Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The central Florida Real Estate Market June 2017

The Pulse of the Central Florida Real Estate Market June 2017

Thoughts from Andy Brown, Director of Education and Training at The Climer School of Real Estate

One of the questions that I get from my new students in class on a regular basis is, “Is this a good time to get into real estate?” My answer for the past few years remains, “Yes! Now is a fantastic time to be in real estate. This is one of the best markets that I have ever seen.” The central Florida real estate market is extremely hot. It has been hot for a few years and I believe it will remain hot for a few years to come.

 I want to quote and then talk about some statistics from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association’s (ORRA) June 2017 market pulse. One of the most telling statistics to me is average days on the market. Average days on the market for listings in May 2017 was 54 days. This is down from a high of 82 days in February 2016. Everything goes gently up and down however even as recently as January 2017 in February 2017 stays on the market were 70 and 69 days. In May 2017, there was a total of 8781 total listing inventory. One year ago, in May 2016 there were 10,553 listing inventory and in May 2015, two years ago there was total of 11,798 total inventory listings. In May 2017. Of the 8071 number, there were 4670 new listings. This is kind of an amazing number. Over half of the total listings are brand-new. This means they are selling like hot cakes.


According to ORRA’s report, there were 3817 closings. Because there are two sides to every closing. This means that there were 7634 sides that were closed. In January, there were only 2213 closings, meaning potentially only 4426 realtors could get paid that month. Another important statistic is how the number of listings equates to months of sales inventory. In May 2017 number of listings equated to about 2.25 months of inventory. This is down from a high of five months of inventory in January 2016. You can interpret this any way that you choose. Some will interpret this as not a good market because there’s not much going on. Others will interpret this as it is a good market as sale are very hot. With my 25 years’ worth of experience, this is how I interpret the data. There are sellers who have homes that buyers want to buy, and there are buyers that are buying them.

Mortgage rates are also still relatively unbelievably low. The average mortgage rate in central Florida in May 2017 was a tiny bit over 4%. When I first got into the business 25 years ago, I first closing with an FHA fixed-rate mortgage was in the nines. It was a young married couple and their parents were ecstatic that rates have fallen below double digits. I remember how excited everybody was when 30-year mortgage rates moved down into the low eights.

The number of new contracts is a telling market statistic. May 2017 produced 3750 new contracts that month. Down from a low of 2179 new contracts in September 2016. There was also a total of 6524 listings total under contract in May 2017. 996 listings were also taken off the market completely in May 2017. In the last three years the lowest month for withdrawn and expired listing seems to have been able of 2017 with a total of 771. The high in the last two years was in September 2015 when 1360 listings were taken off the market due to being withdrawn or just expiring because they didn’t sell.

Here are some other numbers I particularly enjoy. The average sales price in May 2017 was $258,300. However, the median sales price was $218,000. A lot of people don’t understand the difference between average and median. A lot of people don’t understand the significance of the difference between average and in how that can help. Most people are used to only talking about the average. You take number sales, which happened to be 3817, add up all the sales prices, and then divide by the number of total sales; 3817. This would be the average sales price. To get the median sales price, you would line up all 3817 sales by dollar figure in order. Then pick the one that is exactly in the middle. That is the median sales price. One half of all sales were less than $218,000 and one half of all sales were more than $218,000. What this does is gives you an indication of where the hot area, sometimes referred to as the sweet spot, is in your real estate market. This can be very important information if you know how to interpret correctly as you will know where you should be spending your time while your prospect.

I hope my summation of the real estate market in central Florida has helped you. The whole idea of what having a real estate license is about to find customers, give them into a new contract, close and make money and have fun. You don’t learn how to do this in your pre-license class however I do teach you some tips and tricks regarding how to make more money have more fun, and save time in my Post 45 class. If you are in your first two years of having a real estate license you need your mandatory Post 45 Hour class. You positively want to come to a Post 45 class at The Climer School of Real Estate.

