There are a number of reasons why a licensee should consider pursuing their required continuing education on-line. The most important being: TIME.
LIST OF NYS-Approved "AT HOME" COURSES In a traditional classroom setting,
students spend an average of 9 EXTRA HOURS by having to: drive back & forth
to class at least 6 times (for a three day class); spend time to make arrangements
for someone else to do their work while they are tied up in a class for 22.5
hrs; return missed calls & play phone-tag; get dressed - start the car, shave
and fix your hair, shovel the driveway and/or sit in traffic, find & pay a baby
sitter (if necessary), etc.
The extra NINE hours can be spent - relaxing
- visiting with family or friends - or simply doing what you do best -
LISTING & SELLING REAL ESTATE!
HOW EASY IS IT TO START DOING
MY COURSES ON-LINE?
It's as easy as picking up a phone and calling
us at (716) 633-9009 or toll-free at (800) 735-5395 and speaking to one of our friendly representative's
who will help you decide what course best meets your needs, recording your
name as you'd like it to appear on your CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION (as well
as other basic registration information) and payment with a Master Card,
Visa or Discover Card. If you prefer to send a check or money order
- one of our representatives will simply call you in a few days after we
receive your remittance to provide you log-on information. Checks can be
sent directly to our central administrative address at the Western NY School of Real
Estate PO Box 702 East Amherst, NY 14051.
OUR COURSES GIVE
YOU FREEDOM TO MOVE!
Yes - literally! Your timing is based
not only on your time on-line but also is calculated based on your time
printing out the course material, reading and hand-writing your answers
to questions throughout the course then later ENTERING the answers you've
come up with into the system from which you originally printed from!
If you have the computer expertise to do EMAILS - you can do courses from
HOME, OFFICE, PUBLIC LIBRARY or anywhere there is a computer with Internet
access. New York State regulations forbid us from grading your
work (as a requirement to earn your continuing education). As a result
- as long as you answer all of the questions (which can be easily found
in the course) you are guaranteed to earn your CE credit. Certificates
of Completion are dated the date YOU FINISH the course [not when your work
is finally reviewed]!
COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS...
1. If my license renews in the next few
weeks - will I get my certificate of completion in time in order to send
it with my license renewal? ANSWER: Please understand that
it will take a MAXIMUM of 20-30 business days to print your certificate
& Official Transcript. You should
never send a copy of your School certificate of completion with your license
renewal to the Division of Licensing when simply renewing your license
(as the Department does NOT keep track individually of courses completed
by licensees). Make sure to keep your certificate in a secure location
in case the State audits your education record. We charge $35 to
reproduce each certificate should you lose one that we originally issued
you. At such time you must present certificates with our "raised New York
State Certified School" seal. Audits can cover periods of time over
2 years or more. The total hours taken must add up to AT LEAST 22.5
hours or you are considered not to be in compliance and can be fined up
to $1,000 and your license suspended or revoked. 2. How does the State get notification
that I completed a course at your School? ANSWER:
At the end of every semester, we send a listing of students who have completed
courses with us or at our affiliated Boards of Realty throughout the State
of New York.
3. Can I take my NYS Salesperson Course,
Broker Qualifying Course or Appraisal Qualifying courses on-line too?
ANSWER: At this time, New York State does not allow the on-line
or video mode of delivery for these courses and has no plans to do so in
the forseeable future.
4. What if I do a course on-line and run
"short" on time and I don't find out until after my license renewal date
because my work hasn't been reviewed in a timely fashion? ANSWER:
We have hundreds of students taking courses on-line at any one time.
It is near impossible to be completely caught up at all times. As
a result, our policy is to closely monitor all students both on-line (with
special SQL servers and timing mechanisms) and via email & personal
contact. Less than 1% of our students run short on time and our policy
of dating your certificate the date YOU complete the course ensures that
regardless of any mistakes you might have made while doing the course -
your continuing education requirement will be satisfied legally.
Students who have incomplete work will be required to finish (even if past
their license renewal date) within 30 days - otherwise the results of your
work will be invalidated. This policy prevents abuse of our attendance
policy that requires ALL work & questions to be completed PRIOR to
license renewal dates.
5. Are questions multiple-choice or true
and false throughout most courses done on-line?
6. Some of your older Internet-delivered
courses require me to enter in my LAST NAME and LAST 4 DIGITS of my social
security number - why? ANSWER: Due to the large
volume of participants taking classes from a variety of email locations,
it makes reviewing and crediting work much easier to just have everyone
enter their last name and the last four digits of their social security
number in all SUBJECT area's of any email boxes that open when clicking
onto "RESPONSE". We remind participants to click response when answering
questions which generally cover and entire section or "chapter" of work.
You would never click response for each and every question WITHIN the SAME
chapter or context of material! By including four digits (whether
it be your actual last 4 digits of your social security number or any bogus
4 digits), we can more efficiently review and credit your work more accurately.
7. Why do I have to sign-on when starting
your Internet-delivered courses? ANSWER: This is
part of the communication process that allows us to track your active participation
in the program so we can more efficiently review your work in a timely
fashion. When signing on - we want you to give us your name as you'd
like it on your Certificate of Completion, home mailing address, phone
numbers to contact you at and name of the course you've registered for.
This also serves as a "check & balance" for our registration process
and Master Registration System which prints lists to the Division of Licensing,
Department of State. In addition, we ask that you give us a phone
call when you've finally completed any of our Internet-delivered courses
just to ensure accuracy with our reviewing of your work in a timely manner.
