Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Orra School of Real Estate ?

     Kathy received a phone call yesterday asking her if  this is the Orra School of Real Estate.  Kathy told the caller that this is Climer School of Real Estate.  The caller asked Kathy is the the real estate school with the super cool Facebook page that posts photos of the students on Facebook.  Kathy acknowledged that we do have a super cool Facebook page. 

     The caller asked Kathy if we are the real estate school  that has nine videos posted on You Tube to help anyone that needs help to pass the Florida real estate exam.  Kathy assured her that that was us.

     The caller asked Kathy if we gave a discount to military and seniors. Kathy told her that our total price for the basic pre license course was only $220 in class or $199 if you want to take the Florida real estate course on line.  Kathy said we also give a military discount.  Kathy said if the DBPR waives the real estate license fee for recent military veterans, we should follow suite and give a discount to military. 

     The caller asked Kathy how long had Climer School of Real Estate been in business teaching real estate classes in Orlando.  Kathy told her Ron Climer started Climer School of Real Estate in 1980.

     The caller asked Kathy how we got so many Google reviews.  Kathy told her that we have a lot of satisfied students.

     The caller asked Kathy what was our pass fail ratio for the Florida real estate exam.  Kathy told her that the state wide pass fail ratio for the Florida real estate exam is about fifty fifty.  http://ronclimer.hubpages.com/hub/The-Florida-Real-Estate-Exam-Pass-Fail-Rate-For-July-2012  Kathy told her that we can not know what Climer School of Real Estate 's ratio is because the state does not promulgate that information. 

     The caller asked Kathy if we are the real estate school that sells the lucky T shirts to attract luck and good fortune to the students.  Kathy assured her that Climer School of Real Estate is the real estate school with the lucky T shirts. 

     Finally, Kathy asked the caller if she wanted to get a Florida real estate license.  The caller said that she did.  She told Kathy that she had taken a pre license course online from a out of state online real estate school .  When she got to the Florida real estate exam, she was disappointed, overwhelmed frustrated and confused.   Kathy suggested that she attend our two day state exam review course.  We call this the cram course.  She told Kathy that she was a hundred miles away from Orlando.  Kathy suggested that she could get the two day Florida real estate exam review course on audio CD.  She did.

     In a few days , this young lady will have a Florida real estate license.  www.climerrealestateschool.com

How To Get A Florida Real Estate License Online

     The first thing you need to do to get your Florida real estate license is apply to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation at www.myfloridalicense.com . The fee for that is $105. 

     You also need to get your fingerprints taken by a vendor approved by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. You can find these vendors at the DBPR's website.  This will cost about sixty dollars. 

     You have to take a Florida real estate course called FREC course one from a Florida real estate school.  You can take this in a classroom.  You can also take it online.  Online is very convenient.  As with any Florida online real estate course, be certain you are taking this course from a Florida real estate school.  Many real estate schools specialize in all fifty states.  The problem with that is that you usually learn a lot of stuff that you don't need to know to get a Florida real estate license.  Do yourself a favor.  Use a Florida real estate school if you want a Florida real estate license.  At Climer School of Real Estate in Orlando, we charge $199 for FREC course one.

     After you pass the test for FREC course one, you have to pass the Florida real estate exam.  This test is given by a private company named Pearson Vue.  The fee for this is $31.50 . The pass rate is fifty fifty.  That is why it matters where you take your basic class. Here is the details on the pass rate. http://ronclimer.hubpages.com/hub/The-Florida-Real-Estate-Exam-Pass-Fail-Rate-For-July-2012

     At Climer School of Real Estate, we think once is enough to take the Florida real estate exam.  We have put nine videos on You Tube to help anyone with the real estate math that is on the Florida real estate exam.  Watch these videos.  Share them with your classmates.  The math is ten per cent of the Florida real estate exam.  You can  get a per cent breakdown of the Florida real estate exam in the "Candidates Handbook".  If you are thinking of getting a Florida real estate license soon, you need a copy of this.  If you don't have one, call Kathy at 407 822 3926.  She will tell you how to get your free copy of this valuable book.  www.climerrealestateschool.com

     As soon as you pass the Florida real estate exam, you have a Florida real estate license,

    

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Real Estate Sales Skills Can Be Improved

     There is an old joke about a tourist in New York City that asks a policeman how to get to Carnegie Hall.  The policeman replies," Practice, Practice and Practice ".

