Why I Don’t Recommend Classroom Real Estate Licensing Courses

Robert Earl Digital Agent Show and today I’m going to share with you why I can’t in good conscience recommend a classroom real estate course.

So, about once a week, I get asked the question, Robert, can you recommend a real estate school in my area that I can take in a classroom setting? I’m going to share with you the reasons that I cannot in good conscience, do that and recommend a class. The first thing plenty of real estate schools across the country cannot keep track of every single one of them because they have different policies, they have different procedures and let me share with you some of the reasons.

The first part is scheduling. I get these emails that asked me the question, which real estate school should I select but I also hear about individuals that are excited about getting their real estate license. They want to take the class. They contact the real estate school, and the real estate school says, well, our next class is going to be scheduled when the classroom is full. They’re waiting for enough people to sign up so that they can actually hold a real estate class and be able to afford the instructor and afford the space. It makes sense to the school but not to the individual that is looking to take the real estate class. So, therefore they don’t know if their class is going to start next week, in two weeks. I’ve heard of folks having to wait a month, a month, and a half. In that same period of time, they could have completed an online course and been then waiting to take the actual test. Another reason I can’t in good conscience recommend a classroom course is I don’t know anything about the instructor and neither do you.

The real estate class, now there are some great instructors out there and the real estate school might have great reviews, but you don’t have the specific reviews of that particular instructor. You don’t know what their background is. Is it somebody that has been in an inactive status for a period of time and the real estate school found them and they’re going to be teaching classes in order to be able to pick up some extra dollars, but their actual experience out of the real estate school is very limited on the real estate field has been very limited and that they haven’t been practicing real estate for a period of time? Is this individual best suited to prepare you for passing the real estate exam? That’s what it is all about and also personality-wise. Don’t know if there’s going to be a personality clash from those types of things. So, I know that I cannot in good conscience make that recommendation.

Another thing that occurs with regard to policy is attendance. You’ll see the state mandates to the real estate classes that you have to be in the class for a set period of time and if you are happened to be taking, let me give you an example. If you’re taking a Tuesday night, Thursday night because you’re working full-time, you’re taking an evening class and you happen to, for whatever reason, whether something going on with your family, you have a valid excuse, but you miss that Tuesday night, chapter three section. Many real estate schools will require you to take that section of the class and you’ll have to wait until the next time that it is given. So, remember, we already talked about scheduling, how that could be difficult. It also could be that you would have to wait four weeks or six weeks, eight weeks, however long the course was for chapter three to be taught again, or you’ll have to take time off of your job to go and actually satisfy those hours.

In an online course, the way that it works is while you’re reading the materials and you’re going through the chapters, you’re getting credit for the time that you’re spending. If you have to hit pause because you have to go attend to something with a family matter. If you have to do a project for work, and then you come back to your class, the clock will then start ticking again when you log in and you engage with the materials. So, you have a lot more flexibility in your schedule and you’re not going to be held to a point where you have to wait for the next time that the class is given. So, the attendance policy is really something else. I ran into this example myself and when I figured out that the way in which the real estate class is delivered in a classroom format does not match the way in which the test requires you to deliver information. Let me explain.

The exams are going to be given in a multiple-choice format and there is a test-taking skill to multiple-choice questions. The way that you read the question, the way that you read the particular answers. Whether or not you mark something to go back and review, whether you go with your gut and the first instinct that you have. In the classroom, they’re going to be going through the material that you hardly read. They’re going to be reviewing it. They’re going to be going through it and here’s what ends up happening. They’re going to say, well, this might be covered on the test. Well, this is specifically going to be covered on the test. This information you might want to make note of. So now you’ve got separate notes on the side as well that you’re going through and when you end up looking at your book at the end of the day, your book is highlighted all over the place, but you don’t really know what information or what format it’s going to be presented in.

This is why getting a class, whatever class you sign up for you need to make sure that you have an exam prep module with sample test questions, thousands of sample test questions that you can go through over and over again. You see when you’re going through this, you have to read the material. You might as well get credit for your time of doing that. When you go to the classroom, you now have to spend the time in the classroom, and you’re still whether it’s an online or classroom going to have to spend an equal amount of time outside of the class, preparing for the test. If I could cut that down, that would be my particular choice and that’s why I don’t recommend classroom courses. Another reason is the other students. This was a specific example that happened to me in the initial real estate course that I took. There were two individuals that were in the course that kept asking questions. Why is this? Why is that? Why is this a reason? Why did this become a lot?

Frankly, it doesn’t matter within that particular format why it happened? The law is the law, or the information is the information regarding easements, regarding fair housing rules. There are protected classes. You need to memorize them, and you need to be able to recall them when it comes time for a multiple-choice exam. All of these questions, what would end up happening is we would get towards the end of the class, and we would realize we’re supposed to be on chapter three, but we hadn’t made it all the way through chapter three. So, we didn’t get the full value of the information. I had to question also were some of the students that were in the course as committed as I was to get through them, of course, pass the test because I can’t start it cashing checks until I’ve gotten through this, have my license, and then can affiliate with a real estate brokerage. The real estate class also is not going to teach you how to sell real estate. That comes after you’ve gone through. It gives you the principles, the foundations, but how to actually work with buyers and sellers that will come after you’ve actually been licensed to be able to go through there.

Now here’s something that could be a got you and it happened to me as well. If I can prevent you from having the same thing happen to you, then that’s the value of this video and why I’m taking the time to do it. You see real estate classroom classes are sometimes given at real estate offices. Although the state requires that real estate schools and real estate offices be separate entities, sometimes there are partnerships or relationships or co-ownership in which the real estate classes are given in the real estate office. Sometimes these companies will also offer reduced real estate class fees, or they’ll waive the real estate class fee because they want you in the end to join that real estate company. Beware. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. What ends up happening is that the split that you get, the amount of commissions that you get will be reduced potentially, and therefore that $100, $150, $500 course that you got at a discount or that you got for free really wasn’t free because you’ll end up paying thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars over the course of your real estate career, especially in your first year, second year. Every dollar that you make is going to be very valuable and you want to make sure that you take this.

So, those are some reasons, some that I’ve directly experienced, some that I’ve experienced through stories with students such as yourself that were looking to take the real estate classes. I hope you found this helpful. I hope that it helps you in making a decision of picking a real estate school, visit digitalagentshow.com for more information about selecting a real estate school and until next time, make it a great day.