FAQS:  Frequently Asked Questions

About Us and Our Site

Procedural Questions

License Renewal/Continuing Education

General

About Us and Our Site

Who are you?  Why are you here?

This site went online May 2006.  Its purpose is to provide continuing education to California real estate licensees with the greatest convenience possible.

Chuck Milbourne is 45HourOnline’s owner, textbook author, and website developer.  Prior to his founding of 45HoursOnline, he was a computer application developer for thirty years.  In 2005, he began development of this site while studying real estate.  By 2006 he earned his broker’s license and went live with this site.  If you need to speak with him, he will be sure to answer your questions correctly and quickly (45HoursOnline@pobox.com or 818/716-1028).

Why should I choose your school?  

Cheap:  We know of no other continuing education (CE) school offering complete renewal packages at prices lower than ours.  Our prices are low because our site is fully automated, our overhead is low, we own our course materials, and our principal marketing tool is word-of-mouth.

Fast and Easy:  We designed our site for convenience and ease-of-use.  Our books have the least number of pages permitted by the DRE – 10 pages per course-hour.   All exams are true/false and have the minimum number of questions permitted by the DRE.  When retaking our exams, we display your answers from your previous attempt so you need only change those answers you believe incorrect.

Specialized:  We provide CE only to California real estate licensees.  In contrast to most CE providers, we do not offer courses to licensees from other states and we do not offer pre-license courses needed to sit for DRE's licensing exams.  We do not, unlike most of the larger schools, offer CE for other licensed professionals such as appraisers, contractors, and insurance brokers.   Because we are specialized, we are always current with California law, our course materials are specific to California real estate brokerage, and we are current with DRE’s regulations for license renewal.

Above Board:  Unlike most other schools, we provide a detailed explanation of how our courses are administered.  We provide samples of our materials and a Demonstration Course so you may know what to expect should you choose to purchase one of our packages.

Quality Course Materials:  Our materials are current, well-written, and relevant to the practice of California residential real estate brokerage.  To view the first one third of any course’s textbook, including its table of contents, just click its name in the following list:    Ethics, Agency, Trust Funds, Fair Housing, Risk Management, and Consumer Protection Reader.

I don’t like computers and I haven’t used them very much – should I take your courses?

Probably not.  We assume you’re familiar with your browser’s basics – registering and paying for services, reading PDF files, linking to outside sites and returning, navigating pages, and printing.  If you lack these basic computing skills you should use a correspondence school.

If you are unsure you have the requisite online skills, try our Demonstration Course.  If you can read the Demonstration Course’s textbook, pass its 10-question exam, and print its faux certificate then you should have no trouble completing our packages.  By taking the Demo you will also become familiar with our approach and earn a 10% discount on the purchase of any one of our packages. 

Do you provide technical support?

Yes.  We are always available via e-mail and frequently available by phone (818) 716-1028.

Are your courses approved by the State?

Yes, all our courses have been extensively reviewed and approved by the California Department of Real Estate.

To view our DRE listing, click here, and then enter 45Hours in the first text box like so:

 .

How do you take your tests?

Login and click Take Test (see below figure) for the exam you wish to take.

After you have answered all questions, push [Grade My Test] to grade your test.  If the Testing Script (the program on the server which administers the online exams) finds any unanswered questions it highlights the questions you haven’t answered.  Once you have answered all questions, the Testing Script gives you your score.

If your score is 69.5% or better, the Testing Script informs you that you have passed; otherwise the Testing Script tells you how many more correct answers you need to pass (see figure to right).  You may retake the exam immediately.  When you retake a test, your previous answers reappear on the new exam so that you need only change the answers you believe incorrect.

The below screen shot shows the status of Sally Jones’ courses.  She has passed the Practice and Fair Housing final exams but she has failed to pass Ethics and Trust Funds.

Screen Shot of the Course Selection Page

What is the “Certificate”?

The Certificate lists all courses you passed (to see a sample of the certificate, mouse over on the above figure).  For each course, our Certificate shows the course’s “Certificate No.”, the date you passed, its name, and DRE’s official classification (aka, “designation”) for the course (e.g., “consumer services”, “consumer protection”, “risk management”, etc.). 

When you have passed all your courses, we provide you a link to DRE’s license renewal site – named “eLicensing”.  Their eLicensing site steps you through the process of renewing your license.  In the course of renewing your license, DRE’s eLicensing site prompts you for the certificate number and corresponding date of completion for each CE course you have completed.  In a final step, the eLicensing site prompts you for the payment of your renewal fee.

As an alternative to eLicensing you may renew through the mail.  If you are renewing a restricted license, a corporate license, or an officer’s license you must renew by mail.  We recommend all other licensees use eLicensing since it is the fastest and most reliable of the two methods (online v. mail). 

To renew by mail print DRE form  RE#251:  Continuing Education Course Verification and follow DRE’s renewal instructions as described here (and also on page two of the form).  This form is used to list the CE courses you completed with their corresponding certificate numbers and dates of completion (which you will find on the Certificate we provide once you have completed your CE).

Are your exams easy?

All exams are true/false and you may take any exam  until you pass.  When you fail an exam, we tell you your score and how many more questions you need to answer correctly to pass.

A monkey choosing his answers at random would have a 2.2% chance of passing any of our 25-question exams on his first attempt.  If the monkey didn’t pass on his first attempt and if the monkey was willing to take the exam at least 31 more times, the monkey would have a 50-50 chance of passing.  If the monkey was willing to retake the exam at least 200 times, the monkey’s chances of passing would be close to 99%.  So any illiterate monkey willing to persevere could, in time, pass our exams.  Of course, if the monkey could read and had a real estate license, he wouldn’t need so many attempts to pass.  If the monkey read the textbook on which the exam was based, he would probably pass on his first attempt.