     Almost any skill can be improved with practice.  Even a simple skill like driving a car can be improved with practice.  Why do you suppose teenagers have more accidents than adults?   They don't have much practice.  After ten or twenty years of practice, they get better. 

     Selling skills are no different.  Prospecting on the phone is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Establishing rapport with strangers is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Negotiating is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Qualifying buyers is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Doing a perfect listing presentation is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Answering objections is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Closing is a skill.  You get better with practice. 

     If you are new in real estate sales, you need practice.  You can not get any practice sitting around the office talking with your co workers.  How can you get practice?  If you want to get good at prospecting on the phone, dial the phone.  If you don't like dialing the phone, maybe you will like it when you are good at it.  You can't get good without practice.  Does that make sense?  It makes perfect sense to me.  Can you be a super star real estate salesman if you are not good at talking on the phone? 

      How can you learn to create instant rapport with people that you have just met without practice?  You have to practice creating rapport with strangers.  If you rarely talk to strangers, how can you learn to establish rapport with strangers?  Meet some strangers.  Practice your rapport building skills.  The easiest way to meet lots of strangers is to try to list their house.   You could call forsalebyowners and expired listings and foreclosure victims.  It would seem to me that any of these people would be delighted to meet a knowledgeable,nice, polite,pleasant real estate agent that seemed to have a genuine desire to help them solve one of their largest problems.  What a great opportunity to practice rapport building skills. 

       How many strangers would you have to talk to before you became really good?  Do you think ten would be enough?  Do you think you would be good after a hundred?  I bet, by the time you talked to a thousand, you would be very skillful at creating rapport. 

     Can you learn to qualify buyers without talking to buyers?  I suppose you could read about it and study it.  You would never get really good without talking to buyers.  You need to ask a bunch of buyers,"If we found the home of your dreams today, would you want to own it today?".  Then you need to learn to ask more qualifying questions.  Pretty soon, you will be able to tell the real buyers from the people that are wasting their time and want you to waste time with them.  Read  my previous article.  http://ronclimer.blogspot.com/2011/04/when-in-doubt-blow-em-out.html 

     If you want to earn an extraordinary income in real estate, you need to be able to do a masterful listing presentation.  You need to be able to tell people why they should list with you instead of the competition.  How many times would you need to practice this presentation before you got really good at it?  Find some people that will listen and start practicing.  I think after a couple of hundred presentations, you will get good.  In the meantime, some of those practice presentations will have a successful conclusions.  You will get listings.  After you have done a thousand listing presentations, how good will you be?

     What about answering objections?  Do people still have objections?  Do people still say," I would list with you BUT......."?  If you would take the time to learn the answer to the only two real objections, you could become very skillful at answering objections.  Practice this skill after your listing presentations.  It is almost impossible to get highly skilled without practice. 

     You need to practice.  Practice is the magic elixir that makes poor salesman,good and mediocre salesman great.  You don't need any one's permission.  You don't need a special permit.  Just decide that it is time for you to start practicing the sales skills that you need to be a great sales person.

     Ron Climer  www.climerrealestateschool.com Orlando, Florida 32810  

Saturday, February 23, 2013

A Real Estate Sales Manager, How To Get Promoted

     Lots of Florida real estate sales associates think they want to be promoted to real estate sales manager.  If you are one of these people, let me tell you how to get promoted to sales manager. 

