TX Real Estate Online Class

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TX

1. I'm renewing my license for realtor for the first time in TX. This requires what is called an SAE, Sales Apprentice Education 98 hours of training. I already completed 18 hours of the training and got credit for it.

2. The training for the remaining 60 hours is through a company online called XXX.com. They are accredited by Texas Real Estate Commission website educational section. That's how you find out where to go to get the proper training.

3. The training is open book. You download PDF files that you can search to answer questions in the quizzes and final exams.

4. I completed 30 hours of training in 10 hours (you are only allowed to take 12 hours per day of training so they say). It turns out I can move pretty quickly through the slideshows and the quizzes and get to the final exam and finish. All in 10 hours. I got my certificate for completion. I repeated this similarly for the second 30 hour set of materials and final exam and got the certificate for that.

5. I forwarded the certificates to TREC education. Their response was, "You completed the 30 hour each education in less than 12 hours and that means you can't get credit for the certificate." My reaction is, if this is an accredited school, and they should know the timing, and I had to stage the training accross three days, there should have been a clock on what I was doing to prevent me from going too quickly and I shouldn't have received certificates. I paid $200 for those two courses. They are putting the blame of the limited web system of the educator on me as a failing. And telling me I have to pay another $200 in spite of having approved certificates. Is this legal? Is there anything I can do about it?

Does it say anywhere in the materials that you cannot finish early? Yes. Very clearly, too.

From the site: "Please note, TREC will not accept your certificate of completion for this course unless 3 days have elapsed since the date/time you started the course. Your participation in this course must not exceed 12 hours per day ... Starting and completing more than one qualifying course within the same 3 days does not comply with commission rules. TREC cannot award credit for courses and certificates that are not in compliance."

What you are saying does not seem fair, perhaps, but unfair does not equal illegal. Here, it is not illegal.

 

[txjeff]

Does it say anywhere in the materials that you cannot finish early? Yes. Very clearly, too.

From the site: "Please note, TREC will not accept your certificate of completion for this course unless 3 days have elapsed since the date/time you started the course. Your participation in this course must not exceed 12 hours per day ... Starting and completing more than one qualifying course within the same 3 days does not comply with commission rules. TREC cannot award credit for courses and certificates that are not in compliance."

What you are saying does not seem fair, perhaps, but unfair does not equal illegal. Here, it is not illegal.

Agreed the TREC site comes up with the rules it judges by. No complaint there. But the accredited training company should design their educational site to abide by those rules by restricting progress to 3 days and not allowing the entire course to be finished in 10 hours including the final exam. This is very easy. A flag in the website that is off until you get to the second day would then allow a person to proceed to the second third of courses. And then another flag would turn on the last third of the course. This protects the person who didn't first read the TREC site information by guaranteeing the proper amount of time. Instead of telling me, oh, you messed up so now you have to do it again. And, if I become late due to this delay, now I will have to pay a fee to TREC to renew. To me this is a flaw that any realtor can get caught up in when simple programming can make it a no brainer. They already have programming that prevents doing things before you finish things ahead of it. I was lucky that I fought with the educator on the phone and they gave me the two courses again for free. But I still have to waste 6 more days repeating the same courses and final exams I already took. All of that could have been avoided. Thanks for the reply.

 

[quincy]

Agreed the TREC site comes up with the rules it judges by. No complaint there. But the accredited training company should design their educational site to abide by those rules by restricting progress to 3 days and not allowing the entire course to be finished in 10 hours including the final exam. This is very easy. A flag in the website that is off until you get to the second day would then allow a person to proceed to the second third of courses. And then another flag would turn on the last third of the course. This protects the person who didn't first read the TREC site information by guaranteeing the proper amount of time. Instead of telling me, oh, you messed up so now you have to do it again. And, if I become late due to this delay, now I will have to pay a fee to TREC to renew. To me this is a flaw that any realtor can get caught up in when simple programming can make it a no brainer. They already have programming that prevents doing things before you finish things ahead of it. I was lucky that I fought with the educator on the phone and they gave me the two courses again for free. But I still have to waste 6 more days repeating the same courses and final exams I already took. All of that could have been avoided. Thanks for the reply.

I am glad to hear that you at least have been given the chance to take the courses again without having to pay.

I understand your complaint and I agree that limiting what can be accessed in a day would improve the online courses. But the website makes the terms for credit clear. For that reason, TREC's refusal to award credit due to noncompliance with the rules was legal.