Since its founding in the ‘80s, McColly School of Real Estate has granted students access to education taught by active real estate agents, including McColly’s Director of Education, Tim McColly. As active workers in the field, Director of Marketing and Technology Monica Decker feels they have the best pool of knowledge available to share with students.
“They can convey real-life examples of situations they come across with transactions or the home buying and selling process,” Decker said.
McColly School of Real Estate has both in-person and remote offerings and runs 10-week sessions as well as accelerated courses that are done within a month. While most courses are offered at the three locations in Crown Point, Highland, and Valparaiso, accelerated courses are offered exclusively at Crown Point.
For online classes, the school partners with Hondros Learning, allowing students the flexibility to learn at their own pace. This includes, but not limited to, pre-licensing and Continuing Education (C.E.) courses.
After completing their pre-licensing, students have only one step left: passing the state licensing exam. To help students succeed on the exam, the school recently began to offer a prep course on Zoom that contains practice questions and an interactive review course.
“The McColly School of Real Estate offers a free, three-hour Zoom prep course as a refresher for anyone who is about to take their state licensing exam,” according to Heather McColly, Director of Career Development. “Students have a year to take the state exam, so this course has been met with great success. Since inception, we've had five to six of these virtual classes averaging about 40 students per session.
C.E. course offerings include 12-hour online packages, which cover topics such as real estate transactions, residential contact issues, understanding environmental regulations, and more. These online packages are a great option for current brokers as they are required to maintain their license through C.E. requirements amounting to 12 hours a year.
The school also hosts live C.E. events year-round featuring its teachers as well as guest speakers. Each event can cover a variety of topics within the real estate field, and the next C.E. event will take place this month at a corporate training center in Schererville, Crown Point and Valparaiso.
While those who take advantage of McColly School of Real Estate courses are typically people seeking to obtain or maintain their licenses, the courses are not exclusive to those who have chosen a career in real estate. Decker thinks that the school’s programming is also beneficial to those who simply want to better understand the housing market.
“People think they have to go to real estate school just to get their license, but I think it’s a great experience for anyone to go through for the education of the process because it can be overwhelming trying to buy a house,” said Decker. “There are so many steps between the pre-approval and the final closing, and there is a lot of different terminology.”
Whether you want to get into the field, continue in the field, or simply learn more about the field, you can check out McColly School of Real Estate at https://www.mccolly.com/mccolly-schools/.
