I'm an educated and well read guy who decided to take this course in California. All I can say is that this course is a complete and utter joke. I'm nearing the end of my Real Estate Principles course and feel I've learned next to nothing. What you prospective buyers of this program need to understand is this... This course was clearly put together by this company with no real care or heart and only to make easy money with a slick website and good marketing. Trust me, the way this is written will confuse you. It's abundantly clear that the designers of this course gave absolutely no thought to the idea of 'educating' its students, rather they just put together a course (if you can call it that) that would meet the bare minimum DRE requirements for approval to be sold to the masses looking for a bargain. There is no love, no care, no heart in this course at all. It's basically just a list of definitions and list after list after list of terms. There are very few practical examples written in the material. I am going to finish this course because I paid for it (regrettably) and it will give me the credits I need to take the RE exam. HOWEVER - I'm frustrated that I will have to buy books and exam materials on top of this in order to prepare and study for the real state exam. This course will do NOTHING - I mean NOTHING to prepare you for the exam.
Donny
How could anyone not pass this course? I took their MO course and it was great. Customer Service Reps were great to me. This worked out great for me. I say call and find out for yourselves. Maybe the school isn't the problem?
Beulah must work for RealEstateExpress. Erin04 is on point. I agree with the original complaint. My "instructor" never responded to my questions so I stopped trying to communicate. The questions on the quizzes, exams and finals were often ambiguous and not clearly written. Course content was often contradictory and inaccurate. I have a Chemistry degree from an Ivy League institution. I beg to differ that "I" was the problem as Beulah has insinuated about Erin04. Someone with a better command of the English language needs to step in and rewrite the test questions. The school was definitely the problem. It was a very disappointing experience.
I am currently taking the course (April 2010). I agree that some test questions might be written better, and I have suggested that to my 'instructors'. They have responded quickly and positively via e-mail. I have had positive, helpful experiences on the telephone...first when I investigated which program to enroll in, and later when I had follow-up questions.
I'm curious if Dannie completed the course and sat for the license test. I have been involved in real estate as a rehabber for 8 years, so I have a working understanding of terminology and concepts. I've closed on the purchase and sale of about 20 properties. As I read some of the course material, I often think that if I were approaching this program without experience, I'd be awash in confusion.
So, Dannie, if you're out there, did you finally finish the course? Did you sit for the test? Buelah's point about passing the 'course' isn't nearly as important as passing the state test!
Anyone who is educated will know that these complaint boards represent the smallest part of the population, not the majority. For every 10 people that are happy with what a company does, there is one that isn't. The happy people will tell maybe three people. The unhappy person, statistically will tell 12 they are unhappy. For the complaints received, how do you explain the mass majority of people that take the course, pass the exam without any problems. Is the majority of the population smarter than the lesser? I work in customer service for a publishing company. I didn't know anything about real estate and passed my state exam the first time. I can't believe people have nothing better to do with their time except capitalize on their complaints and their entitlement. Why does this company have an A+ rating with the BBB? Have you called your state's commission? Just because you didn't pass doesn't mean it's everyone elses fault. Be accountable. That is what is wrong with our country in a nutshell. It's everyone else's fault, no one is accountable, it's all about me. What a legacy!
For the record, because of the industry I'm in, I have a Google word search email that shows me when certain information is posted. I do not hang out in negative environments.
I don't know why people are complaining about this course. It is a lot of information to learn, but that the nature of the beast. I admit I am not a fast learner, but I learn when I put effort into it. You can't just read the information and expect to remember all the material. No course is perfect, especially when you choose one at low cost. They give you the information and it is up to you on how will use it to learn.
I found a discrepancy between the information in the laws and the material I was reading. I asked the instructor about it, she answered very quickly and with a little research I found that the law on the government website was not updated, and Real Estate Express was correct.
I took the final and barely passed, but that was because I rushed through the material to finish the course. I bought another book on Real Estate and some exam preparation books, too. I am using those books to get another source to learn. I am determined to pass the state exam on the first shot. For some people a classroom environment works best for them.
