Home > Available Online Courses > 3-Hour Business Ethics
3-Hour Florida Real Estate Business Ethics
Professional Decisions Build Professional Reputations
Real estate professionals routinely make decisions involving customers, clients, other licensees, brokers, transactions, compensation, advertising, confidential information, and competing interests.
Those decisions can affect more than the outcome of a transaction. They can affect the licensee’s reputation, the brokerage’s reputation, and the public’s confidence in the real estate profession.
The Class Made Easy 3-Hour Business Ethics course provides participating real estate schools with an educational option for helping real estate professionals examine ethical responsibilities and sound business practices.
Good Business and Ethical Business Should Work Together.
Ethics Is Part of Everyday Real Estate Practice
Ethical issues do not always arrive with a warning label. They often appear in ordinary business decisions.
What information should be disclosed? How should competing interests be handled? What promises should be made in advertising? How should confidential information be protected? How should a licensee respond when a transaction creates pressure to compromise professional judgment?
The choices made in these situations can shape the relationship between the real estate professional and the people being served.
Business Ethics education encourages licensees to think beyond whether something can be done and consider whether it should be done.
More Than Following the Law
Law and ethics are closely related, but they are not identical.
License law establishes legal requirements and professional responsibilities. Ethics asks real estate professionals to consider the standards that should guide their conduct when making business decisions.
A particular situation may require a licensee to consider legal duties, brokerage policies, professional standards, consumer expectations, and personal judgment at the same time.
Understanding that distinction can help licensees approach difficult situations more thoughtfully.
Ethical Decisions Affect More Than One Transaction
A transaction eventually closes or ends. A professional reputation continues.
How a licensee communicates, handles conflicts, protects information, represents facts, works with other professionals, and responds when problems arise can influence future business long after a particular transaction is completed.
Ethical conduct can contribute to trust, repeat business, professional relationships, and referrals. Poor decisions can damage those relationships just as quickly.
A Focused 3-Hour Educational Offering
The Class Made Easy 3-Hour Business Ethics course gives real estate schools a focused educational product that can complement their broader Continuing Education programs.
It provides an opportunity to address professional conduct and business practices without attempting to turn ethics into a purely theoretical subject.
The objective is to connect ethical principles with the decisions real estate professionals encounter while conducting business.
Part of Continuing Professional Education
Ethical decision-making is not something a real estate professional learns once and never revisits.
The industry changes. Business practices change. Technology changes. Communication methods change. Consumer expectations change.
New circumstances can create new ethical questions even when the underlying principles remain familiar. Continuing education gives licensees an opportunity to reconsider those principles in the context of current professional practice.
Ethics and the Real Estate Business
Real estate transactions frequently involve large financial decisions and relationships built upon trust.
Consumers may depend upon real estate professionals for information, guidance, communication, and assistance during transactions that can have significant personal and financial consequences.
Ethical business practices help establish the professional standards upon which those relationships depend.
For brokers, ethics also influences leadership, supervision, company policies, training, and the culture of the brokerage.
Business Ethics for Sales Associates and Brokers
Ethical responsibilities exist throughout a real estate organization.
Sales Associates make decisions in their daily interactions with buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, other licensees, and the public.
Brokers carry additional responsibilities because their decisions can influence the conduct, policies, supervision, and reputation of the entire brokerage.
Business Ethics education provides an opportunity for both Sales Associates and Brokers to examine professional conduct from the perspective of real-world real estate practice.
Part of Florida Continuing Education
For applicable Florida real estate license renewals, the current 14-hour continuing education requirement consists of 3 hours of Core Law, 3 hours of Ethics and Business Practices, and 8 hours of specialty education.
The CME 3-Hour Business Ethics course is one component of that broader continuing education requirement. It should not be treated as satisfying a licensee’s complete 14-hour continuing education requirement by itself.
Students and schools should verify current requirements with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation before relying on any individual course to satisfy a particular renewal obligation.
Core Law and Business Ethics
Core Law and Business Ethics address different but complementary areas of professional education.
Core Law focuses on laws, regulations, and legal responsibilities affecting Florida real estate practice.
Business Ethics focuses on professional conduct, ethical decision-making, and the standards that influence how real estate professionals conduct business.
Together, they help licensees consider both the regulatory environment in which they practice and the professional standards that should guide their conduct.
Online Business Ethics Education
Practicing real estate professionals often need educational flexibility.
An online Business Ethics course allows licensees to complete available education around transaction schedules, customer appointments, work responsibilities, and personal commitments.
Through the Class Made Easy online education platform, participating schools can make the available Business Ethics course part of their online educational offerings.
Class Made Easy provides the course content and technology while the school maintains its relationship with its students.
Keep Continuing Education Connected to Your School
A former student may have completed Pre-License education with your school years ago. Continuing Education provides a reason for that student to return.
By offering Business Ethics, Core Law, the 14-Hour Continuing Education program, and other professional education, a school can continue serving licensees throughout their careers.
The relationship can begin before the student receives a license and continue long after the first transaction closes.
Education Can Begin a Professional Relationship That Lasts for Years.
A Note About REALTOR® Association Ethics Requirements
The CME Business Ethics course is presented as Florida real estate continuing education.
Florida continuing education requirements and separate REALTOR® association ethics requirements are not necessarily the same. Licensees who are subject to an association ethics requirement should verify that requirement with the applicable association before relying on this course for that purpose.
Add Business Ethics to Your Educational Offerings
Business Ethics gives your school another opportunity to provide relevant professional education to Florida real estate licensees.
It can complement Core Law, Continuing Education, Broker education, and other programs while helping your school remain connected to the real estate professionals it serves.
Class Made Easy provides the educational content and online technology to help participating schools make these opportunities available.
Better Decisions. Stronger Professionalism. Better Business Practices.
Related CME education: 3-Hour Core Law • 14-Hour Continuing Education • 28-Hour Reactivation
Planning a new school? Start a Real Estate School in Florida.