answers are always marked incorrect.
• On your third pass through the exam answer all of the math questions.

The reason that I suggest this Pointing the Test method is that it focuses the student on getting as many points as possible as fast as possible. This is important because often times a students first guess/thought about a question is the correct answer. The other benefit is that the student is reading all of the questions on the test before answering the hardest questions. Many of the description to questions on the test will give answers to other questions. This gives the best chance to get the points from those harder questions. And finally we come to the math questions. Of all the questions on the test the math questions cause more fear and dread than all the others combined. You will be happy to hear that only 10% of the questions on the test will be math questions. So if you leave these question until the end you will not be so flustered by the math that you get easy vocab questions wrong.

That is it for my suggestions try them out and let me know what you think in the comments bellow.