Just Say No to Non Compete Clauses in Employment Contracts

     If you are looking to make a $100,000 mistake, sign an employment contract with a non compete clause.  Just as your career is shifting into second gear, you are offered a job with a competitor.  Your current employer reminds you that, when you started here, you signed an employment contract agreeing NOT to leave us and go to work for another employer in the same field and the same area.  WHAT!  I signed WHAT?  Read the employment contract before you sign it.

     Who benefits from the agreement NOT to compete in this area for two years?  The employee?  I don't think so.  The employer?  YESSIR.  The employer gets the benefit of the employee's work.  The employer pays for that.  That is fair.  The employer also gets an agreement not to compete with him for some period of time after termination of employment.  Does the employer pay for that? Nope, not one penny.  That is grossly unfair.  Wait!  The employee agreed to it.  That was before he read this article.  Is this agreement enforceable in court?

No non compete clause in your employment contract

     It was for me.  In 1996, I went to work as a part time real estate instructor for a real estate school in Orlando.  In 1998, I left that real estate school and opened my own real estate school in Orlando.  My old employer reminded me that two years ago, I had signed an employment contract agreeing NOT to compete with him for two years after termination within fifty miles of his location.  He sued me.  He obtained an injunction from the court ordering me to NOT teach any real estate classes within fifty miles of his location.  I moved fifty one miles away to Daytona Beach.  I opened Climer School of Real Estate.  Twenty four months later, I moved back to Orlando.  That was my $100,000 seminar.  I was a lot smarter after that.

     Just say NO to non compete clauses.  There is no upside for the employee.  It may be ten years later when a competitor offers you a opportunity as a sales manager.  Your old employer gets a court order stopping you from working in your field in his town.

     I promise that you will feel violated.  You are.  Do not let this happen to you.  Learn from my mistakes, not your own.  Just say no to non compete clauses.  www.firstrealestateschool.com

Another Real Estate Instructor Career Killed in Infancy

     Mike McCallister, the current national president of the Real Estate Educator's Association talked to us at the North Carolina Real Estate Educator's spring conference in Cary, North Carolina yesterday.  He told us that we need to bring some young, energetic, new instructors into the industry.

     In North Carolina, when you apply for a real estate instructor license, an instructor license candidate is required by the North Carolina Real Estate Commission to submit a 50 minute digital video recording of his teaching style to be evaluated by the staff of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.  If the staff does not like your video, you don't get a instructor license.  Here is link to explain my own lengthy, arduous, expensive, frustrating process as an old, experienced, veteran instructor to get my first real estate instructor license in North Carolina.  http://rondclimer.blogspot.com/2016/09/my-process-to-get-my-north-carolina.html  WHAT AN ORDEAL!

     During lunch, just before Mike spoke, I ran into a school director that I had met last year at the NCREEA fall conference last October.  I asked her where was her young protege.  She told me that her young protege had turned in two videos to the staff of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission while she had her six month temporary license was in force.  Both videos were rejected by the staff of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.  She gave up.

We need young, new real estate instructors in our industry

     WHAT A SHAME!  What a shame that her ability to get a real estate instructor license, based on whether or not the staff of the N.C.R.E.C. likes her video, stopped a career.  If I had the experience in 1978 in Florida when I got my first real estate instructor permit that I had in 2016 in North Carolina, I would haven given up.  I would have had to give up because I didn't have another $150 to pay for another expert video technician to shoot another video.  I could not even have afforded another sim card in those days.  I certainly could not have afforded an expert trainer to teach me how to teach the way someone else thinks is a good way to teach.

     I am not certain but I think that North Carolina is the only state in America that requires a video evaluation by the regulators to get a real estate instructor's license.  I appeared in person in December of 2016 along with several other instructors to beseech the N.C.R.E.C. to eliminate this unnecessary video evaluation hazing process.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPB0ZIwKWk8

     My hope is that other instructors will let the N.C.R.E.C. know that we do not need the regulators to tell us if an instructor is good or no good.  A school director can do that.  It would make sense for a school director to watch a fifty minute video of a job applicant or better yet sit in a classroom with that job applicant.  If that applicant explains things wrongly or has unacceptable poor grammar or offends several students, that school director would probably not hire that  instructor even if they do have a license.  That makes sense.  It does not make sense for the regulators to tell that poor instructor that he is not worthy to hold a real estate instructor license.

