You may be thinking of joining the VanEd Real Estate School but are not sure if it’s any good. We have discovered everything you need to know in this extensive VanEd Real Estate School review.
Once you’re done reading this review you should have enough information to know if this real estate school is right for you or if you should look for another.
UPDATED: April 2024
Our Overall Rating
(4.3)
Overview Of VanEd Real Estate School
VanEd Real Estate School is an online school that helps people learn how to become real estate agents and is also a real estate appraisal school.
Founded in 1997 by Vann Hilty, VanEd has seen close to 15,000 students learning to get a license as an agent and close to 40,000 continuing education students.
Vann Hilty named the school VanEd which is short for “Van Education Center”. His goal was to provide a new format to teach students by offering online classes. VanEd was only teaching students in Colorado at that time.
This real estate school has eight different instructors that teach students.
They offer pre-licensing courses in six states at the time we compiled this VanEd Real Estate School review.
Besides pre-licensing courses, VanEd also has real estate continuing education courses, real estate exam prep, mortgage broker licensing course, appraisal licensing courses, appraisal continuing education courses, and even appraisal exam prep.
Certifications:
VanEd Real Estate School is approved and certified and part of the following organizations:
- Certified by ARELLO®
- Approved by IDECC
- CDEI – Certified Distance Education Instructor
- REEA – The Real Estate Educators Association
- RAPDD – REALTOR® Association Professional Development Directors Summit
In-Depth Look At VanEd Real Estate School Course
In this section we will take a closer look at the VanEd Real Estate School course offerings. We will focus mainly on their real estate pre-license courses but will mention a few of their other courses.
Pre-License Courses
The VanEd Real Estate School has pre-license courses in four states:
It’s in these four states that they offer actual pre-license training on their own platform. This means they are licensed to teach courses in these states only at this time.
When you’re on their website you can choose from many other states to get pre-license training. However, in these other states, the courses offered are not through VanEd and are not full pre-license training. They send you to some other site called “Leader’s Choice Online” which is not a pre-license course at all so this is very strange and confusing.
We will focus only on these four states that they offer full pre-licensing courses for.
VanEd Colorado Pre-License Course
The VanEd Real Estate School Colorado pre-license course is the oldest course they offer. They started in Colorado so this was their flagship course and this course can help you get a real estate license in Colorado.
The Colorado pre-license course provides the full 168 hours of pre-licensing education you will need to pass the Colorado real estate licensing exam.
This is an in-depth course and is broken down into a welcome module and six different courses all designed to give you the 168 hours of pre-license education you will need in the state of Colorado.
The Colorado pre-license course is available in three different packages:
- Essentials
- Advantage
- Premium
Each package gives you access to the course for one full year and each has a 5-day free trial to help you see if the course is for you.
Of course the premium packages “Advantage and Premium” offer a bit more than the standard Essentials package. Specifically though, the “Advantage and Premium” packages offer the “pass guarantee” which means you can get a full refund on the price of the course if you do not pass the state exam on the first try. However, you must complete the whole process on their schedule to get this guarantee.
These premium packages also offer workbooks, study guide, and personal advisor. The most expensive package called “Premium” includes 20% off for one year of continuing education courses, CREC Commission update course, and the Kickstart course.
Pass Rates:
The VanEd Real Estate School Colorado pre-license course has a student pass rate of 91% which is quite high. Although their website says they have the number one pass rate of all Colorado real estate schools, this is not true. The CE Shop, Colibri Real Estate and Kaplan real estate school all have higher pass rates in Colorado.
Oklahoma Pre-License Course
Oklahoma requires that you take 90 hours of pre-license training before you can take the Oklahoma real estate license exam. The VanEd Real Estate School Oklahoma pre-license course has everything you need to meet this requirement. (check out other online Oklahoma real estate schools)
They offer two packages one is for the sales license education package and the other is the package to get a real estate brokers license in the state.
Both packages offer four required courses and a welcome module. Textbooks are also included in the cost.
As with most of the VanEd Real Estate School courses, you get a 5-day free trial to see if the course is for you. With no credit card, you can explore the course to see if it’s what you need to get your real estate education.
Nebraska Pre-License Course
In the state of Nebraska the real estate commission requires that you have 66 hours of pre-license education to get a real estate license. The VanEd Real Estate School Nebraska pre-license course can help you meet the 66 hour requirement. (check out other Nebraska real estate schools)
This course has one package that includes six course modulus plus one welcome module. The Modern Real Estate Practice textbook is also included as part of the package at no additional cost.
You can also choose to add a Nebraska real estate exam prep package for an extra charge.
With this course as with the others you get a free 5-day trial to test out the program.
Texas Pre-License Course
The VanEd Real Estate School Texas pre-license course offers six courses to meet the 180 hours required by the state of Texas.
Each of the six courses has all of the information you will need to learn to pass the Texas real estate license exam.
