The process of getting a license is easy peasy. It's what comes afterward that is less easy.... learning your market, learning contracts, developing a client base. I've always said that you feel like fraud until you have at least a dozen transactions under your belt.

Getting familiar with the paperwork and the market. I had already been in business for myself so I could manage time properly and I knew how to keep people from wasting it although I didn't always enforce that. I was already great on the computer so learning MLS was not hard at all. Some agents have been out here for decades and they'll never learn it. When I was new I did a lot of tours at the encouragement of my broker. They woefully underprepare us for contract writing in this industry.

The hardest part, for me, was making the decision to actually do it.  I came from another business that was still producing income... and it was hard to walk away from that income.

I think it is easy to become an agent, it is hard to succeed. In a workd where trends call for cheaper costs, less services and bigger offices, the agents doing really well are offering more service, using experience and know how to take care of their cleints as well as sell homes. 

Learning that it was okay to take time for myself and call them appointments.  LOL

for me it was the mental part of stepping away from a regularly scheduled paycheck.  25 years in it doesn't bother me anymore, but as a 20 something single mom it was hard sometimes.

It was that moment when the letter arrived from the State of California informing me I had passed the examination....now, what?   The licensing process did not prepare me for becoming an agent --- each day brought new questions and experiences.   

Shutting off the brain to catch some ZZZzzz's when you can't wait to be up and at 'em to slay more real estate dragons.

Learning how to allocate your time to income producing activities !

learning how to market in search of listings in an ever changing real estate business.... initially offline and networking....now online and with SEO....

Facing the reality of your lack of knowledge after passing the state test!

  Piece of cake.

Getting that pipeline of business full and keeping it full.

Nathan Gesner I would say getting started with prospecting and learning the paperwork. I had a good Broker who had a good mentoring and training program which helped a lot.

Waking up unemployed everyday until you get hired by a client that closes; keeping their needs in front of your own in doing so.

We have to be playing like the money is in our pocket, even though our pocket is empty. (Lee Trevino's Story).

I will have to think about this one and get back to you.

The decision to do it.... licensed but comfortable in the corporate health care world where income was not uncertain.

Accepting that buyers and sellers both think we just fell off the turnip truck and will believe anything they say

Getting sucked into how other agents ran their business model. I had my own vision.

Nina Hollander nailed this one!

Putting up with the bull crap after becoming one. 

In a classroom atmosphere, it was the Math Nathan Gesner.  I've loved many subjects, and Math was never easy for me, and never a subject that I was comfortable with.  Once I found out the percentage (yes, that is 'math'!) of questions on the two Exams that would involve Math, I stopped sweating it.  Plus I knew that working as part of a Team, where the other person loved numbers and had worked on taxes and as a Controller at a past company, eased all of my 'number concerns'.  Seriously.  Another hard part for me was watching and learning others do transactions and paperwork, and not doing my own, since I was part of a Team, meaning I did not do 'all' of the tasks from A to Z myself.  

At first it was passing the darn test LOL

Getting used to the routine and the irregular pay. It takes discipline.

Keeping up with past clients is my hardest part.

The time until the income starts coming.

Learning how to make a profit.

Trying to determine whether people who are trying to help are serious home buyers or browsers. Or trying to determine whether your seller clients are either SERIOUS or STUPID.

Putting together systems so not to forget dates.

It is easy.

I have seen many agents come & go and I would say being able to deal with someone telling you NO and handling rejection and also realizing the real estate business is not a piece of cake.

There were a number of things - the paperwork for one. And getting used to not having a steady paycheck.

Nathan Gesner - Not when I became the agent. It was after that - CE and mandatory requirement of COE.

Are you starting classes in Utah Nathan?

Learning the Contracts initially .

However, down the road (recession years), having to learn how to build a website was not something that I thought I had signed up for! 

I pass the the text first time around but know lots that it took 3 times.

Becoming one wasn't hard; being one is the hard part.

The negative Nancies

Getting time off of my other job

For most agents it is making money for themselves instead of everyone else.