     At the recent instructor conference in Cary, Chris Barnett asked us to post some things on Facebook that other instructors would be interested in.  Please get interested in this.  Send an email to the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.  www.ncrec.gov   Let them know that you think the video evaluation process is unnecessary at least and a career killer at worst.

     If you can not take time to write a letter to the N.C.R.E.C. ,   please leave a comment here.  If you disagree with me, let us know.  Maybe there is something that I just do not understand.

     Hazing continues because many people have an attitude that I paid my price, the new guy needs to go through the same process.  Please do not take that attitude.  Some young instructor's career may be in jeopardy.  www.firstrealestateschool.com  

If I Fail The North Carolina Real Estate Exam, Is It My Instructor's Fault

     One of my pre license real estate students called me today to tell me that he had failed the state portion of the North Carolina real estate exam for the fourth time.  It costs $164 every time that you take that exam.

     I asked him, "What was the first thing you did  after leaving the exam site with a failure notice in your hand?".  " I don't remember.", he replied.  " What did I recommend that you do before you crank up your car if you leave the exam with a failure notice ?", I asked.  He told me," I can not remember you telling us anything to do.".

     Anyone that has sat in my real estate classroom for seventy five hours has been told what to do when you fail the North Carolina real estate exam. Anyone that can not remember this probably was not listening in class.  Do not sit in class and not listen.  You have taken time away from your family to attend class.  Listen and take notes. 

Pass your North Carolina real estate exam the first time.

     What does Ron climer want you to do when you fail the North Carolina real estate exam?  What does Ron Climer want you to do if you fail before you start your car in the parking lot of the test center?   Ron Climer wants you to leave a recorder or writing pad on the seat of the car before you go in the test center.  If you come out with a failure notice in your hand, start talking to that recorder or writing down every question that you saw that you did not know the answer to.

     Tell yourself what you did not know.  You don't have to remember the whole question.  Just write down," What is the Machinery Act?".  "When can we close without using a TRID closing statement?" , " What does T.R.I.D. stand for?"  "How many members of the N.C.R.E.C. must be real estate brokers?"   If you can not remember, at least, half of the questions that were on your real estate test ten minutes later, no wonder you are having problems.

     When you go back to take the real estate exam again at $164 per chance, you better know the answer to the ones that you did not know the answer to last time.  You will see them again.  Here is a tip.  http://rondclimer.blogspot.com/2017/12/what-about-those-trick-questions-on.html   Read this article.

     Have you read the "Comments"?   Have you read the "Comments"?  Have you read the "Comments"?  I hope you know what the "Comments" are.  In the ninth edition of Dearborn's textbook, "Modern Real Estate Practice in North Carolina"  the "Comments" are on page 614 through 637.  It is Appendix A.  It is practically an outline of the real estate exam.  If you want to know what is on the state portion of the test, read the "Comments".  Here is  a video to watch if you want more detail.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZFPZGo_DJ4 

     If you fail the North Carolina real estate exam, do not blame your instructor.  Do not blame the N.C.R.E.C.   Do not blame the AMP.  Even if it is your instructor's fault or the N,C.R.E.C. 's fault or AMP;s fault, who is effected most by your failure?   You are.  You are the one that has to pay $164 to take the test again. You are the one that has to keep studying.  You are the one that has to delay your career change until you solve this problem.

     Turn off the T.V.   Sell your Playstation.  Study like you want to make 100% on the exam.  Forget about barely passing.  Study like you want to make a 100% so you can see your picture on the front of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission's "Bulletin".

     If you want to pass, do what your instructor suggests.  Do most students do this?