I went to a top 20 university, even my professors gave lousy exam questions. I kept track of my quiz scores and avg. lousy 72%. One quiz I got a 40% on another I got 100%. Yes the questions can be confusing and frustrating, but for me I would want to have the class quizzes and test be hard. Then when I take the state, it would a lot easier. Would you rather have easy quizzes and tests for course? Then find out that state test a much harder? I sure wouldn't.
I agree this school is a scam! I did not pass exam and they refuse to refund my money. There are better schools out there people... don't believe the lies Real Estate Express tells you "Pass or Get your Money Back"... what a crock! I wish I would have researched this course better.
you get your money back if you purchase the prep master and pass their practice exams with 80% or more
I am a professional educator who decided to pursue a career in real estate. This course is a waste of time and money. Poorly written material which has to be printed off their site and costs $$$$ in paper, printer ink, and time. It would have been far better to study and less expensive to have received a couple of textbooks. I do not think I'm going to waste much more time with this even though it means losing the money I've spent. It is too frustrating to slog through their poorly designed material and print reams of paper, much of it with only one or two sentences on a page. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THIS JOKE OF A COURSE.
i previously took an online real estate course through a college in texas and paseed with a 4.0. I then moved to Florida and had to re-take it. i was comepletely disappointed with the course. When you pay to take a class it should be a program based on the the laws of the state...not general information about it and then links and web pages with the laws and statutes of that state. I have always enjoyed learning and i cant stand this program. i want an exact outline of the information i need to learn, at the tip of my fingers. I do not want to have to go to 3 different websites to take a class and find the information that i need to know and hope its right. this course is a joke...i reccommend doing research on better and more thourough courses before purchasing anything. i wish i had. $300 down the drain...and they only give you 6 months to finish and there are plenty of other courses that give you a full year. they also make it to where you cannot get a refund once you open the course...which they do not tell you until after you purchase...and you do not know how it is structured unless you open it.
Thank You Guys For Saving Me Money!
I was about to pay for this course. I'm currently disabled and am getting disability, but who could live off of $700 a month? Especially when you have a child like I do. So I'm looking for a new career, one with minimal office time and I can make my own hours for days when i just can't pull myself together. I figured real estate sales would be good choice. I saw realestateexpress.com and it was the cheapest of all the sites i'd seen. Well, i think i'll shop around a little more after hearing all these complaints.
Thanks for the reviews. I was just about to pay for this course, however a company with this many bad reviews can't be all that good. I think I'll just go for a local RE exam prep school. And @ Beulah they have a B rating with the BBB. For all there complainants of poor service.
Yay! Thanks to everyone that saved me money! I can't afford to waste money, hard times people! I think @beulah works for them!
This company is just horrible. In the advertising (my state is PA) they say that I'll have to take a proctored final. It's not until you PAY for and OPEN the course (once you OPEN the course, you can't get your money back - which is ridiculous because it's only when you OPEN the course do you realize how confusing and horrible the course is!). There is NO student forum board. There is no LIVE INSTRUCTOR to "guide you every step of the way." It wasn't until I opened the course that I read that there is a total of 3 exams that have to be proctored in the state of PA. I thought I'd done my research on this company but obviously, I didn't re-search far enough. I'm a paramedic and have taken anatomy and biology courses that were easier to understand . Oh, and the "on-line" text book that comes with the course? It's written by one of the owners of the school. I know plenty of real estate sales people who are not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier and yet they passed. Please save your money. Call some local real estate people and find out where they went to school to obtain their license.
