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Should It Be Harder To Get A Florida Real Estate License?

At the Florida Realtors Convention, I ran into a former prelicensing student of mine. He has been in the industry for about five years. We were discussing the fact that our local association recently raised its dues. This student said to me, “I wish they would double our association dues so we could get rid of some of the part-timers.”

I pushed back. I said, “I personally don’t think you should have to pay anything to practice your chosen profession. If the only way you can eliminate the competition is to charge more money, you need to step up your game. Didn’t you start off as a part-time agent?” He acknowledged that he did.

I talk to many agents, online and in personal conversations, that believe the best way to elevate the profession is to make it harder to get into the profession. Basically, they are saying, “It would be so much easier if we could just keep everyone else out so I don’t have to work harder to do a better job.”

When Steve Martin was asked how to succeed in the comedy business, he always said, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” He said that people got frustrated with that answer because they wanted to know the secret shortcut. But there isn’t a secret shortcut. You slog through the half-empty night club gigs, and eventually you become a headliner.

So many agents blame their difficulty in this industry on the low barriers to entry, the large number of part-timers, their broker doesn’t provide enough support, or anything else. The real truth is that they can get more business if they do a better job.

Eliminating competition is not what makes agents better. Increasing competition is what makes us better. If a city has one agent for the entire city, how likely is it that they will be mediocre? That agent will make a good living because they have no competition, but they won’t be very good. In a city with 10 agents, some agents will do quite well. Others will go out of business. For the customers, however, the service will be much better. That is magnified when you have thousands of agents in a city, which is what most cities have.

At that same convention, I heard a speaker talk about ways to get more business. I hope my former student was in the audience at that presentation. The speaker offered several ideas that he had done in his own career. It was clear that, as a working agent, he strived to be so good they couldn’t ignore him. He offered a few ideas that I will definitely be implementing in my own business.

I’d like to think that I am already “so good they can’t ignore me.” Perhaps in some ways I am. But that doesn’t mean I can’t get better. There are much better ways of improving than eliminating the competition. If I eliminate the competition, I want it to be because I put them out of business, not that I increased the barriers to be in business.

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.

By Karen Climer|2026-09-05T13:00:37-04:00September 5th, 2026|

Demetree School of Real Estate Success Story: Justin Zdovc at eXp Realty

Justin Zdovc took the prelicensing class at Demetree School of Real Estate about a year ago. He joined the Figueroa Team or the Fig Team of eXp Realty. The Fig Team is a powerhouse team in Orlando.

Recently, I had the chance to visit their office and catch up with Justin.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hi, I’m Justin! I was born and raised right here in Central Florida, so I’ve had the opportunity to watch this area grow and change throughout my entire life. About a year ago, I decided to turn my longtime interest in real estate into a career and earned my real estate license.

Real estate has always been something I’ve been interested in. My aunt has been in the industry for years, and my wife, Holly, also works in real estate, so I’ve been surrounded by it for a long time. Seeing their passion for the industry ultimately inspired me to take the leap myself.

What I enjoy most about real estate is being able to help people through such an important milestone in their lives. Whether someone is buying their first home, selling, relocating to Central Florida, investing, or exploring new construction, I want to be someone they can trust to guide them through the process and make the experience as easy and enjoyable as possible.

Outside of real estate, I recently married my wife, Holly, and we have two corgis, Maggie and Bailey, who definitely keep us entertained. I’m a Florida guy through and through, and one of my favorite ways to spend my free time is heading to the beach and enjoying everything we get to call home here in Central Florida.

I’m excited to continue growing my real estate career in the place I’ve always called home, building relationships along the way and helping my clients find a little piece of Central Florida to call their own.

How long have you been in real estate?

I have been in real estate for just under a year. The year mark is coming up.

What did you do before you got into real estate?

I worked as a sales representative for a wine distributor for eight years, and that experience gave me a strong foundation in sales, communication, and building relationships. Those skills made the transition into real estate a natural one and have been invaluable in helping me connect with clients and confidently guide them through the home-buying and selling process.

What do you like most about selling real estate?

What I enjoy most about selling real estate is that every day is different and keeps me on my toes. I’ve never been someone who can sit behind a desk all day or do the same thing over and over. I love staying active, meeting new people, building meaningful relationships, and helping my clients through such an important milestone whether they’re buying or selling a home.

Where did you find your very first client?

