So you’re looking to get a real estate license in Alabama and want to know more about Barnes School of Real Estate? In this Barnes School of Real Estate review we will help you to discover everything you need to know to make the right choice.
UPDATED: April 2024
Our Overall Rating
(2.8)
Overview Of Barnes School of Real Estate
Barnes School of Real Estate is run by a local Alabama real estate company called Barnes & Associates, REALTORS.
The parent company Barnes & Associates, REALTORS has been in business over 15 years and has a staff of over 20 real estate brokers.
The Barnes School of Real Estate makes no mention of the number of years they have been instructing students to pass the Alabama real estate exam. From our research for this Barnes School of Real Estate review it appears they have been a licensed real estate school since 2018.
What is clear is that the school offers a pre-licensing course, a cram course, and post license course.
All of the courses offered by this real estate school are in a physical classroom and no live webinars or online classes are offered.
As we do with every real estate school that we review, we made contact with Barnes School of Real Estate twice to get more information on the school and background of the instructors. Unfortunately they never responded to our requests for more information which has caused a very low score on their response times.
In-Depth Look At Barnes School of Real Estate Course
We will focus here on the Barnes School of Real Estate pre-licensing course only.
This course is offered live in a classroom setting only so you must travel to their Birmingham Alabama location.
The curriculum is taught Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm for two weeks and is taught by real estate instructor Tracy Wright.
These sessions are ten seven hour long classes with one hour for lunch.
This is an intense interactive course and allows students to get all the need to pass the Alabama real estate exam. It satisfies the 60 hours of pre-licensing education needed to become a real estate agent in Alabama.
In today’s technology savvy world, most people want some type of online option to take their real estate course. Having a course online allows people to take a course on their own time and help them to complete the education even if they have a busy schedule.
Barnes School of Real Estate however does not offer any type of online access to take their real estate course. Everything is done at a physical location in a classroom. If you have a full time job already it will be hard for you to take the two weeks to complete this program.
While there most likely is support live in the classroom, there does not seem to be any other way to get support should you have questions.
If you’re looking for a school that offers a pass guarantee, Barnes School of Real Estate does not offer any type of guarantee.
This real estate school has very low pass rates compared to other schools in Alabama. In fact, they have one of the lowest at 46.7%. You can see pass rates of all real estate schools in Alabama here.
Barnes School of Real Estate Pricing
The pricing structure of the courses offered by this real estate school are simple and straightforward. There are no packages to choose from like you see with many other Alabama real estate courses.
The cost of the classes is as follows:
- 2 Week Pre-License Course – $399
- 7.5 Week Pre-License – $399
- Post License Course – $250
So the pre-licensing course is $399. This is comparable to many of the other real estate schools in the state.
Included in the pricing is books and handouts and any other material that may be needed to complete the program.
Pros And Cons Of Using Barnes School of Real Estate
In this part of our Barnes School of Real Estate review we take a look at the pros and cons of choosing this school to get your pre-licensing education.
Pros
- Backed by a real estate firm with over 15 years of experience.
Cons
- Only offer physical classroom courses.
- No online or live webinar access to take the course online.
- Class occurs Monday through Friday during regular business hours which will not work for many people.
- Very limited information on the background of this real estate school.
- No information is given about the instructor and the instructor’s credentials.
- No response to repeated contact requests.
Conclusion And Verdict
Barnes School of Real Estate in Birmingham Alabama is a real estate school backed by Barnes & Associates, REALTORS which is a real estate firm that has a decent track record.
As stated above the parent company Barnes & Associates, REALTORS has a staff of 20 real estate agents.
However, this does not translate into anything related to the school. We could find no information that any of these real estate agents teach the pre-licensing course. That being said the post-licensing course is taught by Abra Barnes who is herself a licensed agent.
We are simply starting that the Barnes School of Real Estate website makes no mention of the credentials of the instructor teaching the course.
Their website does state that their instructors have a combined 60 years of real estate experience so it may be that each instructor is a licensed agent.
While the live classroom setting may be fantastic, most people in today’s world want the convenience of online courses because which allow people to take a course at their own pace. Barnes School of Real Estate does not offer anything like this.
Their classes are held in peak business hours when most people are at work. While this is fine for those who are not working, for those who are working full time and are simply looking to transition to real estate, this schedule would not work.
The biggest factor that influenced our rating is the fact that we were never able to get a response to our questions. Each of our requests went unanswered and answering potential student’s questions is very important.
We cannot recommend this real estate school at this time. There are other real estate schools in Alabama you may want to consider.