By Fred Seely
Editor
The test is in the mail. Or maybe coming to your computer.
If you’re one of the 63,114 real estate agents who are up for license renewal this year, you’re being solicited by what colloquially is called “real estate schools” and more properly “distance education providers” to take their tests.
It’s a booming cottage business in every state - especially Florida - that requires some sort of course before license renewal.
“It’s part of the process,” says Neal Boatright of the Florida Real Estate Institute in Orange Park. “But it isn’t unnecessary. It’s a good program.”
The solicitation comes from everywhere. Your name is on the state license rolls and that’s a public record. For a fee, anyone can buy the list of licensees in this renewal cycle.
The best-known to North Florida agents is the Florida Real Estate Institute, where Ron Boatright, son Neal and the family have been churning out and renewing local agents for 34 years.
The biggest statewide is the Bert Rodgers Schools of Real Estate, which started 50 years ago and, like FREI, is a family business. But plenty abound with many “schools” adapting to the slowdown in initial licensing to get into CE.
Thus, you may hear from schools with names like IFREC and Climer (both Orlando,) Gold Coast (Jupiter,) Bob Hogue and Cooke (both St. Petersburg,) and the online-only Florida Real Estate School.
The test-by-mail or -online is authorized by a provision of the real estate portion of the Florida Statute.
It’s 475.182, if you’re looking it up, and it is titled “Renewal of license; continuing education.”
The Florida Real Estate Commission authorized “schools” to conduct the test and the questions cover a wide range of areas important in real estate law. The legislature can make changes, and the FREC can come up with new rules. If a problem area develops, you can be sure that the next renewal test with have a section on it.
It’s a tried and true system that almost every one of us has faced. You get solicited by schools to take their test, an open book exam that has 30 questions.
It isn’t easy because the book - in paper or online - has numerous chapters and pages, and you have to dig out the answers. Some are easy to find; most are almost hidden in the text. All have a large degree of importance.
You bubble in your multiple choice selection (or guess) on the answer sheet, then send it back to the school, with your payment. Amounts differ but usually in the $20-30 range.
If you miss six or fewer, you get a “Completion Certificate” stating that you’ve passed. If you miss seven or more, you’re doomed to a re-exam.
When the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation sends your renewal notice, you sign an affidavit that you’ve passed the CE exam.
You must hold the receipt for the next two years; DBPR does a random audit, and you have to prove you’ve passed. If you can’t prove it, be ready for a hammer to fall on your head from the Florida Real Estate Commission’s lawyers.
“It isn’t all that hard,” said Boatright, “as long as you pay attention and use your head. All you have to get is 24 of 30. That’s just 80 percent!”
In the past, you received several books in the mail. That’s the most appealing way but printing, paper and mailing aren’t cheap, and only Rodgers develops its own book, which it sends out books to prospects. The others solicit by postcard, asking you to send a check before they send your test/answer book.
“It works for us,” says Lori Rodgers, who bought the company from her father 10 years ago. “It’s expensive, very expensive. But it’s our business plan.”
She likes the book, too, because it’s always there. So does Boatright, who buys his books from a national printer that serves other state schools.
“Like many other things in education, people have moved to online courses,” he said. “I like the book. People are more familiar with something they can hold, plus the book is forever. You can keep it as a reference because it highlights any new laws.
“The online isn’t forever. The current course is taken down after a year.”
Rodgers says she’s seeing lots of people do it both ways. She calls it “blended learning” - agents use the book for study, then go online to take the test.
“It’s quicker that way because you know your grade right away,” she said. “It costs less, too.”
The Rodgers school’s founder is still around; Bert Rodgers turns 80 later this year.
“Dad started in Orlando and moved to Sarasota because the fishing was better,” said Lori Rodgers. “When I took over, he moved to Ponte Vedra Beach, but that was too far from Sarasota, where we still are. He moved to Lake Mary (an Orlando suburb) and I see him every month when I go up there for FREC meetings.”