     The first thing you need to do is act like a sales manager.  Sales managers teach other people how to do things.  If you want to get promoted to sales manager, maybe you could teach that new guy how to operate the copy machine.  When that new agent asks you how to run the expired listings off the MLS, you might take a few minutes and show them how. This is what sales managers do.  This is attitude.  It is not skill.

     Some people are really good sales people but they don't know how to teach other people how to do what they can do easily.  Teaching others is a skill that sales managers need.  It is a lot attitude.  This is a skill that your boss is looking for in the next sales manager. 

     This is not enough by itself.  You have to sell extraordinarily well. Your commission income has to be in the upper twenty per cent of the office.  I have seen a few low producers that turned out to be good sales managers.  It is unusual.  It is like a fat "lose weight" guru. 

     Handling rejection is part of sales.  If a sales manager can not handle rejection, they will probably perform poorly as a sales manager since recruiting new sales associates is a big part of the job.  Recruiting is just like selling.  The more you see, the more you sell.  Some will.  Some won't.  So what.  Someone is waiting. 

     If a sales associate never called FSBOs and expired listings, that sales associate turned manager probably won't call new licensees from the DBPR list of new licensees.  They probably won't call those agents over at Going Out of Business Realty and offer them a new home.   Your boss knows that. Learn to handle rejection as a sales associate.

     If you want to be promoted to sales manager, never criticize the current management.  It amazes me how many people criticize their boss.  Your boss knows.  Don't do that.  Do you need any further explanation?

     If you want to be promoted, study leadership.  Have you read a management book lately?  Have you read John Maxwell's books?  If not, why not?  Today would be a good day to start. 

     Are you the past president of your Rotary club?  Are you the superintendent of your Sunday school?  Are you the chairman of your PTA?  These leadership jobs desperately looking for someone to fill these positions.  The pay is not good but the educational benefits are excellent.  You learn about leadership.  You gain leadership experience.  Your boss can see that you have leadership skills. 

     Do you have a Florida real estate broker's license?  If not, why not?  Many Florida real estate companies want a sales manager or branch manager to be an officer of the company.  In order to be a vice president, you have to have a Florida real estate broker's license.  If you don't have one, start today to get one.  Contact Kathy at www.climerrealestateschool.com if you want any details on that. 

     Let your boss know that you are interested in management.  Do not expect him to read your mind.  Let him know.  Let your competitors know also.  You never know which door opportunity is going to knock on.  When opportunity knocks, be ready to answer.

The Expiration Dates Of A Florida Real Estate License

     March 31st and September 30th are the only two dates that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation have Florida real estate licenses expire.  If you have a Florida real estate license, it expires on March 31st or September 30th. 

     If you are renewing your Florida real estate license for the first time, you are required by the DBPR to take a forty five hour post license course from a Florida real estate school.   We teach that course online and in a classroom.  www.climerrealestateschool.com  At Climer School of Real Estate, we teach some important stuff in this class.  We teach you how to make money selling real estate in Florida.  You can also take the class online. That is not nearly as much fun. 

     If you do not take the post license class and renew your new Florida real estate license the first time, Your Florida real estate is NULL and VOID.  What does null and void mean?  It means you do not have a Florida real estate license.  It means you have to apply to the DBPR for  a new Florida real estate license.  That costs $105 .  It means you have to take FREC course 1 again.  At Climer School of Real Estate, that costs $220.  It means you have to have your fingerprints taken again.  That costs about sixty bucks.  You have to pass the Florida real estate exam again.  That costs $31.50 every time you take it.  This is one expensive mistake. 

     Wait a minute.  There must be a grace period.  Nope, there is not.  If you are renewing you Florida real estate license for the first time and you forget, when you wake up on April Fool's Day or October first, you are null and void.  You have a big problem. 