If you know the material in the textbook, the courses are easy to pass.  If you do not pass, you may retake the test immediately.  While retaking the exam you can open the course’s textbook in another window and search the book for your answers – all exams are “open book”.

What happens when I retake an exam?

Should you fail an exam you may take it over without delay.  You may take it over until you pass – 500 times in one day if necessary.  Regardless of the number of times you may need to take an exam, our certificate shows only your passing score. (The number of retakes is recorded in your database record but this information is not accessible to the DRE nor is it shared with the DRE – it is for your eyes only.)

Retaking an exam is easy because when you retake an exam the answers you gave in your last attempt carry forward to your new online answer sheet.  Suppose, for example, you failed on your tenth attempt to pass the exam for our Ethics course.  If you answered true to all 25 questions, then, when you retake the exam, the exam’s online answer sheet will show “true” for all 25 questions.  If you need only one more correct answer to pass and you think question #14 may be false, you could change just that one answer to “false” and then push [Grade My Test] to see if your score improved to a passing grade.

What have some of your students said about your courses?

Our site provides a Comments Page permitting students to leave comments regarding our packages.  Almost all of our comments are favorable.  In particular, we are proud of the comments from these two students (used with their permission):

This course was TREMENDOUS.  I recommend it highly.  The materials were clear.  I could study where and when I wanted.  And not only did I qualify to renew my license, but, more importantly, I learned things that will keep me our of trouble and keep smiles on my client’s faces.  Four stars, two thumbs up, this is the course to take.

       » Walter Moore, Real Estate Broker & Attorney (Los Angeles, CA; August 11, 2009).

 

Hi, I just recently completed your course.  I have been an agent for 21 years and taken many courses over the years.  I have found that the content in the majority of courses, especially for continuing education and licensing requirements, has very little relevance to practicing real estate day to day.  It basically feels like a waste of time.  Your course, in particular the Consumer Protection Reader portion, is profoundly relevant and helpful for practicing day to day!  It is truly the best content and style I have ever seen for helping agents have an overview of what they need to know to be a helpful and efficient to our clients.  I think it should be mandatory reading for any agent, especially as a new agent license requirement.  If you haven’t made this into a book that can be purchased, I think you should.  With your permission, I would like to print the entire CPR and keep it for reference.  Your whole site/ program is set up very well.  I am so glad I found it.  Congratulations, job well done!!  Feel free to post this feedback on your site.  I will be referring your site to other agents in my office.  Thank you!

       » Pam Sortor, Prudential California Realty (Murrieta, CA; August 8, 2009)

Procedural Questions

What must I do to renew my license after I have passed my courses?

Note:  While you may complete your continuing education at any time during the term of your license, you may not renew your license with the DRE any earlier than three months prior to your expiration date.

First print your certificate using the  button from our Course Selection Page (the page following our Login Page).  The certificate contains the details needed for renewing your license (see figure to right).

Second, decide if you wish to renew via eLicensing (DRE’s online renewal service) or by mail.  We strongly recommend DRE’s online renewal service — it is immediate and final.

Note:  If you have a restricted license or if you hold a corporate or officer license, you must renew by mail.

To renew using eLicensing, click the eLicensing icon at the bottom of this section  (you may have to register first) and choose [Salesperson|Broker License Renewal].  eLicensing will prompt you to complete two online forms:  1) Continuing Education Course Verification, and 2) Renewal Application.  Finally, eLicensing will prompt you to make an online payment via a secure connection (for the DRE’s current license renewal rates click here).  Once eLicensing accepts your payment your license is renewed.

Note:  If you have a salesperson license and you are employed by a broker then your broker must validate your renewal in a subsequent eLicensing transaction (eLicensing will provide you with instructions).  Your broker’s validation is not required for your new license to be effective. 

If you are renewing by mail, you will need to print and complete form RE#251:  Continuing Education Course Verification (see below note) and, if you are a salesperson RE#209:  Salesperson Renewal Application or, if you are a broker, form RE#208:  Broker Renewal Application.  You then need to make out a check for your renewal application (for renewal rates click here) and then send in your check and forms to the DRE (the forms have instructions printed on page two).

Note:  If you renew by mail, do not send your certificate to the DRE.  The purpose of the certificate is to list the certificate numbers and corresponding dates of completion for you to copy onto form RE#251.

Click this icon to open DRE’s renewal site in another window: 

I waited until the last minute to do this, can I take my final exams the same day I purchase your package?

Sorry, but no.  The minimum waiting period is dictated by the DRE.  The waiting period begins from the moment you pay. 

For our 15HOURS package, the minimum waiting period is two days (48 hours).  After the two-day waiting period you may take all your exams.  You may take them at one sitting or you may take them over six months (we guarantee our courses will be accepted by the DRE providing you pass them within six months of your purchase date).

For our 45HOURS package, the minimum waiting period is four days (96 hours).  After the four-day waiting period you may complete no more than 15 hours of CE in any 24-hour period.  This means that after the fourth day you may complete 15-hours of CE, on the next day another 15-hours of CE, and on the day following your final 15-hours of CE.  You may also take as long as six months to complete your CE if you so choose.  Effectively, then, because of DRE restrictions, the fastest you may complete all 45-hours of your CE is about six days and three hours (six days of waiting plus three hours spent taking the tests).