     When computerized testing was new, I was teaching real estate classes in Florida.  I started telling my students that if they would bring a small box of chocolates to give to the test monitor and ask the monitor to give them the "easy" test , the monitor would give them the "easy" test.

     I am not sure if this is true in North Carolina.  I know this.  When someone calls me and tells me that they failed, my first question is," Did you take the chocolates?".  The answer is always no.  Spend three bucks and take the chocolates. 

     If you think you are ready for the North Carolina real estate exam, take my practice test at www.ncreexam.com   .   Take my practice exam over and over until you are making a 98%.   Watch the videos that explain the answers.

     If you can not amortize a mortgage, if you can not compute % of profit, if you can not compute square feet of a house with a bay window, if you can not compute a seller's proceeds at closing, if you can not compute how much a buyer brings to closing, if you can not determine value of a income producing property given appropriate capitalization rate and NOI , If you can not pro rate taxes and HOA fees, if you can not compute excise taxes, you need to watch my free You Tube videos that show you how to do the math that is on the North Carolina real estate exam.  You can't just hope that you won't get a question asking you to compute the interest rate when given the time and principal and interest paid of a loan.  It cost $164 to take the test again.  Here is a link to one of thirty videos that I posted  just to help you pass the first time.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3TtXSnMx9s 

     Between now and your exam date, if you get the urge to relax and watch TV, watch one of these thirty videos instead.  Invite a couple of your classmates over to watch with you.  Stay in touch with your classmates.

     One last thing!   Go to the bank and get eight twenty dollar bills and four ones.  Tell your family that if you pass the exam the first time like 57% of the people do, we are taking this $164 out to dinner.  Here is a link to last month's pass fail statistics.  http://rondclimer.blogspot.com/2018/01/pass-fail-ratio-for-north-carolina-real.html 

     Get your family's support.  Let them know that this is not easy.  One hundred and sixty four dollars is a lot of money at my house.  Do not underestimate the North Carolina real estate exam.  Please do not take any comfort in that barely  passing grade that you got at real estate school.

     If you are anywhere near Hendersonville and you want to get a real estate license, contact First Real Estate School at www.firstrealestateschool.com or 828 440 1064.
   

If You Get A Bad Instructor in Real Estate School in North Carolina..

     Yesterday, I received a sad email from a man in that had just taken a real estate licensing course from a real estate school in the flat end of North Carolina.

     He told me that his instructor was was pretty dull and uninteresting.  He told me that she did not really understand the material well enough to explain it.  He also told me that fourteen out of fourteen of the students enrolled in the class, failed the real estate school exam.  He emailed me to ask for advice.  He was asking me because he had watched my North Carolina real estate math videos on You Tube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMdJ-2iHepM&t=69s  Here is a link to one of the "Black Shirt" videos.  Watch all five of them if you are soon taking the North Carolina real estate exam.

     Here is the advice that I gave this man.  I told him to read every word of the text book.  Read every chapter at least once .  Three times would be better.  Read the "comments", Appendix A on page 615 of the ninth edition.  Read that at least three times.  Read "Real Estate Licensing In North Carolina' on page 638 of the textbook.  Here is a video to tell you what that is about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZFPZGo_DJ4&t=286s   This little brochure from the North Carolina Real Estate Commission tells us exactly what is on the North Carolina real estate exam.  This is the same ratio that this material is on the school exam.

     I told him to share any help he could find on the internet with his classmates.  Get together with your classmates and study together.  make passing the North Carolina real estate exam a group activity.

     I told him that one of my competitors has the entire class posted on You Tube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPGFNWukT8Q&t=290s   Here is a link to the first one.  This is free help.  Watch them all.

First Real Estate School in Hendersonville, N.C. 

     I told him to answer all the questions at the end of the chapters.  Really answer them like a test.  Grade yourself.  If you are not passing those, you probably won't pass the real estate school test which is written by the North Carolina real estate commission.  I told him to do all the other tests that are in the textbook.  I have have a free practice exam right here on this blog as well as a 100 question practice exam at www.ncreexam.com  Do those practice tests.

