The CE Shop maintains its excellent reputation for continuing education (CE) courses for real estate professionals, but they’re quickly becoming one of the leaders in online prelicensing education, as well. In October 2021, The CE Shop enrolled its one millionth student and currently boasts one of the nation’s highest pass rates.
That’s right—The CE Shop students sitting state real estate exams pass on their first try at a rate that surpasses any other school in the industry. We took an in-depth look at The CE Shop’s custom-built online platform, its costs, course offerings, pros and cons, and student experiences to see what The CE Shop is getting right—and wrong—to help you decide if it’s the best real estate education for you.
Trust Kate: The CE Shop Graduate
As a graduate of The CE Shop’s prelicensing real estate course in South Carolina, I have firsthand familiarity with The CE Shop’s platform, its best features, and areas where it can improve. My review is honest, thorough, objective, and will help you decide if The CE Shop could be your ideal education partner.
The Close Recommends
The CE Shop is an excellent option for online, prelicensing real estate education. Students will find affordable packages, a self-paced curriculum, one of the highest exam pass rates in the industry, and a clean, easy-to-navigate interface.
It’s also important to note that because The CE Shop started out as a continuing education provider, their post-licensing education offerings are also top-notch. While The CE Shop might not be perfect for every student, we strongly recommend The CE Shop to budget-conscious students who value flexibility and mobile-friendly technology.
SAVE 30% on The CE SHOP courses using promo code THECLOSE30
The CE Shop Video Walk-through
Our video walk-through gives an in-depth look at The CE Shop’s custom-designed online learning platform, LEAP. Understanding the interface is key to understanding what The CE Shop student experience is all about.
The CE Shop Pros & Cons
The CE Shop Pros | The CE Shop Cons |
---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Where Is The CE Shop Available
The CE Shop offers prelicensing courses in all but nine states. This is one of the largest territories in the online real estate education market and they’re continuing to expand. The CE Shop also provides exam preparation and continuing education courses in every state.

How Much Does The CE Shop Cost
The CE Shop costs depend on the state and the number of prelicensing course hours required. Courses Only, their most affordable package, ranges from $130 to $300. The top-tier Premium package costs between $340 and $1,030.
The CE Shop offers a military discount of 40% off prelicensing products to active-duty military, their families, and service members transitioning into civilian life.
We’ve gathered The CE Shop pricing from some of the most populous states, where many of our readers live, work, and practice real estate.
The CE Shop Package Costs: California
California |
The CE Shop Package Costs: Texas
Texas |
The CE Shop Package Costs: New York
New York |
How Long Do CE Shop Courses Take to Complete?
The time it takes to complete your course depends entirely on the number of hours of prelicensing education required by your state and how quickly you can tackle the material.
Florida, for example, requires 63 hours of coursework. Michigan requires 40 hours, and Texas, a whopping 180 hours. Some people may be able to take courses full time and knock it out in a few weeks, while others might need a few months. Be aware that The CE Shop does have a course expiration policy of six or 12 months, depending on your state.
How to Get a Real Estate License in 5 Simple Steps
Course Formats
The CE Shop offers four tiers of course packages, although not every offering is available in every state.
Every CE Shop course includes their substantial resource pack: downloadable resources, e-books, career resources, digital flashcards, a comprehensive real estate glossary, and customizable study schedule. Affordability is one of The CE Shop’s greatest strengths, and we find that packages are reasonably priced given everything that’s included.
Courses Only Package
The most basic package, this bare-bones option includes all of the course hours required by your specific state and the resource pack, but not any exam prep or their Pass Guarantee. More on this later.
Standard Package
The Standard Package includes all of the course hours required by your state, the resource pack, plus The CE Shop’s Exam Prep Edge and their Pass Guarantee for both the state and national portions of your state’s real estate exam. Exam Prep Edge gives you unlimited practice exams and an assessment of how you’re doing and where you need to improve. The Pass Guarantee refunds the cost of the exam if you need to retake it.
Build Your Business Value Package
In addition to the required courses, resource pack, and the Exam Prep Edge (and Pass Guarantee), this package includes three business building courses: Building Your Sphere, Building Your Real Estate Business, and Is Commercial Real Estate for You?
Premium Package
The Premium package includes everything in the above tiers, the courses, resource pack, Exam Prep Edge (and Pass Guarantee), business builder class, plus required first license renewal courses and the e-textbook, “Real Estate: An Introduction to the Profession.”
The Close Recommendation: The CE Shop
We recommend the Standard Package. It includes the required coursework and helpful resources, but it also includes the Exam Prep Edge and pass guarantee, which promises that if you don’t pass the exam on your first try, The CE Shop will reimburse you for the cost of the exam. Personally, I believe Exam Prep Edge is the reason I passed the real estate exam on my first attempt.
Continuing Education
We would be remiss not to include information on The CE Shop’s famed continuing education program (CE). After all, the “CE” in The CE Shop originally stood for Continuing Education. The advantage to having CE as part of your education provider’s offerings is that it’s all in one place. When you need to finish that renewal course work (maybe even at the last minute), everything is right there, ready to complete and submit to your licensing board.