The penalty for renewing late is 150% the cost of DRE’s on-time renewal rate (current renewal rates) and the DRE prohibits you from conducting activities for which a real estate license is required while your license is expired.

If you can not complete your CE on time to avoid a late fee, please do not call us to ask us if we can make for you an exception.  We won’t.  If our refusal to grant you an exception means that you wish to a) use another service, or b) change your mind about renewing your license then we will have no objection in giving you a full refund.

Is it safe to use my credit card?

Absolutely.  We provide four types of security:

First, the details you enter on our Payment Page (see figure at the bottom of this section) are sent by your browser to our server via a secure connection (using https protocol).  This means your credit card number can not be intercepted by a hacker en route to our server.

Second, your browser automatically verifies our site’s identity using an SSL certificate from Geotrust (aka, Equifax Secure Inc.) – this means you can be confident you’re sending your credit card number to us and not to a site pretending to be us.

Third, our server transmits your payment details to Authorize.net, the Internet’s largest payment gateway, without recording your credit card number in our database.  This means that should anyone ever hack our site and steal our database they would not find your credit card number.  We never know your credit card number.  If  we need to give you a refund, we do so by reference to a unique number assigned to your transaction by Authorize.net.

Fourth, you may verify our status as a registered merchant with Authorize.net by clicking their seal (we display it on our Payment Page – see sample to left).  When clicked, your browser sends our server’s domain name to Authorize.net.  Authorize.net sends back a report which your browser displays in a popup window (see sample to right).  The report states that the server’s domain is ours (not a domain pretending to be us) and that our domain is registered as a merchant with Authorize.net.

If, in spite of our security, you still don’t feel comfortable using your credit card, we’ll be happy to accept a check or PayPal payment.  To pay by check or PayPal, register first but when prompted for payment, push [Don’t Pay] instead of [Process Payment].  When you push [Don’t Pay], we give you instructions for mailing a check or for making a PayPal payment.

Screen Shot of our Payment Page

Do you accept checks?

Yes.  To pay by check:

1. Register without paying.  To do this, register for the product you want but when prompted for a credit card push [Pay Later].
2. Make your check payable to 45HoursOnline and send it to 45HoursOnline; 4228 Lobos Road; Woodland Hills, CA 91364.  Be sure to note your DRE# (aka, “license number”) in the memo section on the check.

When we receive your check, we will mark your online record as “paid” and send you a confirming email.  Your waiting period (the time you must wait before you can take your first exam) starts when we mark your registration record as paid.  Since this method of payment is error prone, please contact us by email (45HoursOnline@pobox.com) if you don’t receive payment confirmation within three business days.

Do you accept PayPal?

Note:  If you don’t know what PayPal is, ignore this answer.

Yes.  To pay by PayPal:

1. Register without paying.  To do this, register for the product you want but when prompted for a credit card push [Pay Later].
2. Log into PayPal, send your payment to 45HoursOnline@pobox.com. 

PayPal will automatically send us a notice of your payment.  When we receive it, we will mark your registration record as “paid” and send you a confirming email.  If you do not receive confirmation within one business day, you should contact us at 45HoursOnline@pobox.com.

Can I get a refund if I change my mind?

We are generous with our refunds but we won’t give a refund unless you request it within three months of payment.

We will give you a full refund if for any reason you don’t wish to proceed, providing you haven’t passed any tests (excluding the practice test).

If you passed one or more courses but not all the courses in the package, we will give you a partial refund in the amount calculated using this formula:  PERCENT-OF-UNPASSED-HOURS x .5 x COST.  For example, if you passed only the three hour Ethics course in our 45HOURS package for which you paid $45, then your refund would be 42/45 x .5 x $45=$21.

To obtain a refund, please e-mail (45HoursOnline@pobox.com) or call us (818) 716-1028.  Be sure to give us your DRE#.  We will need your DRE# to find your Authorize.NET approval code in our records (Authorize.NET is the payment gateway we use for processing your credit card payment).  Please understand that we don’t store your credit card number and we don’t need it to give you a refund.  If you do request a refund, we would welcome knowing why you wish the refund but if you choose not to tell us we will provide you a refund with no questions asked.

We will also grant full refunds to students who, because of time restrictions, can not possibly renew their licenses on time or to licensees who are renewing late (within the two-year grace period) and because of time restrictions can not renew their license in time to avoid the permanent expiration of their licenses.

If, because of DRE’s time restrictions, you can not possibly complete your CE in time to avoid a late fee, please do not call to ask us to make for you an exception.  We won’t.  We will however, give you a full refund at your request. 

How do I take an exam with an “open PDF book”?

To open a textbook while taking a test, do the following:  1) Login, 2) Click the PDF icon corresponding to the course for which you are taking the exam – this opens the textbook in a new window/tab, 3) switch back to the originating window (using <Alt><Tab> or by clicking its tab), 4) Click [Take Test].  See the below figure for details.

Why won’t you let me see which answers I got wrong?

Again, this is a DRE requirement.  Its basis is Commissioner’s Regulation 3007.3(a)(1) which reads:

The final examination shall provide for the testing, examination or evaluation of participants.  The sponsor shall take steps to protect the integrity of the examination and to prevent cheating in an examination.

The DRE maintains that if an education sponsor were to tell a student which answers he got wrong, this would be tantamount to giving him the answer key (this is especially true for true/false exams and all of our exams are true/false).

If you wish to challenge the legitimacy of any of our answers, please do.  To do so, just email us with a list of up to five questions and we will respond with our detailed justification with supporting citations from the course material.  Please reference the exam and question number for each answer you wish explained.

How can I challenge the correctness of one of your exam’s answers?

