Continuing Your Education in Real Estate

Some people go to school for the real estate profession believing that, once they’ve done their requisite on-the-job training and get their diploma, that’s all there is to it. However, laws, rules and regulations change rapidly in today’s society, making it necessary to continue your education on a regular basis.

It doesn’t have to be a difficult endeavour, though. If you’re like a lot of realtors, mortgage brokers and the like, your first thought when looking at further schooling is, “Where do I find the time to go back to school?” Thanks to technology, it’s now possible to get that “re-training” online. A few hours a week can take you a long way toward keeping your license.

Who, in the real estate field, might need to continue their education? Who does this effect? The truth is that everyone in the realty profession who needs a license to perform their job will also need to renew that license.

When you renew your license and the number of training hours needed depend upon what state you practice in, as well as whether it is your first renewal or following renewals. Generally, thirty hours of continuing education are needed in your first renewal, and twenty-four hours for every renewal after that.

A minimum of three hours are needed in agency, ethics, contracts and law. The other hours can be made up in any general real estate continuing education course, as long as the course has been approved by your particular state.

There are specific requisites for various professions within the real estate field. For instance, as a mortgage broker or broker salesperson, part of your continuing education courses must include three hours of broker management; a business broker must take three hours of business brokerage; property managers must take three hours of property management, and so on.

Those that are renewing their license for the first time will need to take a post licensing course, consisting of their state’s pre-determined topic areas. This course includes such topics as advertising, listings, contracts, land, disclosures and escrow, to name a few. The purpose is to keep the information you learned fresh in your mind during your first year of being licensed.

Though all other renewals can be completed online, the first renewal requires that you be in physical attendance, with thirty clocked hours. Although you can take the course in multiple sessions, you will need to keep a personal record of the dates you attended.

Whether you are a mortgage broker, property manager, real estate agent or in any other area of the real estate profession, the facts are clear. Continuing education is a must to renew your license. Read through any relevant information and learn the facts; find out what courses you’ll need for your state and how many hours you need to take, as well as when you’ll need to renew.

Most importantly, good luck in your chosen profession!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Politics and Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.