We also appreciate The CE Shop’s range of interesting courses. In South Carolina, one can take a class on Assistance Animals and Fair Housing, Working with Real Estate Investors, or Serving the Unique Needs of the Senior Market.
The CE Shop Pass Rates
The CE Shop students’ self-reported pass rates on their exams are some of the nation’s best. Their first-time pass rate for the national portion of the exam is 70%, and overall state exam pass rate is 90%.
Florida The CE Shop students reported a pass rate of 88% (their state average is 40%). The New York exam first-attempt pass rate is 90%.
The Texas Real Estate Commission, which also tracks pass rates, lists The CE Shop pass rate as 68%. For comparison, online educator Kaplan Real Estate Education’s rate is 65% and Real Estate Express, probably the biggest provider of real estate courses, is 58%.
Customer Service + Student Support
The CE Shop offers customer service seven days a week through phone, email, and live chat, which is more than both Kaplan and Real Estate Express provide. In addition to customer support, students have access to a Facebook Group and on-demand webinars.
However, if students have specific questions about course content or materials, they must reach out to the support team through the Contact Page and they’re promised an answer from an instructor, the curriculum team, or a subject matter expert within two days.
This is an area where we think The CE Shop needs to improve. If someone has a complicated question about a complex real estate concept, two days feels like too long to wait for an answer.
Is The CE Shop Accredited?
If The CE Shop offers courses in your state, they are fully accredited by your state’s real estate licensing board.
The CE Shop Student Experience
One of The CE Shop’s greatest advantages is its user interface, which runs on LEAP, their custom-designed online learning platform. We appreciate its clean look, ease-of-use, and variety of activities for student engagement. I talk about these in more detail in our walk-through video review.
Signing Up & Logging In
Signing up for The CE Shop was easy and very straightforward. Simply select your state and the type of education needed. The CE Shop now offers a five-day free trial, so if you sign up and find that it’s not for you, there is no penalty. When you’re ready to log in, choose the icon on the top right navigation bar.
The CE Shop Dashboard
The CE Shop dashboard is simple and easy to navigate. This is where you’ll start each time you log in and select the course you’re working on. Eventually, it’s also where you’ll find any continuing education or post-licensing courses you’ve purchased.
Starting Your First Course
The CE Shop slowly and thoroughly shepherds you through your first course. As you get more familiar with the interface, you can move through the instructions quickly, but at the beginning, it’s helpful to have all of the hand-holding.
Progressing Through Your CE Shop Course
You’re able to track your progress through your courses both in percentage completed and hours.
The CE Shop has put a lot of focus on creating activities to enhance the learning experience. While some courses are very text-heavy, The CE Shop tries to spice things up with activities like Complete the Story, Matching, and True/False. While not perfect, we appreciate the attempt at making the content more engaging.
Taking Your First Quiz
The CE Shop has quizzes after each Unit. You’ll need to score at least a 70% to progress further through the course. Questions you get incorrect are highlighted and explained so that you can pay close attention to the content and get the questions correct on your next attempt.
Additional Resources
We also wanted to highlight the ability to “star” resources with the little bookmark icon to the right. Once you click on this star, the resource is saved for you to refer to later. If a resource was extremely helpful or crucial to the course, you can always reference it when studying for the quiz or exam.
Mobile-friendly Interface
The CE Shop courses were designed to be mobile-friendly, and we found that it was easy to complete courses on-the-go using their LEAP platform.
Wrapping Up for the Day
When you’re ready to end work for the day, simply click “Return to Course Home.” Your progress is saved and you’ll be able to jump right back into the course the next time you log in.
Room for Improvement
The CE Shop focused on creating mobile-friendly technology with an appealing and easy-to-use interface. However, there is room for improvement as The CE Shop continues to grow.
No Livestreaming or Live Instruction Option
While The CE Shop approach works for some, the lack of a live instruction online course means that it’s not a good fit for certain types of learners. Real estate education introduces complex concepts and it feels limiting to not have an option for livestream or live instruction.
No Direct Access to Instructors
Not only is there no live instruction, there is no direct access to instructors at all. If a student has a question, they must pose it to the support team, who will then send it out to the proper contact or instructor. While there is a promise to respond within two days, we feel that this is too long to wait when trying to progress through a course with plenty of detailed concepts.
Text-heavy Content
The truth is that all online real estate education is somewhat text-heavy. It requires a great deal of self-motivation and the ability to teach oneself based on content provided. The CE Shop is no exception. The courses are dense and the lesson resources can be even more so. While The CE Shop does a better job than most education providers of making the content varied, there is room for improvement.
Final Verdict on The CE Shop Student Experience
We strongly recommend The CE Shop for any student who doesn’t need live instruction. We like that their exam prep and continuing education are offered in all 50 states and discounts and promotions make these some of the most affordable and comprehensive packages available. With their outstanding pass rate, flexibility, and easy-to-use interface, The CE Shop is one of the best options on the market.
Over to You
We hope that our review has given you valuable insight into The CE Shop student experience and that you have all of the information you need to decide if The CE Shop is the right online real estate education provider for you.
Do you have experience with The CE Shop or other online schools? Have specific questions? Leave a comment below!
Add comment