We welcome your challenges to any of our answers.  To do so, just email us with a list of up to five questions and we will respond with our detailed justification with supporting citations from the course material.  Please reference the exam and question number for each answer you wish explained.

Are your exam questions tricky?  Are all of your questions really based on the content in the book?

About once a month we get a complaint alleging our questions are unfair.  The usual claim is that the answers to our  questions can not be determined from the content in our textbooks.  This is untrue.  Every question has been rigorously researched and justified with either direct citations from the exam’s textbook or with reasoning based upon principles and concepts explained in the exam’s textbook.  (If you want to have an explanation for up to five answers, please email us with the exam name and the number of the answer you wished explained.)

Most of our questions are based on straight-forward statements from the exam’s textbook.  For example, consider two variations of a question based on a sentence from our Consumer Protection Reader:  “Auto noise comes from tires. (§2.7.1.2)”:

Variation #1:  Auto noise comes from tires.  True or False?

or

Variation #2:  The source of traffic noise is the combined sound of many car engines.  True or False?

The answer to Variation #1 is easily found by searching the textbook for ‘auto noise’ but the answer for Variation #2, although based on the same sentence, can not be easily found via a word search of the textbook.  In the case of Variation #2, it would be wrong for the student to conclude that it was not based on information contained in the exam’s textbook because a search for the words  ‘engines’,  ‘traffic’,  or ‘cumulative’ yielded no results.

A minority of questions require the student to understand and apply one or more general concepts to answer a question correctly.  Consider the following:

Mrs. Rachel Cohen lives in her duplex.  She refuses to rent her other unit to Mr. Abdul-Hakim Maktoum because one of the three women he lives with always wears a burqa when in public.  Susie is in violation of the Fair Housing Act.  True or False?

To answer this question, the student needs to understand one of two legal concepts underlying the Fair Housing Act.   First, discrimination is only illegal when based on one of the thirteen “protected classes” (the book makes this point repeatedly).  Since “Choice-of-Apparel” is not one of these classes, Mrs. Cohen’s discrimination is not illegal.

Second, the student should know that the Fair Housing Act has exemptions.  Cited in §2.3.3.3 is this exemption:  “Owners of multi-family buildings of four-or-less units are also exempted [from the Fair Housing Act].”)  Consequently, Mrs. Cohen’s discrimination against Mr. Maktoum is legal for two independent reasons.

Some students may regard this as an unfair question because the textbook does not state that discrimination based on Choice-of-Apparel is legal or because a search for the term “burqa” yields no results.  Some may regard the question as tricky because they assume Mrs. Cohen may be discriminating against Mr. Hakim because he is a Muslim, or because he is a polygamist, or Mrs. Cohen might find it intolerable to have as her neighbors people she assumes are “enemies of Israel”.  But the question is fair because it is important for realty agents to be able to distinguish between legal and illegal forms of discrimination.  

How can I pass your 45HOURS package in a little over six days?

The fastest possible time required to complete all 45-hours while adhering to DRE’s Study Time and Completion Rate restrictions is about six days and three hours. 

1. Study Time:  The DRE requires students wait six days before completing 45-hours.  The DRE’s purpose in imposing this restriction is to ensure the student has the time needed to read the course materials.

2. Completion Rate:  As of March 1, 2008, the DRE limits students to the completion of 15-hours in any given 24-hour period.

Given these two DRE-imposed limitations, consider the following example where Sally completes her 45-hours in only six days and three hours:

Sally registers on Monday at 12:00p.m..  Our testing program schedules her for her first exams in four days (96-hours); that is, any time after 12:00p.m. on Friday.

At 12:01pm on Friday Sally begins taking the exams for the five, three-hour courses (15 hours in total).  By 1:00p.m. she passes all five exams.  She now must wait until Saturday at 1:00p.m. to continue taking her exams.

At 1:01pm on Saturday, Sally takes and completes Part 1/2 of the exam for the Consumer Protection Reader.    By 2:00p.m. she passes Part 1 for a total of fifteen additional hours.  She must now wait another 24 hours before she take another exam; that is, she must wait until 2:00p.m. on Sunday.

At 2:01p.m. on Sunday, Sally begins taking her final exam for Part 2/2 of the Consumer Protection Reader.  She passes the exam by 3:00p.m. thus completing all 45 hours needed to renew her license.

In this example, the elapsed time from when she registered to the time she completed all 45 hours was six days and three hours.  This schedule meets the DRE’s Study Time requirement because the total amount of time she had available to study during this period was six days.  This schedule also meets DRE’s Completion Rate requirement since Sally was restricted to the completion of 15 CE hours in any 24-hour period.

Why, when I change my answers, doesn't my score change?

Every so often we get call from a student who claims to be the victim of a bug in our Testing Script.  The student asserts that when he changes an answer from true to false or vice versa and then clicks [Grade My Test] that our Testing Script fails to change his score.  On closer examination, no such defect has ever been found.

If you suspect our Testing Script is not properly grading your exam,  please consider this possibility.  If you change more than one answer when retaking an exam, then write and wrong answers may cancel summing to the  same score.  For example, if your answers to questions #4, #5, and #6  are T/F/T when the correct answers are F/F/F then the number of correct answers for these three questions is one (#5 is correct).  If you then change your answers for these three questions to F/T/T the number of correct answers is also one (now only #4 is correct).  Since the contribution to your score from these three questions is one in both cases, your score doesn’t change.

Before you call us with the claim that there is an error in our Testing Script, try changing one answer at a time.  If you change just one answer then your score must necessarily change; if it doesn’t then there really would be an  an error in our Testing Script (but no such error has ever been found).

