Online School Review Methodology
If you are considering a career in real estate but are relatively busy with work or family obligations, pursuing your training online makes a lot of sense. Fortunately, a range of online real estate schools offer a variety of programs that can meet your needs. While some online real estate training centers offer courses in a virtual, self-paced format, others offer live online courses with the option to interact with trainers.
The best online real estate school that meets your needs will depend on how you prefer to learn and receive information, as well as how much you are willing to pay. In the meantime, you will need to compare online real estate schools based on the exact training offered in the state in which you wish to obtain a license.
But, how do you know if an online real estate school is legit? Before we even begin reviewing individual online real estate schools, the Investopedia staff set out to investigate and answer this question.
To come up with the information for our comprehensive reviews, we compared online real estate schools based on factors such as length of time in business, accreditation, digital learning features, cost of attendance, and whether they have refund or cancellation policies.
This guide details the factors we have compared, as well as how we use a variety of information to write online real estate school reviews. We also explain why each factor is important, the rating system we used to compile the data for our valuation model, and what future real estate professionals should consider before deciding on a school.
Online Real Estate School Method
While all online real estate schools teach different courses related to the real estate industry, they do not offer the same training options nor do they provide content in the same format. Some schools offer better customer service options as well as various avenues that provide more interaction with real estate coaches and class mates.
With this in mind, we want to highlight both the most important factors to take into account when comparing online real estate schools, as well as the percentage that each factor affects our internal ranking.
The following sections explain the different data collected for each school to create our ranking, as well as why this information is important when choosing an online real estate school.
Reputation and customer satisfaction
While some industries have been around for a century or more, real estate schools are generally much smaller and less well established. This is especially true among online real estate schools, many of which have only been around for a few decades.
Based on this information, we have compared online real estate schools on some of the factors that affect their reputation and overall customer satisfaction.
time at work
Given that some online real estate schools have only been in operation for a few years, it can be difficult to compare them because it's not easy to find many user testimonials or complaints.
We compared online real estate schools based on the amount of time they took to work for the cause. Using the following timeline, we have compared each online real estate training center based on the following metrics.
Accreditation
In addition to the time you spend working, we also compared online real estate schools based on whether or not they are accredited. Schools were given a higher rating if they were currently accredited by the Association of Licensed Real Estate Law Officials and the International Distance Learning Certification Center.
Both organizations exist to ensure quality real estate education online. Meanwhile, has a stated mission to support the jurisdiction in managing and enforcing its real estate licensing laws.we used the following rankings to score schools based on their accreditation.
Money Back Guarantee we also compared online real estate schools based on their money back guarantee, if they have one. This factor was rated "yes" or "no" in our internal study, and schools with strong money-back guarantees were rated highly. we compared each school's money-back guarantee offers and evaluated them using the following scoring system.
Virtual or classroom
While some schools offer real estate training in a completely virtual format, others have the option of in-class learning with specific dates and times available. Schools that offered personalized learning options, as well as physical locations prospective students could visit, were ranked in our rankings and given a higher rating as a result. we used the following rating scale to score schools in this category.
The benefit of the site. website usability is another important factor that can affect a student's learning experience, a factor that varies widely among online real estate schools. While some online learning centers have interactive websites with a large number of information and tools, other school websites offer hardly more than virtual brochures. we have ranked online real estate schools based on site usability using the following.
Online chat
Online chat is an important feature for online real estate schools, as it allows prospective students to ask questions and get answers without having to call a customer service line. Meanwhile, current real estate students can use the online chat feature to ask questions about upcoming courses, billing issues and issues they encountered during the virtual training.
Since online chat is an essential functionality that real estate schools have to offer, we have ranked it using the following scoring system. On the Student Resources website. Student resources offered by online schools usually include useful articles and information, free webinars to learn about the training offered, information about various government licensing procedures for real estate professionals, and more. We have prioritized schools that provide as much useful, accurate and up-to-date information as possible to their students using the following enrollment system.
The courses offered by online real estate schools are often different than expected. For example, some schools offer pre-licensing training to suppliers only in some states, and the same is true for broker pre-licensing courses. Other types of training, such as exam preparation and continuing education courses, may be available at some schools but not others.
To help students see which schools offer the best selection of real estate courses, we have evaluated each one based on the following courses and whether or not they offer them. Seller pre-license, Pre-seller licensing courses are intended for individuals looking to enter the real estate industry in their state. Each school that offers these courses must comply with applicable state licensing requirements and provide a curriculum that helps students prepare for their state licensing exams.
We evaluated each school based on whether they offered vendor pre-licensing courses using the following scoring system.Broker Prior License. Broker pre-licensing courses can be more difficult for prospective students to find, mostly because few online real estate schools offer this training. In either case, schools that offer broker pre-licensing courses should use a syllabus that helps agents prepare for the broker licensing exam. Intermediate courses must also meet state licensing requirements in the states in which they are offered.
Exam preparation courses are supplemental training courses that help real estate professionals prepare for state licensing exams. These courses often include live webinars or pre-recorded online training sessions, training quizzes, digital flashcards, and more. Not all online real estate schools offer exam preparation courses. As such, we evaluated each school based on whether they offer exam preparation using the following scoring system.
complete education
Continuing education courses are designed to help real estate professionals complete the training required by each state to maintain their license. Continuing education courses can also help real estate agents and brokers enhance their skills, increase their income, and stay abreast of changes in their industry. Not all online real estate schools offer continuing education courses. As such, we evaluated each school based on whether they offer continuing education courses using the following scoring system.