This school was terrible. I am a licensed agent in AZ and passed the school test with a 98% the first time. It was also given to me in an online format, but I had to go to a Brokers office to do the class online. they do not allow online schools for a real estate licensee in AZ. The online school that I took at a Brokers office was great. Outlined and very informative and interesting. I got a lot more info and a lot less crap..in an organized way. This school didn't even go over how many sq feet in an acre or how to measure. The school in AZ was not open book. I am getting my CA license now and can do it online..and guess what?Its open book! Well I passed all 3 the first time, but it took me the full 3 hrs and I guessed most of the way. So yes I passed ...with some good guessing and an AZ license. I will need to buy a real book and study from another school before I take the State test. Its like they put all the needless information out there and had a computer randomly go through their needless pages and pick questions. I am sure most of these questions will not be on the State test. YOU MUST STUDY FOR THE STATE TEST AND STUDY HARD!
If I had gone to a better school...I would not have to start from the beginning in preparing for the exam. I am an agent. I know what to expect. I know you must study hard. I have done that! With this school...you have no idea what to study or where to take notes. I only passed because I have some experience, but still felt lost. More than wast5ing your money..Please don't waste your 135 hours. You will not save money! Take my advice and find another school. I have never put a negative post out there, but I hope this will help.
This school is TERRIBLE! Save money - do not go there! Go to your local school, pay the price ONECS not TWICE (for local and RExpres) and get your license fast. RExpress is a whole bunch of losers in RE business. They claim to be professional, but they NOT!
GoodLuck.
I decided to go on groupon for a dinner and stumbled upon the promotion for the Success Package ($119.00) the school was having. I turned to my boyfriend for consolation and he responded with "research it". Found this thread. I was so close to purchasing but thank goodness I didn't. Will definitely not buy! Know your motivation to write these did not go in vain. Thanks all.
Can somebody direct me to a "good" website or school to get my license?
Contact other realtors in your area and ask them for advice. Why are you on a complaints board asking for advice?
Just trying to see if there were any good Online courses that did not have awful reviews. Why does it matter to you?
I've been trying to pass the test for the first chapter...real estate law for a month and can't pass it, even after reading the material over and over, I'm so over this! I have sent a message to my "instructor" and he got back to me and told me to just re read and take the test again...gee thanks for the help! I called to try to get my money back and I was told that since I'm past 8 days in that they can't refund me!
I spent $395 on the full package because it says guarantee pass or your money back. expecting that this course has materials that gets straight to the point. I passed all my quizes and practice exams, took me a few tries because I had to reread and look over every slide about 5 times. studied for a good 2-3 hours for a week straight and failed. The bad thing about this is that you must have an 80% or higher to receive credit. I think the standard is 70% for most schools and online classes. The questions were way too ambiguous that sometimes even 4 answers look like they could be right. Only way you can pass this course is memorize every definition (about 400 of them) and slide verbatim. Concepts alone will not help you pass. I took the course final today for fundamentals and boy was it hard. spent 4 hours in a library taking the test(4 total). sad thing is i have to pay an additional 50$ to retake the course which sadly i am not going to, knowing that no matter how hard i try to study again, I will not pass. highest i got on one of the 4 exams was a 70% and i thought i was pretty confident in answering those questions along with the other 3 exams. Of course being confident and knowing the basic real estate concepts was not enough and was very surprised and disappointed with the rest of the grades... which were in the 60's. In addition im not even sure if a librarian staff are allowed to proctor. im not going to pay someone 40$/hr to proctor my exam. please dont judge me on my grammar or my sentence structure. this is a complaintboad by the way not an english forum.
btw, to avoid all the headaches and money wasted. just find a local state school that offers in class real estate courses. for godsake my oriental friend who can barely speak any english was able to pass his state test licensing after completing his in class courses. Im sure state licensing tests are in a completely different format than what is offered by realestate express. wt really screws you over is the wording. each question was not a 2+2=4 kind of question. it was more like -2(1+2)(8-6)÷-3=4 for a simple question that you studied for and know. =/
Erin04 has it right. I am being paid back for NOT having researched realestateexpress.com prior to buying their awful program. After 39% through the course, I found it impossible to pass the tests. Instructors must be ghosts, because I received no return calls I placed for assistance. The fact that I could not continue through the program without completing previous sections, made it anything but “express.” The only “express” I experienced was with regard to their taking my money. Even some of my realtor friends, to whom I showed the National Finance Section questions, found the questions ambiguous and confusing. When it came to the Final Review Exam, I could never find out where I made mistakes. Even after restudying the sections, numerous times, I could not pass.
