The best time to get a Florida real estate license is when the market is on the upturn.  Here is the typical timeline of someone getting a real estate license…

Month 1 – Real estate agents realize that the market is hot.
Month 3-4 – The general public realizes the market is hot.  Potential agent begins mulling over getting a real estate license.
Month 9-12 – Potential agent makes the plunge and registers for school.
Month 12-16 – Potential agent has license and begins training with a new brokerage.
Month 14-18 – Downturn of market begins, just as potential agent is getting started.

Back in the 1990s, my Dad had a student in his postlicensing class.  This woman said she got her license just before Hurricane Andrew hit Miami in 1992.  She was a rookie agent in Boynton Beach.  She joined a brokerage and spent about three months writing contracts.  People just walked into the office and said, “I have a $300,000 check from my insurance company, and I’m looking to buy a house.”

If she had waited until after Hurricane Andrew hit, she would not have had that initial success.  When she was getting her license, no one knew that Hurricane Andrew was going to hit Miami.  Also, no one knew that it would destroy as many homes as it did.  At the time that it hit, it was the most devastating hurricane that anyone alive could remember.

If this agent has waited until the hurricane to get her license, by the time she was ready to start working, the initial wave of people with insurance checks looking to move a little north of Miami would have passed.

So the time to get a real estate license is right now.  No one knows when the market is going to get hot.  There are many events that can happen that will change the real estate market in Central Florida.  No one can predict when they will happen.

By getting your license now, and beginning your real estate career, you can be ready when the upturn happens.  If you don’t have your license, you will likely miss the upturn and get in just as the peak has past.

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.