|
 I’m
sure you’ve heard it: “Those who can, do. Those
who can’t, teach.” While I suppose there may be
some degree of validity to that in certain circumstances, it’s
been my experience in observing real estate professionals who
pursue the teaching niche that they are, for the most part,
informed, dedicated, and completely in tune with what goes on
in the real world of real estate.
COMMUNITY COLLEGE TEACHING
Look at just about any community college catalog of courses
and you will find real estate offerings. While there may be
courses in such varied topics as real estate investing or home
buying, by far the most frequent offerings relate to real estate
licensing. In all 50 states, in order to participate in “professional
real estate activity” (which basically means you expect
to get paid), you have to be licensed. That involves passing
an objective examination and completing mandatory course work.
I have taught real estate pre-license courses for a number
of years at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon.
I teach the course through the Business Development Center,
which is affiliated with the community college, and we do the
complete program in 15 weeks. While it’s a worthy challenge,
since I’m not now actively listing and selling, it’s
a manageable undertaking.
Let me cite an example of an active real estate broker who
owns her own company and teaches a real estate licensing course
in her spare (right) time. Her name is Dannie Walker. Visit
her web site at www.danniewalker.com. What you will see is an
impressive presentation of the Dannie Walker team of Real Estate
2000. Dannie is located in the incredibly beautiful Oregon town
of Roseburg in southwestern Oregon, about 123 miles north of
the California border.
I worked with the staff at the Business Development Center
at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg in setting the program
up. As is ours, it’s a 15-week, 60-contact-hour program,
along with 90-non-contact self-study hours. That means the instructor
teaches 15 live, four-hour sessions. Visualize that.
If you are a real estate broker and the thought of teaching
a licensing course appeals to you I have this word of caution:
don’t underestimate the extent of the challenge, both
in time and emotional involvement.
A broker in another part of the country informed me that
a side benefit was that he was able to recruit some exceptional
agents through his class work.
Itinerant Teaching —“On
The Road Again!”
How about traveling all over the country delivering seminars
and speeches on various real estate topics? If you were writing
a resume intended to impress the world with your accomplishments
as a real estate educator filling this niche, you couldn’t
do better than simply replicating that of Julie Garton-Good,
DREI, C-CREC (Check out www.juliegarton-good.com for details).
After more than 25 years in the real estate profession, seven
books, a syndicated newspaper column, a variety of industry
awards (including being selected as International Educator of
the Year three times), and several million air miles later,
she maintains she is “still working on defining, fine-tuning,
and expanding my craft as a real estate educator.”
If you’re looking for a “rags to riches”
story to inspire you, it would be difficult to top that of Julie’s.
Start with the “rags.” Julie and her six-month-old
daughter were briefly homeless on the streets of Boise, Idaho
in 1974. She says that her main motivation to getting into real
estate was so that she and her daughter would never be homeless
again. She eventually ended up opening her own real estate brokerage
in northern Idaho. She said she “loved selling, but teaching
became my heart,” and then evolved into her first love
— real estate education.
Since this is an article on “niches” I would
have to nominate Julie as the “niche master.” In
the early 1980’s, when the topic of agency first reared
its really ugly head, Julie stepped up to the plate and developed
a variety of products relative to that topic, including books
and seminars. Her latest venture is that of leading the charge
into developing new business models for our profession. She
founded the National Association of Real Estate Consultants
(www. narec.com) and designed the Consumer-Certified Real Estate
Consultant training course and the CREC professional designation.
Oh, yes, she’s also on the road a lot.
Private Real Estate Schools
—Big Doings In The Big Apple
There are a variety of opportunities in teaching (and eventually
owning) private real estate schools. Several years ago I attended
a Real Estate Educators Association convention in Lexington,
Kentucky. On an evening dinner excursion down the river near
our hotel, I sat at the same table with a fellow by the name
of Sandy Frame. The thing that caught my attention was that
Sandy owned and operated a private real estate school in Brooklyn.
As a young Air Force officer I was stationed at an Air Base
on nearby Long Island and spent a lot of time visiting a (really)
close friend on Flatbush Avenue, so I was naturally intrigued.
I’ve kept in touch with Sandy over the years and he has
considerably expanded his operations. Visit his web site at
www.reedc.com, and you will read this description of his Real
Estate Education Center operation: “A New York real estate
school, with branches in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. We
provide certification for the real estate Salesperson, Broker,
Appraiser, Home Inspector, Mortgage Broker and Property Manager.
In addition, we have continuing education programs online, or
in lecture format.”
Sandy started in real estate sales in the early 60’s
in New York City and after a series of serious setbacks and
subsequent recoveries, he achieved substantial success. Notice
that in the company description he now has a school in Manhattan.
The address is 350 Fifth Avenue. That happens to be the Empire
State Building. His eleventh floor office is 2344 square feet,
broken into two classrooms that accommodate 20 to 30 students,
as well as auxiliary facilities. Not sure what he pays in rent,
but an article I saw in another publication indicated office
space in Manhattan was going at something like $43 per square
foot. In addition to being the owner/operator of the school,
Sandy teaches the real estate brokerage course.
 Head
of the Class
Defying any particular category, but definitely at the head
of the real estate education class is Joe Klock, a regular contributor
to The REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL. With both the CRB and CRS professional
designations it’s obvious that Joe has “been there
and done that” in the profession. The crowning achievement
of his ultimate evolution into real estate education was having
been selected as the Dean of Coldwell Banker University, the
first of its kind in the industry. Now retired from that prestigious
position, he occupies himself with an incredible variety of
activities you can check out at www.joeklock.com.
