Prospective real estate agents and active sales agents who plan to apply after 2023 to take the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) State Exam to become either a salesperson or broker need to have completed an enhanced Real Estate Practice course which includes implicit bias, fair housing, and interactive participatory components.

The impact – a certificate of completion for all “old Real Estate Practice” courses will not be accepted by the DRE to qualify when applying to take the state exam beginning in 2024.

Editor’s note – Your renewal of an existing license is not affected by this new qualification course for initially getting a license.

Breaking News: As of this week, firsttuesday is the first California correspondence school to obtain DRE-approval to provide California’s future agents and brokers with the new Real Estate Practice course. And as of this writing, firsttuesday is the only correspondence school (out of 139 schools with DRE licensing course approvals) able to offer this course.

The enhanced Real Estate Practice courses the DRE will approve are required to include two additional components:

  • an implicit bias component, including education regarding the impact of implicit bias, explicit bias and systemic bias on consumers, the historical and social impact of those biases and actionable steps students can take to recognize and address their own implicit biases; and
  • a fair housing component which includes an interactive participatory component during which the licensee roleplays as both a consumer and real estate professional. [Senate Bill (SB) 1495]

Parallel requirements went into effect in the continuing education (CE) ecosystem in 2023. Beginning in 2024, the public policy objective behind these discrimination awareness laws will be fully realized in the context of real estate licensing courses.

Related article:

When you can expect to access the extra CE required to renew your California real estate license

Those applying to the DRE to become a salesperson or broker licensee after December 31, 2023, will need to produce a certificate of completion for this upgraded new version of Practice to have their application processed and move on to sit for the state exam. Thus, agents who in past years, or this year, completed the old Practice course and apply for a broker license after 2023 will need to take the enhanced version of Practice.

firsttuesday has taken the opportunity created by these new requirements to fully evolve the Practice course into a multi-media powerhouse presentation. It has been one year in our development and the DRE approval process to bring this course to its present release.

firsttuesday’s new California Real Estate Practice 8th edition includes a streamlined, printed textbook, freshly approved by the DRE. The printed book is 80 pages lighter than the prior version. The textbook is primarily available as a color e-book studied online.

Real Estate Practice course content also has an innovative digital element. Nearly one hour of engaging online videos cover Implicit Bias principals. These videos, created by our full-time, in-house video production department, illustrates critical concepts with both mindful sensitively and wit. A color e-book of the Implicit Bias supplement is also online as part of the Practice course.

firsttuesday’s Access for All: A Fair Housing Game™ fulfills the interactive participatory component now legislatively required. It presents a variety of interactive scenarios. In some scenes, students will take the role of a real estate licensee. In others, students will take the role of a principal. Based on the decisions made by students, the scenarios change. Poor choices yield negative outcomes, and virtuous choices yield positive outcomes.

Access for All™ blends video, animation, text and voice in an educational experience that engages the student by putting them directly into the shoes of transaction participants. It is hosted by frequent collaborator, Summer Goralik. Summer was employed as a Special Investigator for the DRE for six years and worked closely with former Real Estate Commissioner Wayne Bell.

Existing firsttuesday students within their one-year enrollment in the old prior version of the Practice course have been automatically upgraded to the new version for study, completion and certification – all at no cost.

Certificates of completion for prior versions of Practice will not be accepted by the DRE after 2023, and have no further value. Like a currency subject to extreme run-away inflation, old Practice approvals have a rapidly diminishing shelf life. firsttuesday’s new Practice course will be accepted by the DRE in 2023, 2024 – and beyond.

To get your new Real Estate Practice course, visit firsttuesday’s Sales Agent Licensing Education page or Broker Licensing Education page.

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