The CE Shop Review + Video Walk-through

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.”

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 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%.

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.

If The CE Shop offers courses in your state, they are fully accredited by your state’s real estate licensing board. 

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.