This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Offices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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March 1, 2007
Approaching the front desk I found a blond secretary happy to help. I had already called under a false name earlier in the day to attempt to find out if they had wireless Internet. Sadly the secretary hadn’t known, and I quickly saw why not. The brokerage was full of cubicles, row after row furnished with just a phone. I was taken back…how could I brokerage this large have so few computers?
I nervously stated my desire to sign up for Real Estate School, and was handed a thick pile of documents, and instructed to just sign them all. Having worked a bit for my father’s law firm, and a healthy dose of hard knocks growing up had taught me to always read the contract, particularly if the person handing it to me was instructing me to sign it without reading.
I politely took the thick pile over to the waiting room lazy-boy, and began to read. I was positive that somewhere in that thick pile of documents I would find one that said something like “by signing this document, applicant promises to work for this brokerage. I read, and was relieved to see nothing of the sort. They must wait until we actually get the license before they begin pressuring.
Reading it through, I found some information that hadn’t been on their website, and more surprisingly some things that conflicted with the site. One is handed a long form asking in 10 different ways if the new student has ever been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, or had a civil judgement entered in against them. Other than being 18, that’s about all you have to do to get a license. If one is honest in regard to any convictions, they can often get a license anyway.
I signed it all, and paid my $449. Or tried to. My card was declined…embarrassed, as I had only brought one card I called my wife and got her card number. They ran it…declined.
Nervousness returns. I should probably explain… I am not your typical credit card user. In the past week I bought roughly 70 DVDs from 2 different Bestbuys, as well as two laptops, and roughly 50 small items from a small tech shop. This is typical for me, but for some reason causes my Credit Card issuer to cancel my credit cards without contacting me.
My unucky wife was kind enough to go to the horrendous ordeal of calling Providian. We do so monthly, as they never seem to actually notice that we have been steadily buying large quanties of items online EVERY month. Her call went something like this:
“Hi, my card doesn’t seem to be working…”
“Oh yes, the primary card holder called us last week and closed this account”
“I AM the primary card holder, and I did no such thing”
“Yes maam, but the primary card holder called us last week and closed the account…”
“I AM THE PRIMARY CARD HOLDER AND I DID NOT CALL TO CLOSE THE ACCOUNT LAST WEEK”
“Maam, if you would just settle down, you see the account was closed by the primary card holder…”
After some argument, they agreed to reopen the account and overnight a new card for $20…after more argument they agreed to do so free. (It’s been 3 days, still no card…)
Meanwhile I finally got my check card to be accepted, and collected my books, one large national real estate book, and one small Utah state law booklet.
I was told where the classroom was, and went upstairs. I had to walk through the entire cubicle farm of an office and overheard a stereotypical office conversation…
Well dressed real estate agent to an obviously newer one: “You see, it’s your birthday, but for everyone else it’s just another day! Just one more day for me!”
Young agent looks on sheepishly, secretary gives an uneasy cordial laugh.
Well dressed agent continues: “Just another day, now I’m off to lunch, but you, you could go in a restaurant and eat for free! But you’re just staying in the office. Making it just another day for you! You see? Even when the day is special for the person it’s not!”
The well dressed agent bursts into hysterics with the secretary laughing because she can’t seem to think of anything else to do. The young agent just seems to be in pain with the entire conversation.
I leave them and enter the ’school’ part of the office.
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April 12th, 2007 at 8:08 am
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