License Renewal/Continuing Education

What are my CE requirements?

Your CE requirements depend on several factors including how long you have had your license, your license status (salesperson/broker/corporation/officer), and when your license expires.  To simplify matters, use our WIZARD.  It will tell tell you exactly your CE requirements or, if you prefer, read these DRE documents:

• Continuing Education Requirements

• How and When to Renew Your License

• Additional Requirements for Salespersons Issued a Conditional License

I'm still confused...  Do I need 15-hours of CE or 45?

You must earn 15-hours of CE or 45-hours of CE before the DRE will accept your application to renew your license.  The only exception is for licensees 70 years or older who have held their licenses in “good standing” for thirty or more years without ever having let their licenses expire.  If you meet these conditions, you don’t need to take any CE (more).

If you are licensed as a broker, you need 45-hours of CE – always.  It doesn’t matter if you are renewing for the first time or for the 5^th time, you need 45-hours.  (If this applies to you, stop reading here and register for our 45HOURS package.)

If you are licensed as a salesperson and if you your first day as a licensed salespersons began on or after 10/01/2007, you need 45-hours of CE.  (If this applies to you, stop reading here and register for our 45HOURS package.)

If you are licensed as a salesperson and if you had to retake the salesperson examination to reinstate your license and if you are renewing for the first time after your license was reinstated, you need 15-hours of CE; otherwise you need 45-hours.  (If you are renewing your reinstated salesperson license for the first time, stop reading here and register for our 15HOURS package.  If you have renewed your reinstated license before, then stop reading here and register for our 45HOURS package.)

If you are licensed as a salesperson and you have renewed at least once before, then you need 45-hours of CE.  (If this applies to you, stop reading here and register for our 45HOURS package.)

If you are a salesperson renewing your license for the first time and if your first day as a licensed salesperson was prior to 10-01-2007, then you need only 15-hours of CE.  (If this applies to you, register for our 15HOURS package.)

Note #1:  Our Wizard applies all these rules using information it finds in your public DRE record.  The only rule it can't apply is the rule concerning reinstated salesperson licenses.  It can’t apply this rule because the public DRE record gives only the date of the original license and not the date of any reinstated license.

Note #2:  Often we get questions from licensees who have read and understood the above rules but have read from some other source or have been told by a presumably reliable source (often by the DRE) that they need some number of CE hours different than the number of hours the above rules dictate.    If this applies to you, please give us a call (818/716-1028). 

How does the daily 15-hour restriction work?

Note:  This section only applies to licensees requiring 45-hours of continuing education (CE).

The DRE requires CE providers to limit the number of hours their students may complete to a maximum of 15-hours in any 24-hour period.  In this context, “complete” means pass the course’s final examination.

It is for this reason that it is necessary to split the exam for our 30-hour consumer protection course, Consumer Protection Reader, into two equal parts.  Part 1 is composed of questions based on the first half of the book (the first 150 pages) and Part 2 is composed of questions based on the second half (the last 150 pages).  You must pass Part 1/2 of it’s examination in one 24-hour period and Part 2/2 in another 24-hour period before you earn credit for the full 30-hours of this consumer protection course.

If, for example, you first pass your Ethics exam for three hours of CE credit, then you may not take either Part 1/1 or Part 2/2 of the exam for the Consumer Protection Reader until 24 hours have passed (because each part covers half of this 30-hour course) however you may take the examination for any other course of twelve or less hours (the 15-hour cap less the three hours of credit earned for passing Ethics).  (Important:  Although the exams for the Consumer Protection Reader are administered in two equal parts, you must pass both parts to earn full credit for this 30-hour course.  We do not provide you with its “certificate number” unless you pass both parts.)

With the advent of the daily 15-hour restriction (March 1, 2008), the minimum number of days needed to pass 45Hours of education is a little over six: 

After the four-day study period (96 hours) a student may complete his first 15-hours of CE; after the fifth day (120 hours), another 15-hours; and immediately after the sixth day (144 hours) the final 15-hours.  If we assume that one hour is required to complete each 15-block of CE, then the minimum total elapsed time needed to complete all 45 hours as measured from the time of payment would be 147 hours (6 days @ 24hrs = 144 hours of study time plus three hours for taking the exams).

What changes have been made to DRE’s continuing education requirements in the last five years?

In the last five years, there have been two significant changes to DRE’s continuing education requirements for license renewal:

Effective July 1^st, 2007,  all licensees are required to complete a DRE-approved three-hour continuing education in risk management.  This requirement was established by Assembly Bill 223 (AB 223), sponsored by the California Association of Realtors^®.

Effective October 1^st, 2007, Assembly Bill 2429 sponsored by the California Association of Realtors^® eliminated the salesperson conditional license.  As a consequence of this change, the DRE now requires first-time renewing salesperson licensees with an original license issued on or after 10/01/2007 to take a full 45-hours of CE.

Effective March 1^st, 2008, the DRE began enforcing Commissioner’s Regulation §3007.3(a)(3) which limits the number of credit hours a licensee can complete to 15 hours in any 24-hour period.  At the same time, it began enforcing a new rule that the minimum passing score for any course’s final exam must be 70% (§3007.3(c)) .

My license has expired.  Can I renew it?

Probably.

If you were issued an original salesperson conditional license and your license has expired, you’re out of luck – you have to pass the real estate exam to get your license back.

Otherwise, the DRE provides a two-year grace period beginning the day after your license expires.  During the grace period you may not practice real estate (or, as the DRE puts it, “perform any activity for which a real license is required”).

