Shrinkflation is a phenomenon that is most often associated with food products. It’s where the price stays the same, but the size of the product decreases. In other words, you used to be able to buy a 20 oz drink for $3. Now, the 15 oz drink cost $3. It’s a clever way to raise prices because often customers don’t even realize that the size has decreased.
This phenomenon has recently come to the real estate school business in Orlando. Since Demetree School of Real Estate opened, we have always offered the prelicensing class separate from the state exam review class. We do this for two reasons. First, not all of our students take the state exam review class. Some of them learn the material and feel confident enough from the prelicensing class that take the state exam right away and succeed. There is no reason for them to pay for a class they don’t feel like they need. But secondly, we are not asking people to commit to marriage on the first date. You can pay for one class. If you like how we do things, we will earn your business for the second class. We are confident enough in our product that we don’t need you to pay for two of them upfront.
Our largest competitor has always offered the prelicensing class and review class in a package. You don’t have a choice – you have to pay for both classes together. Recently, they have decoupled the courses. You have to pay for them separately, but they didn’t lower their price. The prelicensing class alone costs what the package used to cost. In other words, they essentially raised their price by about $200 and just hoped that no one would notice.
At Demetree School of Real Estate, our goal is to offer quality education at reasonable prices. Can you find it cheaper? Probably, if you look hard enough. Will you find a better class? I doubt it. Not even if you look. If you are looking for the best real estate class in town at an affordable price, give us a call.
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.
