CA Broker´s License - Acceptable Kinds of Equivalent Experience?

Question

Hi BP Community,

Just a couple days ago I made the order for course materials to pursue my California RE Agent´s license through Allied Schools. It should be noted immediately that I have no real desire to act as a full-time real estate agent, and instead made this decision for our own investment goals, as well as with the goal of getting my broker´s license to establish our own property management company.

Today I received a phone call from Allied with some information about the course I´d purchased, and the lady went on to tell me that I could actually be qualified to take pursue the broker´s license immediately (pending the requisite education they naturally had on special promotion), because I had spent the last 3 years in property management (albeit, in Spain). She sent me this information to qualify her information:

________________________________________________________________________

http://www.dre.ca.gov/Examinees/BrokerExperience.html

Acceptable Kinds of Equivalent Experience

An applicant may qualify with two years full-time experience, gained within the five-year period immediately prior to the date of application for the broker examination, in any of the following areas:

1.Experience as an escrow or title officer or as a loan officer in a capacity directly related to the financing or conveying of real property.

2.Experience as a subdivider, contractor, or speculative builder, during which time applicant performed comprehensive duties relating to the purchase, finance, development, and sale or lease of real property.

3.Experience as a real property appraiser.

___________________________________________________________________________

Now, I don´t specifically see property management anywhere in that list - and I´m also concerned that my experience was in another country and how that would probably not be applicable - but if I´m actually qualified, then pursuing my broker´s license directly would be an excellent thing for us.

Can any of you shed any objective experience on this? My feeling is that the school was just trying to sell me more classes, but I´ll take advantage of it if it actually works.

Gene Hacker · Answer

Have you called the CA DRE?  They could quickly answer any questions for you.

I highly recommend getting a program that allows you to take practice tests.  I got my brokers licence 5 or 6  years ago (I did not have my agents licence yet), and talking with people waiting before the testing room opened, most had taken it multiple times.  I was one of the first to be done and was confident that I had done well. Many of the questions on the test were amazingly similar to what I had been to working with in the practice test.  I took practice tests every day until I was consistently scoring over 90%.

Mindy Jensen · Answer

The amount of useless information on the test is ridiculous. It is entirely possible to work in property management for years - and be great at it, compliant with all laws, etc, and still fail miserably on the test without having gone through the classes. I'm licensed in CO, and about 3% of what was on the test is ever actually used in real life.

I would recommend going through the coursework. I think it would be next to impossible to pass the test without doing the reading. Good luck!

David Hays · Answer

@Mindy Jensen and @Bill Gulley

Thanks for your input! Perhaps I've expressed myself poorly somewhere - taking the coursework would be a given, as far as I'm concerned. My point was to clarify - since there is a requisite level of experience required in addition to the coursework in order to qualify for the broker's license - whether or not my existing experience might satisfy that qualification, pending the completion of the coursework (as the school said it would). I completely understand that there is a vast complexity to the industry, and I'm not really trying to circumvent the system; instead, I'm simply trying to wrap my hands around doing business here in CA after only doing business in Spain before this.

In any case, it seems as though the general consensus is that the school was providing the wrong information, which was my initial impression anyway. I think that I'll just stick with the licensing as a sales agent for now, and address the broker's license at a (later) more appropriate time.

Wayne Brooks · Answer

It doesn't seem to indicate Anywhere that property management would be included.  But if you want to know, call the state licensing board, no one else's opinion matters...especially mine.

Bill Gulley · Answer

I agree with Mindy! Take the course. Spain isn't a state, nor are management duties close to the broader knowledge required in real estate. Other exceptions I might consider sitting in judgment would be an attorney, a CPA, an Engineer, an Asset manager of a real estate portfolio and a 4 year degree with a real estate major. IMO  :)

David Hays · Answer

@Norberto Villanueva (re: your latter comment)

That was my feeling as well, since it does require a license here in California; I took another look at the website via the link provided, and this note was directly following what I pasted above:

¨The above-referenced patterns are designed to assist the applicant in understanding the general types of equivalent experience which can be used to qualify for the broker examination. Other types of real estate-related experience will be considered, provided that it satisfies the intent of the law. It should be noted, however, that claims for equivalency by unlicensed persons for activities which require a real estate license will not be considered.¨

In that case, I´m still unclear - on the one hand, perhaps the management experience might be considered to ´satisfy the general intent of the law´, but on the other, the latter sentence jumps out at me since there was no license required to engage in those activities in Spain.

Norberto Villanueva · Answer

In case it needs mention, the way I'm reading it property management qualifies, as it requires a real estate license to perform.

Norberto Villanueva · Answer

Not seeing how property manager fits in to equivalent experience, however one that has worked full time in a capacity that requires a real estate license does qualify. Same as you, the problem I see is that you did not have (nor need) a California license to manage in Spain so, I'm calling shenanigans.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

good question.  If I was guessing I would think out of country may not qualify

CA Broker´s License - Acceptable Kinds of Equivalent Experience?

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