If you renew an expired license, the starting date for your new license will be the day after you renew.  For example, suppose your license expires May 25^th 2012 and you renew it on the last day of your grace period, May 25^th 2014; then your new license will be valid from May 26^th, 2014 to May 25^th, 2018.

If you renew late, the DRE charges a renewal fee of 50% over the prevailing rate. 

What if DRE’s renewal site is down on my license expiration day?

Several days a year DRE’s online renewal service goes down either for scheduled maintenance or because of a technical problem.  (We have seen it go down without notice on Saturday morning and not be restored to online service until Monday afternoon).  If eLicensing happens to be down the day you wish to renew and if that day is your expiration day, the DRE will not grant you an extension.

If eLicensing is down on your license expiration day and you must renew on that day to avoid a late fee, then you should renew by mail.  As long as your renewal application is postmarked by midnight of that day, the DRE will accept your renewal application without insisting you pay a penalty for being late.  If that day happens to be a Sunday or postal holiday, the DRE will accept your mailed application as on-time providing it is postmarked by midnight of the next day the post office resumes service.  

May I retake your 45HOURS package immediately after I renew my license?

Yes.  You may fulfill your CE requirement for license renewal at anytime during the term of your license or during your two-year grace period (see below note); however, the DRE will not permit you to renew your license any earlier than three months prior to your license expiration date.

Note:  The two-year grace period is the two-year period following your expiration date during which time you may renew your license.  During this two-year grace period you may not practice real estate.  Licensees who renew late must pay the DRE a license renewal fee of 150% of the prevailing on-time rate.  The two-year grace period is not extended to licensees with “conditional licenses”.

For example, suppose your license expires today and you renew it today using eLicensing (not by mail).  Then tomorrow will be the first day of your new four-year license.  You could then re-register for our 45HOURS package and a few days later retake and pass your finals in anticipation of your next renewal nearly four years hence (the DRE will not accept renewal applications any earlier than three months prior to the licensee’s expiration date).   The benefit of this tactic is that you need not restudy for your exams and passing your exams a second time should be easy.  This is certainly a loophole, but is nonetheless acceptable to the DRE.

If you do complete your CE requirement months or years in advance of your expiration date, you should take care to store your certificate some place where you will be sure to find it when you need it to renew.  Of course we intend to retain your online records for at least five years (as required by the DRE) but for your own protection you should retain a paper copy.

You should also be aware that every so often the DRE has added CE requirements.  For example, the DRE began requiring all licensees with expiration dates after July 1^st, 2007 to take a three-hour course in risk management.

When may I take CE and when may I renew my license?

You may complete your CE (i.e., pass your exams) at anytime during the term of your license or during the two-year grace period following the expiration date of your license (salesperson’s holding a conditional license do not have a grace period following their expiration date).  The two-year grace period begins the day after your license expires.

If you renew on time, the four year term for your new license will begin the day after your current license expires but if you renew late it will begin the day after you renew.

What if I already have some CE hours?

If you already have CE hours earned during your current license period, then you may not need to take every course in our package.

If you have CE hours from another sponsor, then that sponsor should have issued you a certificate.  His certificate should list for each course you completed its DRE-approval code, the date you completed the course, and the course’s “designation” (explained below).  The completion date for each course must be within your current license period for it to be applicable towards your 45-hour CE requirement.  The sponsor’s approval code will be in the format aaaa-bbbb where aaaa is the sponsor’s unique four-digit number (assigned by the DRE — ours is ‘4295’) and bbbb is the course’s four-digit approval code.

If you can’t find the certificate for a CE course you should call the sponsor to request a copy of your certificate.  All sponsors are required to keep records with sufficient details to reproduce a certificate of completion for any course completed by one of their students during the preceding five years (Commissioner’s Regulation §3012.2).  If you know the name of the sponsor but not the name of the course, you may be able to find the sponsor’s phone number or the name of the course using DRE’s online list of sponsors. 

Note:  DRE’s online list of sponsors shows the courses which are currently approved by the DRE.  Courses are approved for two year periods.  This means that you could complete a CE course today with a license term which expires at midnight today.  If you checked the list today for the course you would see it listed but if you checked it tomorrow it would not appear.  The CE credits earned, however, would still be valid since you completed the CE during the two-year term during which the sponsor’s license for that course was valid.

Every CE course must be approved for one of the following eight “designations”:

1. Ethics

2. Agency

3. Trust Fund Handling

4. Fair Housing

5. Risk Management

6. Consumer Protection

7. Consumer Services

8. Survey

Designations 1-5:  Ethics, Agency, Trust Fund Handling, Fair Housing, Risk Management

Both our 15HOURS and 45HOURS packages include one three-hour course approved for each of these five designations.  We name our courses after their designations; for example, the name for the course which the DRE approved under the Ethics designation is Ethics, 2^nd Edition.  Sponsors are free to call their courses by any name they choose; for example we could have named this same course What Would Jesus Do?.

If you have taken a course of at least three hours from another sponsor approved for one of these five designations, then you need not take the corresponding course included in our package.  That is, you may purchase our package and ignore that particular course.  For example, if you have a certificate from another sponsor for a course named Avoiding Lawsuits from your Clients which the DRE approved under the designation “Risk Management” for five hours of CE credit, then you need not take our three-hour risk management course, Risk Management, 2^nd Edition.

Designations 6-7:  Consumer Protection and Consumer Services.

Note for Salesperson Licensees (brokers, ignore this note):  If you are renewing a salesperson license for the first time and if your original license was issued prior to 10/01/2007, then any CE you may have completed under these two designations (Consumer Protection/Consumer Services) during your first four year license (all licenses are issued for a term of four years) does not count toward your 15-hour CE requirement and may not be applied to your CE requirement for your second renewal.  In other words, CE taken during the term of your first license under these two designations has no CE value.

