Friday, February 19, 2021
The real estate industry is heavily regulated by both State and Federal (to a lesser degree) guidelines and laws.
To assist with understanding the procedures and processes used by real estate brokers (coursework), I began delving into the many forms, agreements, statements, and contracts used by these professionals. Shown below, a directory listing of some of the forms I have collected to date.

While researching for my (real estate) course, I found other legal forms and agreements I wanted to add to my Microsoft Word template sets. The lower image in the diagram above, shows some of the other forms.
For some reason, I feel smarter having done this research, and wanted to provide a great resource for DIY research and creation of legal forms.

Should you retain a lawyer if you have questions? Yes. That said, some agreements are pretty straightforward and most services like eForms.com probably use lawyers and/or legal staff to help with the creation of the documents and services they offer.
In my case, I always want a lawyer to fax a copy of an agreement so I can study and research (without interruption) the document before further discussion or signatures- are added.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021
I have been busy, but feel I am keeping up with my coursework. Mainly, because I stay ahead with the reading.

Other things going on...
- Filed my taxes.
- Preparing paperwork for course completion related efforts
- Renewed several of my domains (yes, tend to do this yearly rather than longer periods of time)
- Site issues, sports scores (WiredPages), etc.
- Researching problems with header bidding ads used on several areas of my sites
- Updating online résumés to reflect current coursework for real estate license
- Paying business bills... addresses, hosting, etc.

Just really, busy...

Thursday, January 28, 2021
My real estate course starts next week, and I have been busy with continuing preparation efforts.

Recent preparations:
- Joined the Microsoft Teams for the class
- Setup student calendars
- Digitizing Maryland laws and regulations as related to real estate for easy search.
- Coming up to speed with a newer version of Microsoft Office (365)
- Zoom (online) classroom attendance- continuing preparations
- Research as related to the real estate market, jobs, and online forums
- Studying

Researching Microsoft offerings as related to real estate.

I have also been trying to plan my days for the next two months, in that I will continue to do most of the shopping. In addition, I have several business related tasks coming up, so I am hoping I can accomplish everything as efficiently as possible.

Thursday, January 21, 2021
Over the years, I have avoided using facetime and capturing videos of myself. I am not photogenic. This was never really a problem until now.
I worked in a male dominated field and found I liked conservative suits for daily office wear. Though I wear little in the way of jewelry, hair and makeup always important.
Today, when out, I tend to choose the same types of styles. With online video conferencing about to become more important in my life, I am researching options. I am concerned about mistaken identity issues, so want the same look for all public appearances, even video conferencing (sans the mask).

The real problem? I wear black- a lot. I am going through my closets for more colorful options that will project a better contrast for video conferencing, however I am not coming up with a wide selection.
So why all of the previews? Still thinking about all of this. Happy the online course is business related.

Friday, January 08, 2021
I received notification on January 6th, 2021, the real estate class start date has been postponed until February.

Several plans based on the original class start date- have also been postponed. Still very excited about this project.

Monday, February 03, 2020
Originally posted: 2/3/21
I have started my online class and it did not go exactly as planned.
Number one, I made a mistake and asked the entire class to join my class events. How did I do this? When I joined the Microsoft Team for the class, I created events in the Team Calendar. I thought it was another student (semi-private) calendar. I was able to cancel all of the events, however it left some in the class confused.
Though no one said anything to me, the number of messages and emails I received before the start of class showed my mistake. "Most could not log in". The class coordinator had to help some of my classmates to the correct event. I was rather embarrassed by the whole thing and could only smile at my mistake.
Two, I love understanding software and all aspects of a new user interface. During the class, I played with every button/icon I could find-- to make sure I understood its function. Never worried everything was being recorded.
For the last two months I have been trying to test lighting, camera resolution, etc. however did not actually create a video. I should have done this.

The two videos the professor uploaded after the class, showed me and a handful of my classmates with our video cameras never turned off. Every move I made was recorded and I have a lot of bad angles.
I think I have figured out options to avoid my first day of class mistakes-- however have no problem if you learn from my mistakes.
I take solace in the fact, I thought the real time video streams of my classmates were a lot nicer than the videos. I was using a high resolution monitor so I thought I could see most of the flaws. I recommend testing if you plan on keeping the video on for most of your class time.
The good news, I feel the study time I put in over the last month- is going to pay off.
