No. We do not recommend taking an on-line course. Reading a book is not the same as attending class with the normal give-and-take between students and their teacher. A on-line "course" usually consist of reading chapters from an e-book (a short screen panel at a time), then answering a few questions about the material. If that is all you want or need, it is less expensive to just buy a textbook from a community college bookstore. The professional Amelox Real Estate license preparation software for Agents supplements both the teacher's lectures and the textbook by asking many more lesson review questions, by presenting those questions in a constantly changing variety to maintain interest and alertness, and by providing the correct answers instantly, among the other benefits outlined earlier.
No. For the same reasons given above. It is our belief that nothing can replace a live teacher in a classroom setting. Read what U.S. News & World Report, Oct. 20, 2003 issue, has to say on this subject on page 59: "The fantasy of instructor-less education soon faded as courses with little or no personal interaction — sometimes just the contents of books plunked onto Web sites — posted dropout rates as high as 60 percent." To which we may add: ... and that does not count the ones that failed the "course".
In a word, NO. That is not possible. 1) the questions are guarded like gold at Fort Knox. 2) The question booklets change for every exam at random and ..... your neighbor in the room has an exam that is different from yours; double-scramble to make 110% sure that no peaking and no advance notification can take place. The national testing services have about 4000 questions in their arsenal. Which of these 4000 appear in the 100 to 150 questions in your exam on that very day and hour is completely at random. Some of these will be on your test; many will not be. Besides, our aim is to teach you well with our 1500 questions and to make you the best informed realtor in town.
But what about the latest regulations for my state or county? That sounds like a fine concern, but it is not. There is a difference between what is the latest and what is in state exams. Your "latest" textbook (with this year's copyright notice) was composed and written two to three years ago and printed during the year before! These new things take time to filter through the process. The national testing services operate in a dozen states and to keep all test booklets up to date is a time consuming and expensive job. The broker you will be working for has all the pertinent information to keep you out of trouble. And don't forget, the exam pass cutoff is a "gentlemen's C", or 70%, for Agent. You can miss ten, twenty, even thirty questions and still pass.
This may also be a good time for a reality check: Real Estate is a mature industry; very little changes over time. The last important change pertains to "do not call" provisions, which are enforced since 2004. We do not have questions for that one yet but it is covered in our READ-ME file.
Yes you do. You are training to become a professional Real Estate lender, not a bank teller smiling sweetly at customers behind the counter. You are financing expensive real estate property, not automobiles, appliances or small consumer loans. You should know about real estate law, loan laws, appraisal methods, and the various ways of holding title, not to mention interpreting Escrow instructions when contentious parties in an estate are involved. You'll have to explain the computations to make them understandable to your clients. We give you more. If you don't want or need it all of it — leave it out by skipping over.
be aware that we are not permitted to answer questions about your personal situation. Those have to be addressed to your school or your state's governing agency. Click on the Search button for URLs with information regarding particular requirements by state governments and schools in your area.