If you are taking our 45Hour package and have 30 or more hours of CE credit under the designation Consumer Services (up to a limit of 18 hours) or Consumer Protection (no limit), then you shouldn’t purchase our 45HOURS Package.  If you have not fulfilled your CE requirement for the first five designations but have sufficient CE credits from other sponsors for Consumer Protection and/or Consumer Services, then you should purchase our 15HOURS Package even though it is advertised for first-time renewing salespersons.

Designation 8:  Survey

If you took a six-hour course under the Survey designation from another sponsor and if you are a first time renewing salesperson with an original license issued prior to 10/01/2007, then you need only a three-hour risk management course (we sell a standalone version of our risk management course).  Otherwise, our 45HOURS package is probably not a good fit for you since it provides 30-hours of Consumer Protection and you will need 33-hours of consumer protection (45hours less 6 (Survey) less 3 (risk management) = 33hours) and/or consumer services (limited to 18 hours).

STILL CONFUSED?  Call (818/716-1028) or email us.  We will want to know your DRE# and the hours and designations of the courses you took from other sponsors.

Why the minimum pass rate of 70%?

The minimum pass rate of 70% is set by Commissioner’s Regulation §3007.3; it reads:

 (c) To pass the examination, a participant must achieve a percentage score of 70 percent or more.

This regulation was put into effect on March 1^st, 2008.  Prior to that date the minimum pass rate was 60 percent.

Why the waiting period of two days for your 15HOURS package?

The DRE requires sponsors to enforce a Study-Time restriction:  the time needed to read the course materials before the student takes his final exams.  The formula used by the DRE for calculating Study-Time is the number of CE hours divided by eight rounded up to an integral number of days.  Thus the Study-Time period for our 15HOURS package is two days (15/8=1.875 rounded up to 2).

The DRE derives its authority for this requirement from two sentences in the Commissioner’s Regulations:

§3006(g):  A correspondence course shall consist of adequate study materials to assure that the course cannot be completed in less time than the number of hours for which it is approved.

§3007.3(2):  The examination shall not be taken by participants until completion of the instructional portion of the offering to which the examination applies.

In enforcing these regulations, the DRE makes the assumption that students read at a rate of ten pages per hour for no more than eight hours per day.  Therefore, the DRE requires the course materials for a 15-hour package contain at least 150 pages and the corresponding Study-Time be at lease two days.

Why the waiting period of four days for your 45HOURS package?

The DRE requires sponsors to place two restrictions on how quickly students may complete their continuing education.  1) A Study-Time restriction, and 2) a Completion-Rate restriction.

Study-Time is the time needed for students to read the course materials before taking the course’s final exam.  The formula used by the DRE for calculating Study-Time is the number of CE hours divided by eight rounded up to an integral number of days.  Thus the Study-Time period for our 45HOURS package is six days (45/8=5.625 rounded up to 6).

The DRE derives its authority for this requirement from two sentences in the Commissioner’s Regulations:

§3006(g):  A correspondence course shall consist of adequate study materials to assure that the course cannot be completed in less time than the number of hours for which it is approved.

§3007.3(2):  The examination shall not be taken by participants until completion of the instructional portion of the offering to which the examination applies.

In enforcing these regulations, the DRE makes the assumption that students read at a rate of ten pages per hour for no more than eight hours per day.  Therefore, the DRE requires the course materials for a 45-hour package contain at least 450 pages and the corresponding Study-Time period must be at least six days.

Completion-Rate is the rate at which students may complete their CE requirement.  The DRE imposed a Completion-Rate restriction beginning March 1st, 2008.  Prior to that date, students were permitted to take and pass all examinations at one sitting.  Indeed, some sponsors conducted half-day seminars during which licensees could complete their entire 45-hour CE requirement.  The DRE considered this practice an abuse and so enacted its Completion-Rate requirement.  As written in the Commissioner’s Regulations it reads as follows:

§ 3007.3(3):  Participants taking a correspondence offering shall be limited to completion of final examinations for that offering for a maximum of fifteen credit hours during any one 24 hour period.

Note:  Internet offerings are considered by the DRE as “correspondence” courses.   (The DRE has been slow to adapt its rules to courses offered online.

Thus a minimum of two days must pass between the time the student completes his 1^st hour of CE to when he may complete his 45^th hour.  This two days, when added to the four-day Study-Time requirement ads to a total of six days – thus satisfying the Study-Time requirement of six days.

What is the difference between a statutory course and a CE course?

Statutory courses (aka, college-level courses) are courses which must be completed before an individual may sit for an examination to obtain a real estate license.  CE courses are real estate courses which have been approved by the DRE to satisfy the CE requirement for renewing your license.  We do not provide statutory courses;  only CE courses.

• Click here for DRE’s list of vendors that provide statutory courses.

• Click here for DRE’s explanation of the statutory courses needed for a salesperson’s license.

• Click here for DRE’s explanation of the statutory courses needed for a broker’s license.

I have more than 45-hours of CE, can I apply the surplus to my next renewal?

No, all CE hours must be earned during the term of your current license or, if your full license is expired, during the two-year grace period allowed by the DRE following your license expiration.  The CE hours for a given course are considered earned when the student passes its exam.

I have a conditional salespersons license.  Can I take CE?