I had the opportunity to help my neighbor list and sell his home, and it was an experience I’m especially proud of. Competing directly against the builder in a new construction community and ultimately helping him and his family walk away with some extra money after owning the home for just one year was a huge confidence boost.

It was also a great reminder that staying active and involved in your community is one of the best ways to build meaningful relationships and grow your sphere of influence. Real estate is about more than buying and selling homes it’s about building trust and being there when people need you.

Where did you find most of your clients?

As a newer agent, I’ve found most of my clients through Zillow. Being part of a team that offers Zillow Flex, now known as Zillow Preferred, has been a huge advantage and helped me kick-start my business by connecting me with motivated buyers and sellers. It has also allowed me to build relationships that can lead to referrals and repeat business.

I also find clients by following up with leads in our team’s database and contacting expired listings. Beyond that, I make sure people know I’m in real estate and continue building my sphere through friends, family, neighbors, and networking whenever I can.

Where did you find your most recent client?

My most recent client came from a referral by one of the first clients I worked with when I started in real estate. She referred a friend who is planning to relocate from up north to Florida, and we’ve been working closely together to find the right home for her. It’s rewarding to see the relationships I built early in my career lead to new opportunities and referrals.

What is something that you keep in your car that you didn’t have in there before you worked in real estate?

I never leave the house without my laptop! In real estate, you never know when you’ll need to respond to an important email, schedule a last-minute tour, or even write up a contract. Having it with me allows me to stay prepared and take care of my clients wherever the day takes me.

What time do you get up in the morning?

I don’t necessarily wake up at the same time every morning. I try to listen to my body and get enough sleep so I can be productive throughout the day. When I don’t get enough rest, it affects my motivation and makes it harder to accomplish everything I need to. For me, starting the day well-rested helps me stay focused and give my clients my best.

What is your morning ritual?

Coffee on the back porch with the dogs, typically anywhere from 15-30 minutes. This helps clear your head and get a little mental space before emails, calls, clients, and problems start coming at you. It’s a good time to think about what actually needs to get done that day. I believe fresh air and natural light go a long way.

What is your weekly work schedule like?

My weekly schedule is centered around consistently prospecting, following up, and meeting with clients. I aim to make at least 100–150 calls each week, whether I’m contacting current prospects, nurturing leads, reaching out to people in my team’s database, or calling expired listings. My goal is to have at least 20 meaningful conversations and attend 10–15 appointments each week. Every day may look a little different, but staying consistent with these activities helps me keep my business moving forward.

What is something that you learned at Demetree School of Real Estate that helped you in real life?

One of the biggest things Demetree School of Real Estate taught me was that the business is about much more than selling homes; it’s about understanding contracts, protecting your clients, and communicating effectively. I learned Karen can tell a few good jokes along the way as well.

How can someone contact you?

407-920-9860

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By Karen Climer|2026-09-03T14:26:49-04:00September 3rd, 2026|

How Many People Passed the Florida Real Estate Exam in 2026?

Pearson just sent out the annual statistics for the Florida real estate exam. For fiscal year 2026, here are a few interesting highlights:

51,351 took the sales associate exam
Pass rate for first time takers was 48%
Pass rate for repeaters was 32%
Overall pass rate was 40%

For brokers, here are the highlights:

5,127 took the broker exam
Pass rate for first-time takers was 45%
Pass rate for repeaters was 285%
Overall pass rate is 35%

A few other things that I found interesting:

For all the real estate exam combined, more than 10% of test-takers are no shows. Another 2% cancel. Why do so many people schedule, then forfeit their money? I understand emergencies, but 10% of the people do no have a last-minute emergency.
For the sales associate exam, almost 25,000 took it once. A little more than 26,000 repeated. If the only people who repeated were people who were included in the original 25,000, that means that about half of the repeaters pass on the second time and half on the third time. However, I’m making a ton of assumptions to draw that conclusion. I wish we had the raw data so we could perform a better analysis.

Pearson and the DBPR know which questions people get right and wrong. If too many people pass, they can swap out questions to make it more difficult. If not enough people are passing, they can swap out questions to make it easier. In other words, the pass rate is exactly where they want it to be.

One of the biggest reasons that people fail is that they don’t do enough practice questions before they take the exam. They think that reading slides and watching videos is enough. It’s not. You have to do practice questions, and you have to do a lot of them.

If you are looking for the best practice questions that are available for the Florida real estate exam, check out Real Estate Exam Prep Florida, the newly released app developed by Karen Climer and Demetree School of Real Estate.

