Bob Hogue School of Real Estate Reviews and Promo Codes

Is Florida the best place to start a real estate career? Lots of people think so. Florida had the second-highest number of agents across the country in 2017. There were about 173,000 realtors in the state, with California having the most agents.

If you want to become an agent, you’ll need pre-licensing training. There are many schools to consider in the state, over 200 if you’re counting. Bob Hogue Real Estate trains lots of agents in Tampa, enjoys a reasonably good reputation, and even occasionally appears in local news coverage. Bob Hogue, the founder, has had the privilege of training a lot of agents in Florida. And there are many reasons to choose the school he started, including the great instructors, flexible hours, affordable rates for in-person classes, and more. With few complaints, it’s a good school to enroll in.

What you might not know is that they also offer continuing education to sales associates and real estate brokers. They have expanded their education offering to also train real estate appraisers and community association managers.

With real estate schools, you’ll find online-only institutions, and schools that offer both classroom & online modes of delivery. Bob Hogue fits into the latter category.

Bob Hogue School History

If you think that the school is named after an actual person, you have hit the nail on the head. Robert L. Hogue, aka Bob, begun his real estate career in 1974 and ventured into teaching real estate in 1978. But it was not until 1987 that he established the Bob Hogue School of Real Estate. It served students in the Tampa area and has grown to become the area’s largest.

In 2015 alone, about 29,000 people entered into the real estate field, prompting the school to add more locations as more and more people were signing up for courses than expected.

Quick Facts about Bob School of Real Estate Florida

• In 2014, Bob Hogue School trained about 6500 students for the state exam. 
• The school is now part of Kaplan Real Estate Education. 
• The partnership allows Kaplan students looking to get real estate education in Florida to pursue courses through Bob Hogue. 
• And for many years, Kaplan has been providing some of its training materials to the school.

Which courses does the school provide?

Bob Hogue Real Estate Sales License

The state dictates that aspiring agents have to complete a 63-hour course, which Bob Hogue provides via online or classroom delivery.

Cram Course

State exams are notoriously difficult despite being multiple-choice. You need to be fully prepared, and thankfully the school offers a cram course that boosts your chances of passing the exam. There are custom quizzes around specific topics. You can take the course both online or in-person. The school also offers an in-person weekend cram course. 

Bob Hogue 14 hour continuing education

The CE course features topics on core law and ethics, and completing it will fulfill the credit requirements to have your license renewed. You can obtain your CE education from Bob Hogue, either online or in-person.

Broker pre-licensing

A 72-hour course designed to teach real estate associates everything they need to sit for the broker license exam.

Prep Course

Like the sale associates prep course, it’s main features include practice questions and custom quizzes. 

Post licensing education

Brokers have to take a 60-hour post-licensing course that’s split into two parts: There is a course on broker management, and the second part covers real estate investment.

Reactivation education

If you have an inactive license for more than one year but not more than two years, you’re required to obtain state-approved reactivation education. It’s a 28-hour course.

CAM certification

If you take this course, you’ll become a community association manager with the task of managing condominiums, planned communities, etc.

What students like about the Bob Hogue School of Real Estate

• Excellent & knowledgeable instructors – Many people, on sites like Yelp, commend the school for its great instructors. The instructors make the courses fun & easy. They are also helpful and cover the material quickly.
• Flexible schedules – And a good example is that the school offers evening classes.
• Textbooks are provided – You get some best-selling textbooks as part of the course, for instance, “Florida Real Estate Exam Manual,” written by Linda Crawford, who also taught at Bob Hogue.
• Tutoring – They offer one-to-one tutoring if you need it.
• Positive reviews – The school enjoys good ratings, and many people have said that they would recommend it to their friends.

Drawbacks of Bob Hogue

• The school doesn’t have any demo courses or trial.  
• Students can’t test out the course. 
• The school has limited modes of delivery, while some innovative schools are venturing into creative delivery modes like the blended classroom experience or live video courses. 
• They have limited nationwide coverage, as their courses are only in Florida.

The complaint we hear most often is a similar one we hear about most real estate schools…Bob Hogue teaches you enough to pass the real estate exam, but not the ins and outs of the topics you need to know to be a successful estate agent (like real estate website builders, the best real estate lead generation companies, or the best real estate CRMs).

The Bob Hogue course covers the basics, but like most real estate courses lacks info about what to do once you’ve passed. Most notably, it doesn’t cover the best real estate software as you’re starting out, how to bring in buyer leads, or how to find the right real estate CRM (even if you’re looking for a free CRM tool). If you’re looking for more advanced topics like real estate ads, building your own real estate lead generation website, which real estate marketing tools you’ll need,  how to build a successful social media strategy, or even just real estate marketing ideas in general, you will need to complete those studies on your own.