The Texas Pre-License package includes downloadable ebooks for each course which gives you the option to print off the course material in the event that you want to have a physical copy.
They also have an excellent Exam Prep course included in the course package that has proven to be incredibly beneficial in increasing the pass rates for the state licensing exams.
The Texas courses offered by VanEd are available in two different package options. The 180-Hour Package and the 180-Hour + SAE Package.
Both packages offer everything you need to learn to become a real estate agent in Texas but the 180-Hour + SAE course package also provides you with all of the education you will need for pre-license to fulfill your 98 Hour Post-License requirements.
How The Courses Work
Here is a video to let you see inside the VanEd course dashboard and get an idea of how the courses are set up:
Once you’ve enrolled in any of the pre-license courses, you have one full year for course completion. The courses are entirely online and are self-paced, so you can work on the courses at your own leisure and the VanEd system will keep track of your progress.
Most states require students to follow certain timing guidelines and the VanEd system will let you know if you haven’t spent enough time in a certain course.
The majority of the courses contents are reading however there are a few audio and video elements.
Login:
Once you make payment for your course you will login from the VanEd website. Just click student login at the top of the site.
Dashboard:
After login, you will be brought to the student dashboard where you can see your courses you have in progress and access completion certificates.
Take Course:
Just click the course you signed up for and you will enter the course where you left off. Read content, interact with material in the form of videos and multimedia, take quizzes, practice exams, and learn real estate vocabulary with online flashcards.
Get Help:
You can get help at any time from your instructor by email, phone, chat, or Q and A.
Complete The Course:
When you are completed with the course, you will be able to access a completion certificate that you can download and use to prove that you have completed your pre-license education requirements.
All Online
All of the VanEd courses are online and can be accessed 24/7 on a laptop, PC computer, tablet, or phone. This makes learning easy and can be done anywhere at any time. This is much more convenient than traditional classroom learning.
Support
Each course comes with support from licensed instructors so you can be sure help is there when you need it. You can contact support by email, phone, and chat.
VanEd Real Estate School Pricing
Now we will take a look at the pricing for each of the pre-license courses offered by VanEd.
VanEd Colorado Pre-License Course
This course has three packages to choose from and the prices are listed below:
- Essentials: $599
- Advantage: $699
- Premium: $799
These prices can change at any time and many times they offer discounts but these are the standard prices when this VanEd Real Estate School review was written.
Oklahoma Pre-License Course
The Oklahoma course has two different options to choose from. They are listed below along with the pricing:
- Sales License Package: $449
- Broker License Package: $475
As mentioned above these prices can change at any time but these are the original prices without any discounts.
Nebraska Pre-License Course
The VanEd Nebraska course only has one course option and at this time the original price is $490 not including any discounts.
Texas Pre-License Course
The Texas pre-license course has two different packages to choose from. They are listed below along with the pricing:
- 180-Hour: $495
- 180-Hour + SAE: $799
These are the original prices and this can change because they often have specials and discounts available.
Payment Plans
For those who can’t afford to pay for the course in full, convenient payment plans are available.
Pros And Cons Of Using VanEd Real Estate School
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using the VanEd Real Estate School to get your real estate license training.
Pros
- School has long track record
- 5-day free trial
- Easy to contact support
- Phone number to call for help
- Easy to use modern platform
- Offer some continuing education courses
- Offer some post-licensing courses
- Good response times
- A+ Rating With BBB
Cons
- Pre-license courses only available in four states
- Pass guarantee only available in Colorado
- Not as much interaction as some online courses
- Pricing is a bit higher than other online schools
Conclusion And Verdict
There are many good things we can say about the VanEd Real Estate School.
The Upside
They have a long track record and have been teaching students since 1997. This gives them many years of experience they can bring to the table.
We also like the fact that the school gives you a 5-day free trial allowing you to take a test drive before paying anything.
The platform used to deliver the course material is sleek and modern making the course taking experience fun.
Support is available when you need it by phone, email, or chat. This is crucial when you need an answer fast. We found them to be incredibly responsive with response times around one hour.
The Downside
There is not much we didn’t like about the VanEd Real Estate School but there were a few things that we felt could be improved.
The course itself is not as interactive as some courses such as AceableAgent but, overall, ranks right there at the top.
We also wish they offered a true pass guarantee in other states but they only offer this for the state of Colorado.
The pricing is a bit higher than other real estate schools. The CE Shop and Colibri Real Estate have lower prices for very similar courses.
The main negative we see with this real estate school is the fact that they only offer pre-licensing courses in four states. This means if you are looking to get your education in any other states besides these four you are out of luck at this time.
If you need education in any other state, we suggest Colibri Real Estate or The CE Shop which offer pre-license courses in a wide variety of states.
Overall though, we think that VanEd Real Estate School can provide you with everything you need to learn the ins and outs of real estate and to pass your state’s exam. We recommend it highly.