     I also have a North Carolina exam review at www.northcarolinaexamreview.com  on video.  This is not free .  It is certainly worthwhile.

     I also told  him to write his own questions.  Make flash cards.  Put,"What North Carolina law regulates ad valorum taxes ?" on one side of a 3x5 card and the
"machinery act" on the other side .  Make about  500 of these.  Use them.


    I suggested that he study any way he can morning,  noon and night.  I suggested that he could worry about his social life after he passed the North Carolina real estate exam, the exam with a 60% pass rate that costs $164 to take the second time.

     I suggested that there are many things that a student can do to help a struggling instructor.  Number one, pay attention.  Do not be part of the instructor's problem.  Be part of the instructor's solution.  Pay attention and insist that your classmates pay attention.  Talk to your classmates during the break .   Tell them that texting while the teacher is talking is RUDE RUDE RUDE.  Maybe they do not understand that.  Maybe they believe in multitasking.  I assure you will not be passing the North Carolina real estate exam if you are multitasking.  It is hard to listen to a mediocre instructor explain title insurance while posting on Facebook.  Do your part as a student.  Ask a question if you don't understand.  Don't attack and criticize the teacher.  Help the teacher.  Your tuition is spent.  You have to put in the hours.  It is going to affect your life more than it is the teacher's if you fail.

     Getting a real estate license in North Carolina is not easy.   The course is difficult.  The material is boring even if you have a fabulous instructor.  The North Carolina real estate exam is hard with a capital H.  Overstudy.  Study like you are appearing on a quiz show with a million dollar prize.

Guide to Passing AMP Real Estate Exam, get this book.

     There is a wonderful book titled "Guide to Passing the AMP Real Estate Exam" .  We sell this book on our website at www.firstrealestateschool.com  .   I am sad to admit this.  I did not know how wonderful this book was until my own students started telling me.  I now sell it in class as well as the website.  Get this book.  It is full of questions and wonderful explanations.  It is published by Dearborn, the same people that publish you real estate textbook.

    If you are in the mountain end of North Carolina and you want to get a real estate license, consider us, First Real Estate School, in Hendersonville.  Study, study,study.

The North Carolina Real Estate Commission, Today I Spoke To Them

     Today is December 14, 2016.  I drove from Tryon, North Carolina to Raleigh and addressed the North Carolina Real Estate Commission this morning.  If you have not read my article about my arduous process to get my North Carolina real estate instructor permit, you should read that.  http://rondclimer.blogspot.com/2016/09/my-process-to-get-my-north-carolina.html   It explains the unnecessarily difficult trial that I had to go through to get my North Carolina real estate instructor license.  It is my belief that I am not the only new instructor going through this needless gauntlet.

December 14, 2016 at the North Carolina Real Estate Commission Meeting

     Here is what I said,"Mr. Chairman, Members of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.  I am Ron Climer with First Real Estate School in Hendersonville, North Carolina.  When I received Mrs. Hamlin's email on November 15, telling me that the Commission was considering repealing rule 58 C 0605, the rule that requires newly licensed real estate instructor to submit a hour long video to the staff of the NCREC, I made my hotel reservation immediately.

     0605, video evaluation by a small committee or single person is an idea that probably seemed like a good idea at the time it was passed.  When this rule was passed back in 2000, I am sure it seemed like a good idea.  The government has passed many laws through the years that seemed like a good idea at the time.  Prohibition, slavery, these seemed like a good idea at the time.  History proved that they were not good ideas.  The government repealed these laws.  That is the situation with video evaluation of real estate instructors.  This rule needs to be repealed.

     Who benefits from video evaluation of real estate instructors?   The general public.  I don't think so. The instructor applicant.  That is a big fat NO.  This video evaluation  process does not make any instructor a better teacher.  Does the Commission benefit?  Again, no unless their purpose is to become a bottleneck as described in the Wall Street Journal article that I have enclosed with your printed material.   http://www.wsj.com/articles/breaking-down-bottleneckers-1479680470   I do not think that is what the Commission is trying to accomplish.

