The Florida real estate exam is difficult.  When I went to real estate school, I had every advantage in the world.  Both of my parents were real estate instructors.  When I got together with my extended family, I sat at the kid’s table, but the adults always talked about real estate.  They would talk about developments, and tenants, and sales, and just whatever was pertinent at the time.  So by the time I got to real estate school, I knew a lot of the terminology.  But I still studied my butt off for the state exam.  Why do so many people find real estate school difficult?  There are a number of reasons:

1. It’s new material. As adults, we are used to knowing how to do things.  We don’t really have the stamina or tolerance for learning new things that we had when we were younger.  So learning anything new is difficult.
2. The vocabulary. There is a lot of vocabulary in real estate.  You might know some of it if you bought a house, but you might not.  It might feel like you are learning a new language.
3. Trying to associate the law with real life. I tell my students that title insurance is optional.  Sometimes, they insist that it’s required.  They think it’s required because, in their experience, their mortgage company always told them that they had to buy title insurance.  Even if you were paying cash, you’d have to have rocks in your head to not buy title insurance.  But that doesn’t mean it is legally required.  Sometimes, students who have purchased a few houses or have some real estate experience get frustrated when the law doesn’t line up with their experience.
4. You don’t want to look stupid. Nobody wants to be embarrassed in front of a group of people.  Some people are so worried about that, that they will pretend to understand when they actually don’t understand.  I’ve had students say, “I’ll just go home and read it some more.”  I always wonder why they think they are going to learn it better reading the book and teaching themselves than asking the teacher to explain it.
5. You have other priorities. Many students take the class and have a lot going on.  They have two jobs.  They have a family.  They have church activities.  They have a rec basketball team they play on.  Oh, and they also have real estate school too.  Usually that doesn’t work out for them.  For the period that you are in real estate school, you need to make real estate school one of your top priorities.  If you study “when you have time”, the class will be very difficult.  If you plan to study for an hour a day unless the house catches fire, you will do well.

The people that find real estate school less difficult are the ones who prioritize real estate school for the period that they are in school.  They study, do the homework, ask questions, and genuinely try to learn the material.  They embrace the learning.  They take a state exam review class and pass the exam the first time they take it.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the people who do that are also the ones who succeed in real estate.

Please note that Karen Climer has no affiliation with Climer School of Real Estate.  Her father, Ron Climer, sold Climer School of Real Estate in 2014.  It has since been involved in several mergers and acquisitions and is owned by a large investment company.  Karen owns Demetree School of Real Estate in Orlando, Florida.