Virtual Teaching —
Of course, with the advent of computer technology and the
wonders of the In-ternet, a variety of other opportunities exist
for real estate educators, under the generic title of distance
education. For example, it’s now possible to complete
your license requirements on-line.
As a matter of fact, I work with an Oregon company whose
title is OnLineEd (www. onlineed.com). Their licensing program
has been approved by Association of Real Estate License Law
Officials (ARELLO), a national regulatory agency. When a student
signs up for the course through the local community college
with which I’m affiliated, I’m assigned as the student’s
virtual on-line teacher.
Another format would be for students to sign up and be issued
text material and compact disks with the course material. An
example of that would be another Oregon school, ProSchools (www.proschools.com).
They have been in business for several decades and offer licensing
courses either through live classroom locations or a package
which includes lectures on CD’s and a series of comprehensive
text books. I’ve reviewed the material and it has obviously
been prepared by people who know their profession. Very impressive
student pass rate on state licensing test.
Finally, visit the web site of America’s Best, a Washington-based
distance education company that’s been offering ARELLO-certified
courses for seven years and is currently certified in 31 states
(www. americasbest.com). For inspirational purposes check out
company founder Susan Davis’ real estate resume.
YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART!
As you can see, there are many opportunities for you if you
decide real estate education is a niche worth pursuing. There
are many others we have not covered. Be advised, however, that
for many of these possibilities you must have a sincere desire
to interact with others in a teaching environment.
Here’s a quote from Julie Garton-Good: “When
it comes down to it, there’s nothing more exciting than
seeing a student’s eyes light up when he grasps a concept
or an idea that was previously hidden to him — that’s
the true reward, and the real reason we get up, show up, and
strive to make a difference in our industry.”
And to quote my wife regarding my compensation arrangement with
the community college where I teach: “A captive audience
for four hours? He would pay them.” How badly she misjudges
me. I get paid well.
Homework Assignment
Get a pencil and sheet of paper. Your assignment: write down
the names of the ten people who have had the most positive influence
on your life. Now review the names. If you are like most people,
that list will contain the names of several of your former teachers.
My list contains four: my fifth grade teacher, my high school
English teacher, my junior college journalism advisor, and my
advisor when in my doctoral program at Cal Berkeley. Would a
real estate educator be likely to make many people’s list?
As a matter of fact, yes. Perhaps not a classroom instructor,
but many real estate super-achievers I’ve visited with
invariably talk with great admiration about a mentor who helped
and inspired them in their careers.
“Hey, Don’t Get
Mad At Me!”
If you become involved in classroom pre-license teaching,
you’ll spend a lot of time giving and critiquing practice
exams, since your number one job will be to prepare your students
to pass the state test. Frequently students will become agitated
at particular questions they may feel are unfair or ambiguous.
If that happens to you, here’s a little story to have
handy to deflect animosity.
“The story is told of a lion in the jungle who was
constantly roaring ‘Who is the king of the jungle?!’
He went on and on and on, repeating the same question. An elephant
who was grazing nearby became agitated, walked over to the lion,
grabbed him by the tail with his trunk, twirled him around several
times and hurled him about twenty yards in the air. The lion
hit the trunk of a large tree with his head, and slid to the
ground. As he sat dazed and confused, he said to the elephant:
‘Hey, man, don’t get mad at me just because you
couldn’t answer the question’.”
Real Estate Education Websites
www.reea.org
— Web site of the Real Estate Educators Association (REEA).
The nation’s largest and most active professional organization
for real estate educators. Awards the DREI professional designation
(Distinguished Real Estate Instructor). This year’s annual
national convention in Las Vegas June 9 -14.
www.RealtyU.com
— Founded by industry stalwart Stefan Swanepoel, The RealtyU®
Group is the largest provider in the U.S. of real estate education.
www.arello.com
— ARELLO is the Association of Real Estate License Law
Officials, comprising the official governmental agencies and
other organizations around the world that issue real estate
licenses/registrations in addition to regulating real estate
practice and enforcing real estate law. Many useful features
on the web site, including web links to each state real estate
regulatory agency.
Educators’ Lasting
Influence
It’s incredible how long we remember even comparatively
insignificant matters that we’ve been taught. For example,
while in high school I helped out in the administrative office.
The school secretary, Lorraine Johnson, was a young woman with
a perpetual smile and an incredibly positive personality. My
job one day was to fold a large stack of letters, place them
in envelopes, and seal them. After observing me having trouble
getting the letters folded properly so they fit in the envelopes,
Miss Johnson volunteered “Here, Kenny, let me help you.”
She took one letter, folded it neatly, pointing out how you
did it so the letterhead and the address element were visible
when the recipient opened the envelope and took out the letter.
To this day, each time I fold a business letter I remember Miss
Johnson’s gentle instruction — and that sweet smile.
– Ken Edwards
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Dr.
Kenneth W. Edwards, GRI, Book and Video
Review Editor, is the broker at Professional Associates,
Corvallis,
Oregon. He teaches real estate at a community college and is
the author of “Your Successful Real Estate Career”
(4th ed) published by the American Management Association (AMACOM
Books, NY). He is an occasional contributor of Feature articles
for this publication. A retired career Air Force officer, he
may be reached at 7990 NW Ridgewood Drive, Corvallis, Oregon
97330. Tel: 541-757-1379. Fax: 541-754-2945.