Is the real estate education business improving?
- Mar 14, 2012 ArchiveHad breakfast this morning with a senior officer of Dearborn Real Estate Education and she stated that the real estate school industry, in some parts of the country, the Northeast and West were rapidly improving. Brokerage companies are starting to get back into recruiting real estate agents by having real estate career nights and marketing heavily for new agents. Schools are now seeing a positive attitude about the real estate brokerage business from potential new students.
As I understand it, brokers are starting again to partner with real estate schools, allowing schools to offer courses at their location. This has certainly been done in the past, but with a small number of students desiring to enter into the real estate business, this arrangement was not worthwhile for the broker or the school, but it is starting come back into play.
I have also observed new real estate schools opening up and brokerage firms getting into the real estate school business again. Charles Rutenberg Realty is a large firm that has recently entered the real estate school business. Plus, local Associations of REALTORS are also working on providing courses to their members at a reduced tuition fee or no fee at all.
Existing real estate schools are also getting involved in the home inspection education business. For years this program was a course real estate schools provided but only for personal development, but as states develop license requirements for the home inspector, real estate schools are jumping into providing licensed home inspection courses.
Overall business for most real estate schools has been difficult for the past four to five years, but now there seems to be a small crack of light shinning in. All real estate educators just hope the light gets bigger and bigger.
Frank Cooke
President
Cooke Real Estate School