Real Estate Classes in Brooklyn – Welcome to the Club

I have a friend from Phoenix who attended the University of Arizona. She is constantly trying to compare her education to mine. I attended Brown. If there is a minor piece of information that I don’t know, she quickly points out the obvious flaws in my undergraduate schooling. I humor her because I know she wanted to go to Brown. She tries to remind herself that she didn’t miss out. I know she did.

Attending an Ivy League school isn’t about being the smartest person in the room, even though most of the time I am. It is more about belonging to a special club. Some of us made it because we were very smart, others because their family has donated to the school’s endowment for generations. Regardless how you got there, once you are in the club, you feel special.

It’s not Ivy League and that’s okay

On the surface, the classes at Brooklyn Real Estate Institute don’t even begin to approach the difficulty of an easy class at Brown. But if you are looking for the value in this experience based strictly on information, you may be missing the point. I think I have learned more about human psychology studying and applying my real estate lessons than I ever learned in my psych classes at Brown.

I think the reason for that is in real estate and sales, you are in the actual trenches of life. You learn to understand what makes people tick or you don’t make the sale. An important lesson you learn by hanging around people who are successful in real estate is how to read people. You don’t learn that in class. You learn it from the instructor after class and from others who are at the school learning advanced investing strategies.

The University of People

Even though my real estate classes in Brooklyn taught me every detail I would need to know about real estate sales and investing, it is the education in people that I enjoy the most. After you get your real estate license and start taking advance courses, it becomes a little like Brown; you belong to the club. The veterans start pulling you aside and divulging their secrets for reading people and understanding what motivates others.

Even though there are no secret handshakes or anything like that, members of this club seem to get special privileges reserved for those special few who have advanced in the ranks. I am actually impressed how well connected my instructors are.

Going with your strength

In my previous career in health care, I became good friends with some of the top surgeons and doctors in the country. Even though the politics of my job made it difficult to use my network of friends for anything other than an invitation to a cocktail party, I now found I had something they wanted. I knew all about the good properties, the ones to invest in and the ones to avoid. And if they were looking for a good home, I knew who was moving and when.

I also found that my Brown connections were still valuable. Some of the people I have been working with are so upscale, I think I may even switch over to working for Sotheby's Real Estate. Seriously, check out this video. I could sell that. Easy.

Yes. I went to Brown. I am in the club. But I also went to Brooklyn Real Estate Institute. I am in that club too. That club makes money.

Excel in your career with a real estate school in Brooklyn

There is no way to learn everything you need to know in real estate. I should know, I am a genius, and I still feel there are many things I need and want to know. As I progress in my career, I budget a specific amount of time each week for study and education.

Early in my career, I learned that the fastest way to get smart and find out the money making good stuff was to take every class I could at a real estate school in Brooklyn. Yeah, I know how to use the Internet, but much of the information there is fragmented or specific to a region outside of New York. In those days, I had no interest in learning how to leverage property in Los Angeles. New York was the only playground I was interested in.

A real estate school in Brooklyn can help you network

At no time while pursuing a career in real estate or attending real estate school did I ever once think about finding a close friend or lover in the process. By virtue of my family, I already had a reasonably broad social circle. I didn’t lack for dates. Quite frankly, I turned most of them down to make time for real estate.

I should have seen the pattern forming; my social circle was filling up with real estate professionals. My advanced investment classes for investment real estate had some interesting and highly motivated students. Also, I found myself taking advantage of the school’s coaching and mentoring programs.

Accelerating learning for profit and success

One thing I regret about my college experience is that I didn’t take advantage of more programs that would have given me hands on experience in my chosen career. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. I first sought out coaching on how to maximize my profits in every transaction. Even though my parents had never given me a reason to ever worry about money, I found myself more money motivated than ever before. I guess I started to see it as a game, where the profits were the points I won for playing the game well.

Eventually, I saw that real estate was a career that could make me financially independent of my family and allow me to experience life in a way I never thought possible. I sought out a mentor who would accelerate my education and experience so I could work and close the big deals. My real estate school in Brooklyn had helped me realize many goals in a short period of time. Granted, I am a quick learner, but I recognize that I couldn’t have done it on my own.
Learn more about career courses. 

Fitting Real Estate Classes in Brooklyn into Your Schedule

Ordinarily I would find this a stupid thing to write about. You’re an adult, “How do you fit a real estate class into your schedule?” Really? You just do it. Right?

The reality is a little more complicated than that. Fitting a class into your schedule that only takes 75 hours, of which you only have to think for 35 of those hours, in under a year shouldn’t be an issue.

Real estate classes in Brooklyn won’t explode when time runs out

You heard me. It’s not a ticking time bomb. If you don’t get done in time you have to start over. No big deal. The only big deal here is the fact that you really don’t want a career in real estate.

Wait! You say you do want to work in real estate? No you don’t. If you did, it wouldn’t be difficult to find time for your classes. You only want the dream of a real estate career or maybe someone is encouraging you to do something you don’t really want to do.

If you are finding trouble making time for you real estate class in Brooklyn then you really need to ask yourself if you really want this career and read more about it. Self-scheduling only gets worse when you are actually working in real estate. I you can create time for everything you need to get done, then real estate is a bad career choice for you.