Like others on this complaint site, I have now signed up for an in-person program with a legitimate real estate office.
A day spa would have been money better spent. Now I need one to recover from the stress of this program.
I almost signed up for their current groupon; Their Silver package for only 59$, really cheap but i don't want to waste time, get frustrated, and worste of all get discouraged due to a poorly structured course. I have read many complaints here and at the BBB.
Many are about the money back garantee which people want to use some with merrit and others without, a mixed bag, but when I read complaints about the course structure being posted by real estate agents wanting to take the refresher course, now that is what convinces me that these complaints must be true.
Thanks to everyone posting and saving me time and frustration etc...
I recently moved to California and needed to obtain my real estate license. I've held 2 other licenses in the US, 1 in Canada and I've worked in the real estate business for nearly 15 years. Real Estate Express is beyond a doubt one of the worst designed, poorly written, badly executed learning programs I have ever seen. It's cheap and that's about the only positive attribute. I switched to a different company and instantly felt the difference.
I also moved from Texas to Florida. Terrible course and I have a 92 on a MENSA test. This not interactive at all. I will probably go to a pretest class before taking my test. Waste of time and money!
I'm in Texas, and I need to study for real estate license.
What do you guys recommend for Texas? I have seen the TREC real estate pass rates on tests % and seems that
Real Estate Express is the higher one in Texas with 85% pass rate and following www. learntexasrealestateonline .com
I just need an super complete material to study on regards the national and state tests because I know those are very tricky when you are presenting the final exam at PSI. Where I live there is not local school to study.
Any hints for Texas?
Thanks on advance.
I agree with the majority of complaints. This is the WORST Real Estate Course I have ever taken. I have been a Florida Licensed
Realtor for 9 years now and this course makes no sense to me at all. If I didn't already have the experience that I have, I would never get through this course. The questions on the quizzes and exams don't even relate to the content. I have spent many hours just searching for a clue to the answers and most of the time I just ended up guessing. DO NOT take this course! Big rip-off! I have already purchased other books to prepare for the state exam. I will NEVER recommend Realestateexpress.com to anyone!
I'm now signed up with this school for the third time to take the RE class. I hope I pass this time. Or else I want my money back. I hope the Florida exam is easier than this class. sue
First of all...I do not work for the company. I was, previously, licensed in California, and am preparing to take my Texas test.
I haven't, yet, come across the problems reported by the other users.
Furthermore, for anyone who is interested in taking this, or any other, pre-licensing course, in Texas, to go to
http://www.trec.state.tx.us/education/examination/exam_pass_rates.asp
and see the pass rates for the various accredited real estate course providers.
That is where I went to do research and why I, ultimately, chose RealEstateExpress.Com
I just finished taking the 1st exam and I was really frustrated. More than 10% of the questions required calculations and recalling formulas, which per florida state exams need to have no more than 10% math, 45% law and etc. The test I took had practically no florida law questions and as mentioned some of it was poorly written. Test need to be objective where you won't have any doubt what the real answer is...Also the test was in a format that is not the same as the pearson vue format. You have to finish each question before going on to the next (no backwards or ability to skip over harder questions to allot you more time). You only got to see all your answers and questions at the end once you've used up all your time, so basically with no time to correct or review. This was extremely disappointing if you've had a multiple choice test strategy set. I have one more try at the test let's see if I pass ... at this time I'm just wondering if they are fixed to make sure you don't pass the 1st and have to pay a renewal fee or extension...
Oh Boy! I didn't do enough research either and paid the full amount. I have left a message for my state school instructor and haven't heard back yet! I too am confused as to what to study and need an outline of some sort. This online school is horrible, go sit in class where everything will make more sense!
Terrible course! I got all the way to the end to score a 74 on the 2nd final .