     The North Carolina Real Estate Commission needs to ask itself; is video evaluation of real estate instructors necessary?   The answer is no.  Free enterprise weeds out the bad instructors a lot better than evaluation by a small committee watching a video.

     Most importantly, the North Carolina Real Estate Commission needs to ask; Is this process accurate?

     I can only speak to my own experience.  I don't know the experience of other real estate instructors.  You Do.  You are the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.  This information is available to you.  Here is my experience.

     I started teaching pre license real estate classes in Orlando, Florida in 1978.  Between then and 2014, I built the largest real estate school in central Florida.  People sent their friends to me.  People sent their relatives to me.  People sent their new recruits to me.  My past students are now president and past president of the local association of Realtors, the Florida Association of Realtors.  They own their own real estate offices.  They are sales managers at time share resorts.  Three of my competitive real estate schools in central Florida are my students.  My past students have posted over 250 Google reviews on Climer School of Real Estate's website www.climerrealestateschool.com  stating that I am an excellent instructor.  They have sent me emails.  They have sent me gifts.  I have more positive Google reviews on First Real Estate School's website than any other real estate school in North Carolina.  www.firstrealestateschool.com  We just opened May 1, 2016.

     On May 23rd , I sent in my first video for evaluation.  It was rejected by the staff of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission on July 12th.  On July 14th, I sent in my second attempt.  It was rejected by the staff the North Carolina Real Estate Commission  on August 12th.  When it was rejected, I posted on Facebook that the staff of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission had told me that I was not worthy to hold an instructor's license in North Carolina.  One hundred of my past real estate students sent an email to Bruce Moyer at the Commission office and told him that I was an extra ordinary instructor.  Bruce sent me an email and told me that it  does not matter what my past students think.  It matters what the staff of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission thinks.

     On September 10, the staff rejected my third video.  On September 14, I sent in my fourth video.  On November 14, that fourth video was approved by the staff of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. I now have my permanent North Carolina real estate instructor license.

    In America, in North Carolina, we have the free enterprise system, the market.  Bad instructors are quickly weeded out by the market.  In today's world of Google reviews and Yelp reviews and Facebook etc., it is pretty easy to find out who is a bad instructor and who is a good instructor. Bad instructors can't get a job.  Bad instructors can't get students.  We don't need the staff of the licensing agency to weed out bad instructors.  The market will weed them out.  This is the system used in the other 49 states.  It works well.

     Let me spend my last minute talking about emotions, feelings.  This video evaluation process feels like HAZING.  Hazing, like sororities and fraternities and military academies do. Ostensibly, the purpose of hazing is to humble, to teach.  We all know the purpose of hazing is to humiliate.

     When I was writing my article,"My Process to Get My North Carolina Real Estate Instructor License", I turned to my wife and asked her, " Kathy what is the difference between humbling and humiliating?".  She quickly replied, " Some people need to be humbled.  No one needs to be humiliated.".

     Evaluation by a single person or small committee,  this is for beauty contests, not for worthiness to get a license to earn a living.  Is this video evaluation process necessary? Is it subjective?  Is it discriminatory?  Is it restraint of trade?  Is it hazing? Is it beneficial to the public?

     Repeal 58 C 0605.  End this video evaluation of instructors and don't replace it.

     Thank you for listening to me this morning."

     That was my five minutes with the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.  There were twenty other real estate school owners and instructors.  Most of them did not speak.  The commission will consider these rule changes until the next meeting on January 17, 2017.

     If you did not have time to travel to Raleigh to give a five minute talk, I can certainly understand that.  If you believe, as I do , that this video evaluation process is worse than unnecessary.  It is abuse.  Take ten minutes and write a letter to the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.  There website is www.ncrec.gov   If you know a real estate instructor that has been through what I have been through, send this article to her.

     We have until January 17 to let the Commission know how we feel.  They can not read our collective mind.  Send a letter today. You don't have to be an instructor to write.  Anyone can let the commission know how you feel.  Send a letter to the Commission today.