8. Why can't you tell me if you've
received some work I emailed in just last night? ANSWER:
Due to the volume of participants in our on-line courses - our staff of
reviewers sometimes fall behind and are limited in providing "real time"
answers (unless there is a critical situation on-hand). We appreciate
your patience and ask that you give us about a week or ten days to finally
review all answers you've submitted - especially during times of high volume.
Your patience results in us being able to provide you with some of the
lowest prices available anywhere in the Northeast United States for real
estate continuing education courses.
9. What if I'm not sure whether an answer
I've submitted actually was received by the School?
10. I read that you'll match prices for
courses - how does that work? ANSWER: There are some
other providers that allow members of their Board to receive discounts
of up to $50 from what we typically charge. Since we do not have
different pricing levels whether you are a member or a non-member of some
board or organization - we have only one price structure. If you
have some literature from another New York State accredited School for
on-line training at a lower price, call the School for information on how
we might match the pricing. Keep in mind, however, if there is a
fee for disks, postage fees, administative fees or other fees charged by
the other School, our matching price is the LOWEST fee you would pay if
you were eligible for the competing program.
11. Sometimes when I call the School
I go right to voice mail - why doesn't someone answer the phone?
ANSWER: We believe at the Western
NY School of Real Estate that it is better to have an option of leaving
a message over that of other popular methods used by other School's or
College's including: busy signals, computer directed voice mail webs with
multi-level layers requiring numerous numeric entries and answering services
with no knowledge of the business. Our continual cost containment
procedures have enabled over 1,500 students a year to successfully sign-up
and take many courses including those which we traditionally offer in the
class room, video-delivered courses at our NYS-Approved locations throughout
the State and of course, Internet-delivered classes.
12. I heard that the School offers
"proctored" courses - what does this mean exactly? ANSWER: When
we started offering Internet-delivered classes, a farily large portion
of our student population expressed interest in the "topic areas" covered
by the course but either did not have a computer to do the course or did
not know how to do emails in order to do OUR Internet-delivered courses.
As a result we have set-up "proctored classes" that can be done at any
of our NYS-Approved locations OR at ANY REAL ESTATE OFFICE or ANYWHERE
in the world (providing there is a place for us to plug in our lap-top
computer). We have faculty members that travel all over the State
to assist offices with "proctored" Internet-delivered classes so that agents
can earn their continuing education AND participate in topics of interest
to students. Our staff members assist participants with any computer-related
parts of the course on OUR lap-tops that already have Internet connections
(therefore the office computers do not have to be used or the office Internet
connections). This option is ideal for those people who don't want
to travel to School and want to work with groups within their own realty
office. Our friendly staff works side-by-side to assist students
with any computer-related questions or concerns that arise.
13. Is that true that a student can "repeat"
any Internet-delivered course that they had taken in a previous license
period for HALF-PRICE? ANSWER: Yes, but 22.5 hour classes have an exception!
Students can take an Internet-delivered class at our School that was taken
for a previous license period for half-price (but no less than $109) providing that no special discounts were provided and that certain minimums are met. Simply
call and ask the Educational Coordinator for more information. While
we recommend that students pursue topics that vary and are of interest
to them, we also respect the inherent cost-savings accomplished by this
very popular School policy. NY Department of State regulations allow
students to repeat courses as long as the course is not covering the SAME
license period.
14. How do I know that a course at the
Western NY School of Real Estate is REALLY approved by the Division of
Licensing for my license renewal? ANSWER:
The answer is quite simple, New York State issues an approval number for
EVERY course they approve starting with a letter "M" or "C".
The "M" represents a course that is LESS than 22.5 hours in length and
"C" indicates that it is 22.5 hours in length. We remind State-licensed
& Certified Appraisers that courses with the C/M approvals DO NOT satisfy
New York State requirements for THEIR continuing education requirements.
Please verify with the School's Educational Coordinator before registering
for courses that have a C/M approval number. It is YOUR responsibility
to verify this information PRIOR to registration. For NYS Salespeople
and Brokers who are renewing their licenses, the School WILL NOT allow
you to register for a course that DOES NOT offer CE credit when attending
the Western NY School of Real Estate! We have very few courses that
are not approved - it is just our standard practice to offer ONLY NEW YORK
STATE APPROVED course work (as to minimize confusion).
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ANSWER: There are many
questions that fall into these categories, however, in order to keep courses
as interesting as possible - students will find a variety of "personalized"
options that allow participants to select topics within a course of interest
to them. For example, in our "Real Estate Issues Affecting the New
Millennium", students can select topics under the Department of Housing
& Urban Developemnt part of the course that has to do with either -
Urban Dweller Considerations or Rural
America Issues that affect real estate agents. There might be
a section of a course that requires you to read an article then summarize
your understanding of what was read "in your own words". In other
words - you get options & variety in most of our on-line programs.
We remind you that we are not allowed to grade your work - our staff is
only required to ensure that all questions have been answered and the State's
minimum timing requirement/mechanism has been met.
ANSWER: Students are reminded
that most computers have a "sent bin" that records ALL EMAILS sent by the
user until they are physically deleted by the user. As such, your
work should be safe & sound on your system. In addition, your
computer will show when and to whom the emailed responses were made to
[which is proof of your submission - if necessary]. Whenever you
respond to any questions and have a gut feeling that the work did not go
through properly - you're best off RESUBMITTING the work. We'd rather
receive your work twice than not at all!