By Karen Climer|2026-08-29T13:22:19-04:00August 29th, 2026|

Which Florida Real Estate Material Is The Best For Passing The State Exam?

I review a lot of Florida real estate exam curricula. Companies like Dearborn, Kaplan, Aceable Agent, CE Shop, CompuCram, and so many others are frequently contacting me asking me if I would like to use their curricula? Do I want to provide their material exclusively? Do I want to be an affiliate provider?

No matter who contacts me, my response is always the same. I always tell them that I am more interested in the quality of the material than the cost. If they want to send me their material, I will look at it.

I was looking at a national brand’s material last week. They had a vocab list of 60 vocabulary questions. Of those 60 questions, 11 of them are not on the Florida syllabus. That means they are not on the Florida real estate exam. More than 20% of the vocabulary words they had in their Florida material are not on the Florida real estate exam! Recently, I had a student who in my weekend review class who used their curriculum for her prelicensing class. She had taken the state exam twice. She said, “Nothing we learned in the online class was on the state exam.”

I get so frustrated when I hear that. These schools are cheating people out of their time and money. It’s not fair to you – the customer. Multiple times during the review class, this student said, “I wish I had known about you before I used [other school].”

Here are a few things that some schools teach that you will not be asked about on the Florida real estate state exam: reconveyance, sales leaseback, fructus naturales, deed trust, sandwich lease, tenant improvement allowance, quiet title action, life estate pur autrie vie, dominant tenement, servient tenement, periodic tenancy, illusory contract, and many others.

One school even had practice questions about which states Florida has a mutual recognition agreement with! That won’t be on the exam because it is based on contracts between the states. We might have an agreement with one state today and the contract expires tomorrow. You do need to understand what mutual recognition is. You don’t need to know the specific states.

Some of these vocabulary words are things we do not have in Florida, like a deed of trust. That literally does not exist in Florida. Other items exist in Florida, but are not on the state exam. For example, we have quiet title action or tenant improvement allowance, but they are not on the state exam. Those are things you will learn about in real life when you need to know them. I’m sure there are some 10-year veterans who don’t know what a quiet title action is because it’s just never come up in their transactions.

So how do you determine if the course is good material for Florida?

It’s not easy, but there are a few things you can look for.

First, does the school have a physical building in Florida? If their one and only location is in Colorado or Texas or New York, that’s not a great sign. However, if they have a physical building in Florida, they probably know what’s going on in Florida.

Second, call the school and ask them who wrote the material. If they say, “It was written by subject matter experts,” that means they took national material and try to retrofit it for Florida. There will be a lot of extra material in there. Ideally, they will tell you a person’s name. In the academic world, authors take great pride in the textbook they write. Publishers take great pride in publishing books with prestigious authors. If they don’t tell you who wrote the book, I’d question it. I know this from experience.

Years ago, I received an email that was sent to all Florida members of the Real Estate Educators Association. They needed someone to update their material. They told me the material was good, they just needed someone to update it with the current laws. The money was not great, but it wasn’t terrible. I thought it would be a good experience. It was definitely eye-opening.

Some of the material was old. Maybe it said something was $500, but the law had recently changed to $5,000. That was a simple change. That was the type of thing I thought they were hiring me for. But there were other errors that didn’t really have an explanation. They said something was 60 days, but it should have been 10 days. Where did the 60 days come from? It was from another state. Presumably, this company hired someone every year to update the material, so why had no one every caught it? Why were they selling this material in Florida that was so incorrect? If I told you the name of the company, you’d likely recognize it.

However, if the material has an author’s name attached to it, it is far more likely to be correct. Most people take pride in their work. They don’t want their name attached to something that is inaccurate.

Third, does that school only offer Florida, or do they offer material in every state? If they only offer it in Florida, there is a good chance they know what is going on in Florida. If they offer it in all 50 states. It is very easy to get the material mixed up. Florida is very different from other states in the way we do this. If you have to write 50 different curricula, that is a lot of material so you can’t blame someone for wanting to use bits from one state in another state’s class. But when people start doing that, it is very easy to get sloppy. That’s why you have material in Florida that says you need to know what a deed trust is, or fructus naturales, or illusory contract (you don’t need to know any of those).