     Things are not so severe for old timers that are renewing for the second or third or fourth time.  There is what you might call a grace period although it really is not a grace period.  If an old timer fails to renew his Florida real estate license on September 30th 0r March 31st, his license becomes involuntarily inactive.  What does that mean?  This is not as bad as null and void.  If Mr. Old Timer wakes up a couple of months after his expiration date, he can renew his Florida real estate license any time within twenty four months by paying a late penalty fee and doing the required continuing education.  However any real estate income earned while the Florida real estate is inactive is illegal activity.  Read this.  http://ronclimer.blogspot.com/2012/07/real-estate-idea-worth-12500.html 

     If you have a Florida real estate license, don't let March 31st or September 30th sneak up on you.  New Florida real estate brokers, pay extra attention.  It is way too much trouble to get a Florida real estate broker's license to allow it to become null and void on the first renewal. 

    Look at your real estate license right now.  The expiration is on your Florida real estate license.  You can also look yourself up at the the DBPR website www.myfloridalicense.com . If you are not sure about renewal requirements, call Kathy at 407 822 3926.  She can answer all your questions.  Contact Kathy at www.climerrealestateschool.com 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Florida Real Estate Exam, How Hard Is It To Pass?

Here is the cold hard facts. The pass rate for the Florida real estate exam is fifty fifty for first time takers and about thirty three per cent for retakers. If you want more detail, http://ronclimer.hubpages.com/hub/The-Florida-Real-Estate-Exam-Pass-Fail-Rate-For-July-2012


This is not the entire story. Where you took your sixty three hour pre-license course is important. I find it amazing that many people think this is not true. Many people believe all schools are the same. What an absurd notion that is. You could take this sixty three hour course from an instructor that knows what is on the Florida real estate exam because he has been studying it for thirty years or you could take the same course from an instructor that has no idea what is on the exam. You could take your online class from a real estate school that specializes in all fifty states or you could take your on line real estate course from a Florida real estate school. If you take your course from a FLORIDA real estate school, you will probably learn what is on the Florida real estate exam. At Climer School of Real Estate, we don't teach about community property because we don't have that in Florida. You will never hear me mention a deed of trust because that document is not used in Florida.


The Florida real estate exam is certainly harder if you have been studying a bunch of stuff that you don't need to know and not studying the stuff that you do need to know.


Pearson Vue, the people that give the state exam, charge $31.50 whether you pass or not. Once is enough. If you choose a discount school in Timbuktu to save a few dollars, it is easy to spend that money on a few attempts at the Florida real estate exam. Read some of our Google reviews.


How hard is it to pass the Florida real estate exam? It helps a lot if you don't underestimate the Florida real estate test. I tell my students from day one that the state exam is tough. If you made a good grade on your school test, take no comfort in that. Your instructor probably told you exactly what was going to be on the school test. If you took the course online, you probably used your book and your notes during the test. The wordingon the state exam is tricky. The test is difficult. You only have to be in the upper half. You don't have to be in the top ten per cent.


Here is a rumor that Florida real estate instructors have been spreading for years. "The math is not important. It is only ten per cent" . That is a nasty rumor that needs to be dispelled right now. The math is very important. You will not believe how many applicants fail the state exam with a 73 or 74 (a failing grade). They got eight out of ten or nine out of ten on the math. Would that break your heart? There goes thirty one fifty out the window.


Here is some good news for you. It does not matter whether or not your instructor does a good job of explaining the math. I have put all the math on You Tube. It is free. My user name is "Climerschool". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07XWF_iuWCI&list=UUyBcLU3Ccx-ZxAyemcXWd1w&index=38 Here is one of the nine videos that I have put there to help you understand the math on the Florida real estate exam. If your instructor or your on line course does not make it clear to you how to do the math, watch these videos. It is free. It is easy. If watching them one time goes not make it clear, watch them twice. I have been teaching long enough to know that in a classroom, students do not like to admit that they don't get it. The whiz kids roll their eyes and snicker. It is embarrassing. When you are at home with just you and the You Tube video, that is not a problem. It cost $31.50 to fail the state exam.


