Florida Real Estate Post-License Courses Online

About

This post license course explores a wide array of topics facing busy real estate agents, beginning with brokerage relationships. Then federal and Florida state laws affecting real estate are discussed including the Fair Housing Act, CERCLA, OSHA, ADA, and financing regulations. Students delve into ethics, planning for success and creating business plans, prospecting and marketing, and using the internet and social media to find clients and build a community.

Next up is appraisal with an overview of approaches to value and preparing a comparative market analysis. Then the course examines the processes and challenges of working with sellers and buyers, such as the listing process, listing agreement, disclosures, showing houses, and writing offers. Students then explore sales contracts, negotiations, mortgage alternatives, and sources of home financing.

An overview of the closing process follows, discussing title insurance, closing procedures and documents, and prorations. Also covered are the terms, advantages, and disadvantages of real estate investment.

The last module focuses on property management, discussing the many different types of leases in detail, setting rents, handling tenants, and evictions.

Topics Covered

• Brokerage Relationships, Law Updates and Review
• Federal and Florida State Laws Affecting Real Estate
• Real Estate Ethics, Education, and Planning
• Information Technology
• Valuing Residential Property
• Working with Sellers
• Working with Buyers
• Sales Contracts
• Exploring Mortgage Alternatives
• Acquiring Financing for the Property
• Closings and Settlement Costs
• Analyzing Real Estate Investments
• Professional Property Management

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Define the three different approaches (ethos, pathos and logos) used to present persuasively artistic information.
• Describe the development of emotional intelligence.
• Explain the relationship between cognitive and emotional intelligence.
• Utilize emotionally intelligent strategies to encourage successful negotiation sessions.
• Explain why conflict is a common event in human life, and be able to describe common responses to conflict.
• Describe the central role of concessions and commitments in negotiation.
• Distinguish between the two common styles of negotiation, and make judgments about which style is appropriate for a particular conflict.
• Distinguish between the different types of nonverbal communication.
• Recognize behaviors in both familiar and unfamiliar acquaintances from verbal and nonverbal cues, including vocal traits, habits and physical traits.
• Describe the liability concerns facing all real estate salespeople, and outline how these affect the general negotiation process.
• Recognize general strategies that can help to minimize conflict in any negotiation.- Explain why alternatives are important in real estate negotiation.
• Apply a clear method for determining which issues present problems in a given negotiation, and rank them according to the amount of negotiation it will take to resolve them.
• Describe the basic steps of successful communication.- Outline the basic steps and purpose of active listening.
• Recognize the role that effective use of language plays in successful real estate negotiation.
• State the way raw needs, wants and desires are translated into the benefits of a particular property.
• Recognize the signs of concealed objections.
• Distinguish and explain general strategies that help a salesperson manage the offer-counter offer process effectively.
• Describe three basic closing methods, and identify what features of a deal would make it appropriate to choose one particular method.
• Understand how the forces of supply and demand in the real estate market affect and are affected by the primary lending market
• Know how the government influences real estate finance through agencies like the Federal Reserve and the Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Know the principal instruments of financing -- the promissory note, the mortgage, and the deed of trust -- and how they are used
• Understand how interest rates affect the real estate market
• Know the difference between lien theory and title theory states
• Know what a discount point is; when it is offered; and when it should be bought
• Be familiar with the elements of a credit report and how FICO® scores affect a consumer's borrowing ability
• Be familiar with the provisions of the federal legislation that affects real estate lending: the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Truth in Lending Act
• Be able to use the most common approach to valuing income-producing property, the cap rate analysis
• Know the elements of a pro forma projection and its uses in discounted cash flow analyses
• Know the difference between constructive and actual notice and the buyer's obligations under the principle of caveat emptor
• Be familiar with the RESPA requirements for closing procedures and disclosures at closing
• Know the principles of proration: calendar years and banker's years, prepaid items, accrued items, and how to divide them by calculating a daily rate
• Know the current Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits- Be familiar with Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter and Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector electronic underwriting programs
• Be familiar with the different types of mortgages, such as ARMs, GEMs, GPMs, and Balloon Mortgages
• Be familiar with the most important FHA programs, especially Section 203(b)
• Know the various underwriting requirements for FHA-insured loans, such as down payment and closing cost requirements
• Know who is eligible for the VA program and the documents required to prove one's eligibility.