If you are looking for good material, you will find it at Demetree School of Real Estate. For our practice exam app – Real Estate Exam Prep Florida – I personally wrote all of the practice questions. The prelicensing material was originally written by George Gaines and David Coleman. Now, it is updated every year by Denise Johnson. If you want to know about the other material, call me and I’ll tell you the names.

Finally, is it being recommended by Floridians? If you go online and ask people where they went to school? If someone in Nevada said they used a certain school, that might be a great Nevada school. If another person in Vermont says they used a different national school, consider that when you plan to get your Vermont license. But for Florida, just focus on what Floridians say. It is difficult to describe how different our system is than other states. If you’ve lived in Florida for any amount of time, you know that Florida is different in a lot of ways. You can add to that list the way we test for the Florida real estate license.

By Karen Climer|2026-08-01T13:01:30-04:00August 1st, 2026|

Five Reasons You Should Get Your Florida Real Estate Broker License

When I meet someone who has been licensed for 10-20 years and they don’t have a broker license, I always wonder why not. I got my broker license as quickly as I could – two years after I got my sales associate license. I had no intention of ever actually opening a brokerage. At the time, I was teaching prelicensing at a timeshare resort. I did it for credibility.

When I first started teaching, I was fortunate to have some inherited credibility. My father, Ron Climer, owned a school and was very well-known in Orlando. It probably helped that my name was on the building. I was pretty young when I started teaching. Back then, online classes were not an option, so it was not unusual to have 60-80 people in a class. Also, it was not unusual for me, as the teacher, to be the youngest person in the room. Basically, I got my broker license because I thought it would help with my credibility.

Another big motivator is that my dad owned the school. The class was free. He was my instructor. It just seemed easier to take it when I didn’t really have to register. I just called him one day, and told him I would be in the class. That seems silly when I write it out, but inertia is the biggest barrier we have with a lot of things. In fact, I think inertia is the number one reason that old-timer agents don’t get their broker license.

Even if you plan to work for someone else forever, here are five reasons why you should get your broker license:

It empowering to be able to leave

It is empowering to know that you could leave tomorrow. I know two people who were working for two different large brokerages. Both of them had commission disputes with their brokerage. In one case, the broker didn’t pay the agent several commissions. The broker kept coming up with reasons why the agent wasn’t getting paid, but the agent is convinced the broker was having a cash flow issue. Eventually, the agent got paid all of the commissions. He left the next day and opened his sole proprietor brokerage.

The other agent was in a similar situation. He was owed a commission. The brokerage paid him, but didn’t pay him the full amount he was owed. The agent talked to the broker. It was evident that the broker wasn’t going to pay him, so the agent left and opened his own sole proprietor brokerage. That agent eventually hired other sales associates to work under him, and had his own small brokerage for a few years.

In both cases, the agent had the option to leave. In any situation, the agent could have left, done some research, and joined a new brokerage. But you are right back where you were – you are depending on someone else to pay you. To be clear, the vast majority of brokers pay their agents, but if you’ve been in this business long enough, you’ve probably been cheated out of a commission. Even if you want to work for someone else, it is empowering to know that you can walk away tomorrow and not lose a beat.

Real estate agents love to tell people that they are running their own business. Sales managers say, “This isn’t a job. You are a small business owner.” How can you call yourself a business owner when you can’t do it unless you work for someone else?

It gives you credibility

In my own case, I got my broker license for credibility. With a broker license, you will have the highest level of licensure that the state of Florida offers. Other people have some random designations that no one knows what they mean. In fact, no one even knows how you got it. Did you just pay $30 to get it? Or did you have to close 10 transactions? No one knows, so it doesn’t really add credibility.

In contrast, the broker license is conferred by the state. Only about 18% of all real estate licensees have this credential – that’s a few more than 75,000 people. There are agents who have had their license for 20-30 years and don’t have a broker license. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because they can’t pass the test. Maybe it’s because they have something in their background that doesn’t allow it. Maybe inertia got the best of them

People talk about how the market is saturated with real estate licensees. It is not saturated with real estate brokers.

I believe that all licensees who are eligible should get their broker license. About 18% of licensees have it. Many of those people do not actually operate as a broker – they are a broker associate working for someone else.

Opportunities arise when you have a broker license

I’ve had a number of students who were forced to get their broker license. I had one student at a large global firm. The Florida broker was stealing money from the company. The company wanted to promote “Bernice” to be the broker. She had to get her broker license, so they could fire the thief and promote her. If you had been at that company and were at the same level as Bernice, but had your license, you might have gotten the job.