Yes, but your first priority should be to complete your 18-Month Requirement; that is, to convert your conditional license into a full license.  If your license is suspended because you failed to meet your 18-Month Requirement and your license is about to expire; then your first priority should still be to complete your 18-Month Requirement; for if you complete your 18-Month Requirement just before your original license expires you may then take advantage of DRE’s two-year grace period during which you may renew your expired license.

For example, consider Susie the Procrastinator.  If Susie received a conditional license on July 1^st, 2004 and if Susie was not practicing real estate but wanted to keep her license, she could proceed as follows:

1. Eighteen months after receiving her conditional license, on January 1^st, 2006, she could allow her license to be placed into suspension for failure to meet her 18-Month Requirement.

2. Just days before her original license was due to expire on June 30^th, 2008, she could complete her 18-Month Requirement thus converting her conditional license into a full license.

3. On the last day of her original license, June 30^th, 2008, she could allow her full license to expire.  The following day, July 1^st, 2008 would be the first day of a two-year grace period during which the DRE would permit her to renew her license.

4. On the last day of  her two-year grace period, on June 30^th, 2010, she could complete her 15-hours of CE and then on that same day use eLicensing to renew her license. 

5. July 1^st, 2010 would be the first day of next full and active salesperson’s license.

   

Will the DRE grant me an extension?

Note:  By “extension”, we mean an extension to the term of one’s license period.

The best answer is “no” but, in truth, we have heard of stories where the DRE has granted licensees extensions.  For example, in the days immediately following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, the DRE did grant numerous hardship extensions for licensees residing in the Northridge area.  We have also heard of a few other recent situations where the DRE has granted an exemption but we do not know the details – for all we know these stories may be urban legends.

The DRE has a policy for granting 90-day extensions (details).  Their policy is to grant an extension for one of three reasons:  1) health, 2) active duty in the military, and 3) “other compelling cause beyond the control of the applicant while engaged in the real estate business”.

Personally, I (Chuck Milbourne – the author of this site), have never spoken with anyone who has ever been successful in persuading the DRE to grant them an extension (if you were granted an exemption, please email me the details).  The DRE reasons that since you have four years in which to earn your CE hours, any set-back you may have had in the last few weeks prior to your expiration date is probably not a good excuse for granting you an extension.

We suspect, also, that the DRE’s willingness to grant exemptions is at an all time low because the DRE, as is the rest of the State, is suffering revenue shortfalls and extensions mean less revenue for the DRE (rates for licenses renewed during the grace period are 50% higher than for on time renewals).

In short:  Don’t count on the DRE’s leniency in granting you an extension.

Can I be exempted from my continuing education.

There is one permissible exemption.  If you are over seventy years of age providing 1) you have been a licensee for thirty or more continuous years, 2) you have never renewed late, and 3) you have never had a restricted license (details).

Will you grant me an exclusion from DRE’s waiting periods?

No!.

Our compact with the DRE requires us to enforce the waiting periods.  The DRE may suspend or rescind any sponsor’s license should they break their rules.  We will not acquiesce to any customer request to waive any portion of the DRE-mandated study period (two days for our 15HOURS package and four days for our 45HOURS package) or, for licensees taking our 45HOURS package, waive the Completion-Rate Restriction; that is the restriction which limits the rate at which students may complete their CE to no more than 15 hours of CE in any 24-hour period.  Sorry.

But we are willing to grant any student who, faced with having to pay a 50% penalty for late renewal, wishes a refund.  And we will also grant a full refund to any customer whose license will irrevocably expire because he can not complete his CE requirement before his license expires for good.

What are the CE requirements for a corporate license?

If you have a corporate license, the corporation must have a “designated officer”.  The corporation’s designated officer must be a broker with an active license when the corporation is originally licensed but it is not necessary that the corporation’s designated officer be licensed to renew a corporate license.   If you are your corporation’s designated officer and you have an active broker’s license, then you must take CE to renew your license and the CE you take may be applied by extension to the renewal of your corporation’s license.  If you are your corporation’s designated officer and you are not licensed, then you must take CE as the corporation’s officer before renewing your corporation’s license.

General

What is a script?

A script is a computer program which writes web pages.  The scripts written for this site control the basic student management functions:  registering students, logging students into the site, displaying the status of the student’s courses, and administering the final exams.

What are the special advantages to eBooks in Adobe Reader (PDF) format?

All of our textbooks are formatted as PDF files for viewing with the free Adobe Reader (click here to download).  Our eBooks have several advantages over traditional paper books:

• eBooks may be read anywhere on the Internet or they may be downloaded to your laptop and read offline.

• eBooks may be printed (to save paper and ink, set your printer for two-up, two-sided printing).

• The text in eBooks may be magnified to any degree for easier reading.

• You may search the eBook for any string of words and you may access it through its table of contents (click the Reader’s bookmark icon to display the eBook’s table of contents).

• For maximum reading comfort, download an eBook to your laptop, rotate it 90 degrees, display in “fullscreen”, and hold the laptop on its side (see screen image to right) and cradle it on your lap — the type will be large.  And if your laptop is relatively new, the chances are that it will weigh less than a large paperbound book.

• Adobe Reader will even read the text aloud (mouse to a paragraph and toggle Ctrl+Shift+Y to activate the Reader’s Read-Out-Loud feature).

• You can download and read our eBooks on your iTouch or iPhone (try mBrain Software’s PDF+ available at the iPod AppStore for $2.99 (as of November 2009)).

How long do you keep your records?

We keep your records indefinitely.  You may login in at any future time to see your records; however, once you pass a test, you may not take it again.

How can I send my evaluation of your courses to the DRE?

You can send your evaluation of our courses to the DRE by clicking here.