Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Do I Want To Have Fun In My Real Estate Continuing Education Class?

Just how exciting are real estate continuing education classes supposed to be? Last week we received a flyer in the mail of some up coming classes. Both the brochure itself, plus the testimony of previous students, assured us that we would be in for 12 hours of fun! Wow!

Then yesterday, the mailman brought another brochure from another real estate school. Apparently the promise of fun was called to the attention of this school, as his message now included "fun" in the package!

Are we missing something over at Annex Real Estate School? Just how much stand up should we be including in our Continuing Education classes? Do you enjoy going to a real estate class where you will learn something that will make your business more profitable as well as keeping you up to date on good real estate practice? How important is the fun?

We really need to know, so we're asking your cooperation. We've put together a little poll over at Micropoll.com (aptly named) where you can tell us what you expect in your real estate continuing education. To take the poll, just click HERE. We promise we won't collect your email address or sell it to anyone. If the program works right, we will know what city or town you are located (part of your ip address), and that's all. If you want, just comment here at this blog, but comments are monitored to eliminate spam.

Oh yes, we do have a weekend of Continuing Education coming up. March 14th and 15th. The subjects include Offers, Chapter 93A Consumer Protection, Mass. License Laws and Regs., Technology and R.E., National Economic Trends, and Foreclosure. You can download an Application Here. This class is filling up and class size will be limited to assure class quality.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Local Housing Market Stimulus

AS one of the instructors at Annex Real Estate School, here in Quincy, Massachusetts, I look at the correlation between school enrollment and the general real estate market. Traditionally, our most popular class at the school has been the Massachusetts Real Estate Salesperson pre-licensing course. The other factor, that I've seen is the connection with the local job market.

For most of 2008, there was an increasing number of hits on the school website, and a corresponding increase in the number of students at the school. There seemed to be a consensus that there was an anticipation of leveling off in the housing market as well as the opportunity of improvement.

Then in early September the hits on the website and the enrollment dropped off dramatically as the national economic news became the headlines. This was far more than just the seasonal slowdown.

So, what is the current picture? With only two months of 2009 registration experience, we are observing a definite up tick in interest in entering the real estate field as a Real Estate Salesperson in Massachusetts. At least for the school, it looks like the 'Spring market' has started.

Again, there are at least two obvious factors. Seeing the down turn in employment, people are looking for new career opportunities, at least as a back up. Getting into real estate in Massachusetts is relatively easy with only 24 hours of classroom instruction required before taking the state exam. Many of our students are 20 - 40 years old with good work experience and/or college training that will make it easier for them to learn the material for the exam.

The other factor at play has to be the attitude of these new students. They realize that the market is down and slow. This equates to a market that will eventually be getting better as they improve their real estate skills. We all hope that these new students are right!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Hosting and Domain Name Sale Thru February 28th

We ususlly don't blog about this but we've received an email alert from 1&1 Domain Hosting Services of an unadvertised sale thru the end of February. Host unlimited domains + get up to 5 FREE domains with your 1&1 hosting account. Must see monthly hosting specials!First 3 months $0 when you sign up for a whole year of hosting on all plans!

And for a limited time, first year of Dot.Com Domain names for only $6.74 and first year of Dot.Info Domain names for only $0.99. Stop paying too much for domains! Reg. price $8.99 but click here for 25% Off Discount! Plus free privacy + free email + website builder.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

We'll get $13 extra per week, starting in June. Should help pay for some of the real estate tax increase. Down to $8 in Jan '10. Comments?

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Heading to the office. The wind is creating a wind chill of 0F and below. The good news: The real estate market seems to be warming up!