Which Florida Real Estate Schools Are Not Teaching Florida Material?
Many Florida schools don’t know what is happening in Florida. How can you tell? Like any scam, there are many red flags. Some of those red flags are…
- The “teacher” on the video doesn’t have a Florida real estate instructor license. If they are teaching you how to pass a Florida exam and they haven’t passed that exam themselves, they are a paid actor. If you want to learn how to act, watch these videos. If you want to pass the real estate exam, be sure the person has a Florida real estate license. You can look up any Florida licensee here.
- Money-back guarantees. If the school offers a money-back guarantee or a no-pass, no-pay policy, they are not familiar with Florida laws. Florida schools are not allowed to offer money-back guarantees based on passing. One of these curriculum providers sent me sample material to see if I wanted to use it. I looked at the material. Several of the “Florida” practice questions were incorrect. I later found out, it was correct information for Tennessee law, but not Florida. Obviously, I don’t use that material in my classes.
- Offering too many states. The phrase “jack of all trades but master of none” comes to mind. If you have to choose your state on their website, they are likely not familiar with how Florida works. For example, the Florida test is application based, which means you have to be able to apply the knowledge. That is not true in many states. Some of the schools that cover all 50 states offer practice questions that are much easier than our Florida real estate exam. You will feel confident going into the exam because you did well on the easy practice questions, but you will be dumbfounded when you see how difficult the Florida real estate exam is.
- The school does not have a physical Florida address. There are many schools that operate primarily in the cloud. That works for some people. However, Florida rule requires that these schools have a physical address and phone number that students can access. If they don’t have that, they don’t know Florida law. If their address is not in Florida, they likely know more about their home state than Florida.
None of these are actually indicators that a school is a rip-off or doesn’t understand Florida law. They are just indicators that it might be. Much like a bunch of typos in an email does not guarantee that it is a scam. It’s just one of the indicators. But just like those emails, the best thing to do is to err on the side of caution.
Demetree School of Real Estate is a Florida-based school. In fact, we are home grown. If you are trying to get a Florida real estate license, check out our real estate prelicensing class schedule.
Please note that neither I nor anyone in the Climer family has any relation to Climer School of Real Estate. My father, Ron Climer, sold the school in 2014. It has since been sold to a large corporate conglomerate based in Minnesota. If you are looking for Karen Climer, you will find me at Demetree School of Real Estate in Orlando, Florida.