Since 1984, The Climer School Of Real Estate is The Best Real Estate School in Orlando. If you want to have the best chance of passing your Florida Real Estate Exam on your first try, then you need to attend classes at The Climer School. Call us at 407-822-3926 (EXAM), or stop by our website at www.ClimerRealEstateSchool.com . Ask for Andy Brown the Best Real Estate Instructor in Orlando, Head Instructor and Director of Education & Training


Sunday, June 18, 2017

The April and May 2017 Pearson Vue Real Estate Exam Pass Fail Performance Report in Real Estate

The April and May 2017 Pearson Vue Real Estate Exam Pass Fail Performance Report in Real Estate

Thoughts from Andy Brown, the Best Real Estate Instructor in Central Florida at The Climer School of Real Estate, the Best Real Estate School in central Florida

I know I have not posted a blog in a few months so I wanted to let everyone know about the April 2017 in May 2017 Florida sales associate and real estate broker pass fail Exam Performance Summary report from Pearson Vue. This is the report that is given at every monthly Department of Business and Professional Regulation DBPR, Division of Real Estate DRE meeting to the Florida Real Estate Commission FREC. It is also exactly the way it has been for months and months. Here are the numbers:

In April 2017 2656 people took the Florida real estate sales associate examination at Pearson Vue for the very first time. 1330 of them passed and 1326 of them failed. This equals a 50% passing rate and a 50% failing rate.

 2708 people took the state exam for a second or for a repeated time. Only 835 of them passed while 1870 failed. This is a 31% pass rate and a 69% fail rate.

 In April 2017, 205 people took the Florida real estate broker exam for the very first time. 110 of them passed and 95 of them failed. This is a 54% passing rate and 46% failing rate.

 188 people took the Florida real estate broker exam in April for a second or for a repeated time and only 61 of them passed while 127 of them failed. This is a 32% passing rate with a 68% failing rate. 

Again I do not think these ridiculously low pass rates and high failure rates are an accident. I believe this is what the state of Florida wants.

 In May 2017 3017 people took the Florida sales associate real estate license exam for the very first time. 1598 of them passed and 1419 them failed. This is a 53% passing rate with a 47% failing rate. 

2776 people took the same exam for second or for a repeated time. Only 881 of them passed while 1895 of them failed. This is a 32% pass rate and a 60% fail rate.

 253 people took the Florida real estate brokers license exam in May 2017 for the very first time. 146 of them passed while 107 of them failed. This is a 58% pass rate and a 42% fail rate.

 219 people took the same exam for a second or for a repeated time. 95 of them passed and 124 of them failed. This is a pass rate of 43% and a failure rate of 57%.

 These general statistics seem to be the same month after month after month. I have said many times, I don’t think this is accident, I think this is on purpose. I believe that if the state of Florida wanted more people to pass, then they would pass. We are all very lucky that Florida doesn’t want more people to fail because I believe they can make that happen.

 It’s no secret that I believe that the examination focuses more on tricking you into wrong answers than it does on testing your actual knowledge. Additionally, they seem to force-feed you in your pre-license class information that is extremely unnecessary out there in real world and inn your real estate career and profession. However, you are tested on it so I have to teach it to you.

 So, here’s the challenge faced with new applicants: how do you sit through an unbelievably boring 60 hours class containing some of the driest and most boring material that exists while you are being force-fed with a firehose information that is only necessary one time to pass the state exam and that pretty much goes away from you soon as you pass your state exam?

 The best answer is to come to the Climer school of real estate. If you look at our hundreds of five-star Google reviews, five-star Facebook reviews, and five-star Yelp reviews you will come to understand that we do things differently. We teach our students to pass the state exam. And we don't intimidate our students into giving us a good review just before they take their class test as one school infamously does. If you’re going to trust the school with your time and money to help you prepare for a life changing and career changing moment, you want to make sure that you are making the right decision.

There are a lot of low quality real estate schools out there that I can mention by name that only want your money or they view their school as a recruiting opportunity for their real estate company. This is not the Climer school real estate operates.

We don’t have an on-going, operational real estate brokerage, we are not trying to recruiting you, and were not trying to get every dollar we can from you. Our only concern is to help our students pass the Florida real estate exam, hopefully your first try. This is the focus of all of our amazing instructors; Lydia Pisano, Barbara Stone, and Jose Rodriguez.

 Are you thinking about getting a real estate license and career change? Now is a fantastic time. Don’t waste your time and money. The best chance that you can give yourself of passing your Florida Sales Associate Real Estate Sales Associate License state exam or your Florida Brokers Real Estate License state exam on your first try is by attending The Climer School of Real Estate 407-822-3926 (EXAM)

Since 1984, The Climer School Of Real Estate is The Best Real Estate School in central Florida. If you want to have the best chance of passing your Florida Real Estate Exam on your first try, then you need to attend classes at The Climer School. Call us at 407-822-3926 (EXAM), or stop by our website at www.ClimerRealEstateSchool.com . Ask for Andy Brown the Best Real Estate Instructor in central Florida, Head Instructor and Director of Education & Training