It was a head ace just to get through all the exams that you had to pass with an 80% just to get to the final exam, if you don't pass the 2nd proctored exam you have to take the whole course over. I definitely would not take this course over if I decide to go through with it. It was a complete nightmare and a waists of money. I am a college graduate from a large state university and could not complete this course successfully. It has taken my time away from my kids and my money.
*Update* After the six month bad experience with this school with no success trying by best to pass their rigged final exams that I now know were set for failure.. I went to a real school locally and have finally received both of my transcripts on 5/12/15 after passing my finals on the first try. -tears of joy!
DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE FROM THIS WEBSITE!
I have taken RE courses in Colorado, Florida and Georgia, passed all courses and have held license in Colorado and Georgia for over 15 years.
I recently moved back to Colorado and it is a one license state -- everyone must take and pass the Colorado Broker's course. No easier salesman course is offered.
Having experience and knowledge and living in an area of the Rockies that did not offer a classroom course, I signed on with Real Estate Express. BIGGEST AND WORSE MISTAKE!
The entire course, material, instruction, layout has been so frustrating. The material is not all covered in the online course. You have to take a test where the questions aren't even discussed in the testing chapter (but it's covered in the next chapter). You're NEVER given your test results other than a percentage of correct answers, so you don't know what you've gotten right or wrong. Then they won't let you know WHY you've gotten it wrong only to have the "instructor" give you the subjects you need to go over again, if you're lucky enough to have an instructor contact you. So, much of the time you're having to go over the entire chapter again to search for the correct answer (which is often very vague).
This is the WORST RE COURSE ever! I would highly suggest finding a qualified instructor that can actually help you. Find a course that is willing to help you instead of "protecting the integrity of their course" by giving you the right and wrong answers YOU'VE PAID HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS for. Like any classroom situation one has had since grade school, allowing the student to know what's he/she is getting and what he/she is NOT getting is not jeopardizing anyone's "integrity" -- it's teaching.
REAL ESTATE EXPRESS is not interested in teaching. REAL ESTATE EXPRESS is only interested in getting your money for this stupidly written and ill-conceived money grab thinly disguised, online, "educational" program.
THIS IS COMING FROM SOMEONE THAT HAS BEEN IN ACTUAL BUSINESS OF REAL ESTATE. DO NOT GIVE RE EXPRESS YOUR MONEY AND TIME!
I believe the final exam designed to make you fail. This is my personal opinion.
While I am taking the first final I screen shot the questions and tried to take it the second time
the same questions. The best I scored was 60%. If I have the questions ahead of time and prepared for it
and not make it ----- I do not know what to make of it. I have a 4 yr degree and believe I know what I am doing. I admit I didn't study hard, however, having the final exam in my screen shot and prepare for it ahead of time and not making it made me believe the test is not meant for us to make it.
I would not sign to take this course again, it looks like a wast of money and time at least for me.
i will try other online course or a local school. Good luck every one!
WOW, I am glad I am not the only one that has had "real" problems with this school. Customer Service is non existent. Exam not following course content. Do not know what questions you got wrong. I had some tech difficulties that their "tech dept" couldn't fix. I am going to take another online course. Does anyone know how the Chamberlin School is? It is more expensive, but I would be willing to pay, if it can teach.
Currently enrolled in online courses with this "school" - SAVE YOURSELF, PEOPLE! I've done real estate in Texas and CA and now trying to get licensed in PA and this has GOT to be THE worst online learning experience I've ever encountered. You get what you pay for...read the complaints. I'm wildly educated and have been in real estate very successfully in other states. Unprofessional and inaccurate information! Run!
Spot on! I wish I would have read this review before paying for these courses, I have no one but myself to blame for being dupped into buying this. I have friends that took Kaplan and I kick myself every time I have to log into real estate express and play their bs games that I didn't pay the extra money up front and go with Kaplan. I too am going to finish because I've already invested to much time, energy and funds to switch schools at this point. After I'm done with these courses I'm going to borrow Kaplan books from my friends and learn what I need to learn...no thanks to real estate express.