If the school you are attending is using Linda Crawford's "Florida Real Estate Principles, Practices and Law", the videos where I am wearing the red shirt is me teaching chapter fourteen right in a live classroom with a live audience. The three videos where I am wearing the Hawaiian shirt is the homework for chapter fourteen. If you need help with your homework, there it is. The three videos where I am wearing the blue shirt are are math problems exactly the way they are on the Florida real estate exam.


How hard is it to pass the Florida real estate exam? At Climer School of Real Estate, we sell Linda Crawford's "Real Estate Exam Manual for Sales Associates and Brokers" http://ronclimer.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-bible-of-florida-real-estate-exam.html I call this the skinny book. I can hardly believe how many real estate schools do not make this wonderful study aid available to their students. Dollar for dollar, this is the cheapest, best study aid anyone can find for the Florida real estate exam. Call Kathy at 407 822 3926 if you don't have a copy. Get yourself a copy.


How hard is the Florida real estate exam? Go to my website at www.climerrealestateschool.com and take the one hundred question practice test that I have posted there. Take that practice test. What you make on that practice exam, is pretty indicative of what you will make on the Florida real estate exam if you don't study anymore. If you pass my practice test, you are ready for the real thing. If you don't pass my practice test, keep studying. Read my angry article. http://ronclimer.blogspot.com/2013/02/florida-real-estate-exam-free-practice.html


If you read my angry article,you can see that I get angry when people that don't know what is on the FLORIDA real estate exam try to exploit you to sell you study aids that won't help you pass the FLORIDA real estate exam. If you want to pass the Florida real estate exam the first time, contact Kathy at www.climerrealestateschool.com


How hard is it to pass the Florida real estate exam? It will help if you have the "Candidate's Handbook" published by the DBPR. It has a two page breakdown of exactly how the Florida real estate exam breaks down. It is free. If you don't have one, Kathy will tell you how to get one. Call her at 407 822 3926.


It is not hard to pass the Florida real estate exam if you are prepared. If we can help you pass, the first time, nothing makes us happier.


Florida Real Estate Exam Cram Course On Audio

     At Climer School of Real Estate in Orlando, we teach a two day live"cram course" to prepare people to take the Florida real Estate exam.  The Florida real estate exam has a fifty fifty pass rate.  Here is the details on that.  http://ronclimer.hubpages.com/hub/The-Florida-Real-Estate-Exam-Pass-Fail-Rate-For-July-2012  We believe that our two day live "cram course" review is the best preparation that you can have for the Florida real estate exam.  We teach this class about twice per month. 

     Seventy per cent of the students in these classes did not take their basic sixty hour class at Climer School of Real Estate.  Many of the students in these "cram course" classes have already failed the Florida real estate exam once or twice.  One advantage to taking this review class live is the students can ask me questions to clarify things that they have encountered on the Florida real estate exam.

     Many of the students in this two day state exam review class made the mistake of taking their on line pre license real estate course with an out of state real estate school  that teaches what is on the national exam.  There is no national real estate test in Florida.  There is only the Florida real estate exam.   At Climer School of Real Estate in Orlando, we teach what is on the Florida test.  We assume that is what you want to learn. 

     If you have time and are near Orlando, attend our two day review class if you want to pass the Florida real estate exam the next time you take it.  It is inexpensive.  It is intense.

     We realize that many people don't have time and don't live near Orlando.  Time and distance is a problem.  So, I went to the school by myself and taught the two day "cram course" to an audio recorder.  One cool thing was the recorder did not ask any questions.  The recorder did not need to take a break four times a day.  The recorder did not need to eat lunch.  We put that "cram course" on eight audio discs.  We sell it.  Call Kathy at 407 822 3926 if you want to know what is on the Florida real estate  exam.  You can put it in the dash of the car.  You can listen while you are washing dishes.  You can listen while you are on the treadmill.  You can listen all the time and if you do, you will pass the state exam the next time you take it.  This is the most painless way to study. Watch my free math videos on You Tube. There are nine of them.  Call Kathy and start learning what is on the Florida real estate exam.