Finding your priority

I have found that people find time for their passion, for the things that interest them the most.  I have plenty of time for real estate because I am no longer passionate about my old career path; in fact I am passionate about getting out as fast as possible. I sometimes skip dinner, sleep less, or forego a Broadway premier, to make time for real estate.

My advice to anyone struggling to find the time is to go back to the beginning and ask themselves, “Why?” Why am I pursuing real estate? Why do I think it will appeal to me? What is my why?

If you can’t identify your why in real estate and if your why doesn’t set your soul on fire, you will never be able to make time for real estate.

Work or die

Sure. There are plenty people in real estate that see it only as a job. They sometimes do okay, when they have a choice between putting in the effort or missing a house payment. They get motivated by the meanest of incentives, losing what they have, or providing for their children. They have a couple good days a month, enough to keep the wolf away from the door and the rest of the month they are unmoved. Discomfort is their motivation. They will never be great; they just get by.

My opinion, if you can’t fit real estate classes in Brooklyn into your schedule, quit. Quit now and put yourself and those around you out their misery. That may sound too harsh. If quitting isn’t your thing, then you better damn well get excited.

What to know before your first Brooklyn Real Estate Class

Look, I went to Brown—and aced it. Real estate classes didn’t scare me. Brooklyn scares me but not school. Some of my habits I learned at Brown really paid off for me however.

First, and I recommend this, I found out everything there was about my first class. I found out it was a New York requirement that you attend all 75 hours of the 75-hour course. Even if you choose to take your Brooklyn Real Estate Class in Chelsea at home on your computer, you literally have to sit in front of your computer for the full 75 hours.

In class or online?

The first thing I had to decide consequently, was; do I attend class or go online somewhere like www.brooklynrei.com? I know, a brainiac like me might as well take the course online. However, at Brown I learned the value of networking. I knew that learning from people and colleagues often had advantages over online courses. You do have to be gregarious and outgoing to take advantage of that learning channel. Some people I know took the online course and they did fine.

Do you have time for a Brooklyn real estate class?

If you decide to take your class online, you actually have one year to complete the 75 hours. This would be a bad idea in my opinion. By the time you completed the course you would have forgotten everything and need to take a refresher course to be able to pass the real estate exam.

Since I decided to take the class, I needed to make sure I could fit the class into my schedule while I was still working at the hospital to pay the bills. I needed to figure in driving time, class time, and time to talk to anyone I could find who could give me a heads up on the real estate business.

I then wanted to schedule time after class to study. I was taking my pursuit of real estate as serious as any career. I inherently knew that knowledge was one of the key factors of success and I was cramming any information I could get for success.

What’s your career path and timeline?

Even though my life and schedule were such that I just had to plug myself into schedules and curriculums that were already set, I recognized that now I needed to do that for myself. How fast did I want to get my license? What was my career path after that? What are the opportunities and what are the drawbacks?

Based on schedule at work, I created a reasonably aggressive timeline to get my license. I then had to seek out a mentor who could show me the career paths available to me and what kind of time commitment should I plan on. Without these objectives firmly in my mind, I could see how time could be my enemy. I had to follow a timeline that would allow me to quit my hospital job as soon as possible. My quality of life there was sucking the life out of me.

Having all of these things in mind before I began my first class made my real estate career happen much quicker for me than if I had waited to be told what I should do next in my Brooklyn real estate class.

How I Made my Own Career after Brooklyn Real Estate School

I know this blog starts out with the word “how” but that’s not the most important question if you are asking me how to get started in real estate. For me it all started with “why.”

First, by way of explanation, I am a woman in my early thirties. I took the traditional career path afforded someone with a 4.0 GPA, a 2350 SAT score, and parents with money. I attended Brown University and did well. I wanted to work in hospital administration, so I felt lucky when a prominent hospital in New York offered me a good starting position. My goal was to work for a few years and then return to Brown for my Executive Master of Healthcare Leadership. It all seemed like a good plan. 

The first thing I noticed about my new work environment was how structured everything was. Not structured in a good way though, structured by politics, and the struggle for power and position. I didn’t like what this environment did to the people around me. Those at my level seemed to be in fear most of the time. The women supervisors and executives seemed cold, aloof, and driven. The men were . . . well men.

Why real estate?

Long story short, I made serious inquiries to my former Brown classmates to see if it was just me. They assured me their corporate environments were similar. Now what? Work in this prison until I retire? I was too smart for that. I wanted to walk into HR at work and alert them that they had hired a bunch of psychos to run their hospital but I thought it through and decided to leave when I found something better.

I wanted a career that I structured, that tied my pay to my success, and didn’t want Ursula the sea witch breathing down my neck. That’s why I signed up for a Brooklyn real estate school. After my research, I could see how real estate was my thing and I wanted to be in the Brooklyn real estate industry. I felt free for the first time since ninth grade when I began living for grades and titles. I could see that real estate could be a challenge, fun, and profitable—and I could be in charge.

How real estate school liberated me

At this point I knew what I wanted and I knew why I wanted it. The next question was how to proceed, how to start.

When I talk to people today, I tell them if they don’t know why, they will never find a good what. The how is all about using your head. Even though I had my fill of school, a Brooklyn real estate school was obviously the first place to find out how.

I wasn’t disappointed.