I’ve seen many situations where Mom is the broker. Junior has worked for Mom for 30 years. He is supposed to take over as broker, but needs to get his license. He keeps putting it off and putting it off until eventually Mom dies. Now, there is no broker and Junior has to go to school and get his license quickly in the midst of his bereavement.

I actually knew of a case recently, where the 90-year old Broker Mom received a Code of Ethics complaint because of something the son (who should have had his broker license, but didn’t) did. The son was essentially running the company. Mom didn’t even know what was going on. She was legally the broker because the son didn’t have his broker license. Now, she is being to show up for an ethics hearing.

The last example that I always like to use is my father, Ron Climer. He was a sales trainer for ERA back in the 1980s. He and the other sales trainers were talking in the parking lot after work one day. The sales manager came over to them and said, “Which one of you has a broker license?” Dad raised his hand. The sales manager said, “Starting tomorrow, you are the prelicensing instructor. Ours just quit.”

Back then, you didn’t need an instructor license to teach classes. He ended up becoming one of the best prelicensing instructors in the state. Several of his students went on to open their own schools. I run into people at Realtor events who say, “Your dad was my teacher. He was awesome.” All of that happened because he was the only one with a broker license.

Maybe teaching prelicensing, running the family business, or being the broker for a global company sound completely unappealing to you. The point is the broker license opens doors. If you are someone who welcomes opportunities, get your broker license.

When you are the broker, you call the shots

I knew a broker who sold a piece of commercial property. He earned a very large commission. The seller had mortgages and other bills to pay. They weren’t going to have enough money to pay him the entire amount of commission they agreed upon.

This property owner had several classic cars on the property that just sold. The broker said, “Can I have one of those cars?” This was a win-win. Part of his commission was paid in money, part in the car. Do you think if you worked for ABC Realty, they would let you do that? I doubt it. But he was the broker, so he called the shots.

I know another broker who was in a similar situation where the seller should have owed about $30,000. They weren’t going to have enough money to pay the entire commission. What frequently happens in these situations is that the seller asks the agent to lower their commission? Frequently, the agent agrees to it because it’s the easiest way for the deal to get closed.

In this case, the seller owned another house. The agent said, “I won’t lower my commission, but I will accept my commission as a mortgage on your other property.” An attorney had to do the paperwork, but they arranged for the agent to lend $30,000 to the seller secured by the property. Every month, the seller sent a payment with interest to the agent. The seller ended up paying it off in about three years. Another win-win. Do you think ABC Realty would have agreed to that? Of course they wouldn’t have. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that this is appropriate in all situations. But in this particular situation, it was a win-win. The broker was able to do it because he was the broker.

The last example is an agent who wanted to work for a significantly lower rate than she normally would. I don’t remember the details of why she wanted to do that. I remember that her broker would not let her do it. Sometimes you might want to offer a client a significant discount or maybe even work pro bono. Clearly, you can’t do this on a regular basis or you won’t make a living. But sometimes there are reasons to. When you are the broker, you alone get to decide whether or not to do that.

In running my real estate school, there are times where I have made a decision. Later it turned out to be the wrong decision. But that is a whole lot better than working for someone else who made a bad decision that you have to deal with. There is something about making your own decisions that is very empowering. If it turned out to be a good decision, it was your decision. If it turned out to be a bad decision, it was your decision.

You can make more money

The last reason is very easy. You make more money, and your clients pay less money. Even if you work at a 100% brokerage, you are still paying the brokerage something. They probably charge a fee for each transaction. You might pay that yourself, or you might pass it on the client. If you own the brokerage, you can either keep all of that money or just not charge the client that extra fee.

If you want to deal with other agents, you can even hire other agents to work for you, thereby increasing your income. Not all brokers want to do this. Sometimes brokers don’t want the headache and heartache of dealing with other agents. But if you want it, the opportunity is there.

In short, if you want the credibility, the opportunity, but mostly the freedom of actually working for yourself, get your broker license. You don’t have to open a brokerage when you get your broker license. In fact, most people don’t. But opportunities rarely arrive on schedule. Go ahead and get your broker license, so when the opportunity comes, you are prepared.

Demetree School of Real Estate has an in-person broker class coming up on October 6. It meets twice a week to allow you to continue working. If that schedule doesn’t work for you, we always have it as an online self-study class.

By Karen Climer|2026-07-17T14:18:11-04:00July 17th, 2026|