Getting The Most Out Of Online Real Estate CE

If you are like most real estate licensees in Ohio, you have 21 hours of electives to choose from towards fulfilling the 30 hour CE requirement every three years. And again, like most licensees, you may elect to take one or all of the courses in an online environment.

There are a wide range of relevant courses from a variety of providers online (however, I’m obviously partial to our own courses), all with varying levels of effective design and content. Regardless of the provider you choose or how well they implement and deliver the course, there are six key steps you can take to ensure you get the absolute most out of the time spent in the course!

Remember, as a licensee your clients are paying for your expertise AND knowledge. The more information you have to use in your practice is another “arrow” in your quiver, differentiating you from your competitors!
Here are six simple, effective methods to increase and use the knowledge in almost ANY online CE course:

1. Find a quiet place to take the class with minimum outside distractions. Attempting to complete a course while entertaining your children or watching TV is just not very effective. Close your door, turn off your phone. The world can generally wait for three hours to get in touch with you!
2. Make sure you allocate the proper amount of time for the course! If it’s a two hour course, ensure you HAVE two hours to complete it. Stopping and starting within the course really distracts from knowledge retention, and is often counterproductive to your efforts.
3. Have paper and writing materials handy! Whenever a concept, phrase or idea appears on the screen, WRITE IT DOWN! If you have a question regarding some of the material, WRITE IT DOWN! If you see an idea
   that is particularly relevant to either  a past situation or a current one, WRITE IT DOWN! This written information is absolutely invaluable for you to better understand and use it in your practice of real estate. Remember, knowledge IS power. And the more knowledge you have, the more effective and sought after you become.
4. Don’t be afraid to pause and reflect on what was just said. Repeat it mentally, thinking of situations where that particular piece of information could benefit your clients. Use imagery – we remember visuals much better than text!
5. Review your notes immediately after class, perhaps rewriting them to reinforce ideas along with any other ideas that come to mind.

6. From your notes, write FIVE KEY IDEAS in ranking order. These are your main takeaways. The other information is important, but these five ideas are the MOST important!

Following these six simple steps with any online CE course will help you immeasurably in retaining more information and applying it to better assist your clients, which in turn helps you to become a better licensee.

Happy Selling!