The CE Shop provides real estate professionals an innovative and results-driven learning experience
With 46 years of experience in the real estate industry under his belt, Nick D’Ambrosia understands the importance of education—and the role it plays in a real estate professional’s career. From those getting ready to jump in feet first to those looking into continuing education courses in order to retain their real estate license, there’s only one place to turn to: The CE Shop.
Founded in 2005, The CE Shop offers online courses in real estate pre-licensing, post-licensing and continuing education, with classes available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
“When talking about education, it’s important that you don’t confuse it with training, which is all about teaching real estate professionals how to make money,” says D’Ambrosia.
As the principal broker/broker of record at Long & Foster, D’Ambrosia is also responsible for overseeing education initiatives via Long & Foster Institute of Real Estate and Foster Real Estate School in Pennsylvania.
“Real estate schools, by law, have to be independent and open to all licensees,” says D’Ambrosia, whose No. 1 goal is to provide the highest quality courses possible to the thousands of real estate professionals turning to the brand’s schools for their education needs.
And thanks to The CE Shop, which has been the brand’s education provider for the last six-plus years, real estate professionals across the board have access to an innovative and results-driven learning experience—no matter where they are in their real estate career.
“When I came to Long & Foster 10 years ago, we were working with a different provider and found ourselves running into a variety of challenges,” explains D’Ambrosia, who was always looking to see what else was available in the marketplace.
“I ended up meeting Michael McAllister, co-founder of The CE Shop, around the same time that the laws were changing in Washington, D.C., in order to allow online pre-licensing,” adds D’Ambrosia.
The only problem? There wasn’t anyone that offered it.
“Michael stepped up to the plate in a big way and offered to write the course, and once it had been written, I switched everything over to The CE Shop,” says D’Ambrosia.
Fast forward to today, and Long & Foster has become a trusted source for real estate education. In fact, more agents trust Long & Foster for their education and professional development than anyone else in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.
In the last year alone, 17,000-plus students attended real estate courses, including pre- and post-licensing classes; 5,000-plus people completed Long & Foster’s Pre-Licensing program either in person or online; and 800-plus in-person and online pre-licensing and continuing education courses were hosted by Long & Foster.
“Everyone knows we offer education,” says D’Ambrosia, “because we promote it a lot.”
While the benefits of working with The CE Shop are plenty, according to D’Ambrosia, the online component is perhaps most notable.
“Over the last 10 years, there’s been a big push to get people right out of college to select real estate as a first career, which has brought a significant shift in the amount of people leaning toward online learning,” says D’Ambrosia.
No matter the motivation behind someone’s decision to get into real estate, a solid foundation centered on education is perhaps the single most important component that can’t be overlooked.
For more information, please visit www.theceshop.com.
Paige Tepping is RISMedia’s managing editor. Email her your real estate news ideas to paige@rismedia.com.
