Keller Williams Inglewood and California Realty Training offer a real estate license course.
By Blake Carter
The real estate market in South Los Angeles and Inglewood has been skyrocketing over the last few years with the anticipation of the new football stadium and basketball arena in Inglewood, and Metro’s LAX/Crenshaw line. When the real estate market is hot, there’s a lot of money to be made for people working in the real estate industry.
“There are many ways to build wealth, but my opinion is that real estate is one of the safest and steadiest ways to make money,” said real estate broker Love Tafari. “If you position yourself, real estate is an excellent way to build wealth.”
Tafari is from Los Angeles, graduated from Fairfax High School, and she received a BS in business administration with an accounting concentration from San Jose State University. She teaches a real estate license course at Keller Williams Inglewood. This program is in partnership with California Realty Training.
Tafari teaches three prerequisite courses that people need to take in order to apply for the real estate sales test. Real Estate Principles and Real Estate Practice are mandatory courses. Real Estate Finance is an elective. Each course is three weeks long, meeting twice a week, with classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The total cost to take all three courses is $400.
Adults of all ages and educational backgrounds take this course. Tafari has taught students with MBAs and many who did not attend college. Many of those students went on to have various jobs within the real estate industry.
“You don’t have to be a sales agent who is living off of commission income only,” Tafari said. “There’s a lot of ways to make money in real estate besides just being a real estate sales agent. Of course you can be a real estate sales agent who does residential or commercial sales, or leasing. You can be a real estate lender who works with buyers and investors. You can work on the wholesale side of real estate lending. You can be an investor who flips homes, or who buys and rents to people. There are a lot of creative things that you can do once you get your real estate license.”
Tafari also said that people with real estate licenses can get into property management, become a referral agent, support real estate agents by being a social media manager or telemarketer, become a notary with a loan signing service, teach real estate courses or write books on the real estate industry.
Many people who obtain real estate licenses have kept the jobs that they had before they obtained the license.
“Having this information under your belt can really serve you well,” Tafari said. “If you’ve never owned a home, you might want to get a license so that you can understand the process. And maybe even represent yourself in your first transaction.”
Becoming a home owner has become difficult over the last few years because of the rising prices, which makes the information in these courses valuable for anybody who is looking to purchase property.
“Over the last four years prices for single family homes has gone up by 40 percent in anticipation of what’s going to happen,” Tafari said. “And it’s not just the stadium. The Olympics are coming. And tech businesses are coming. All of those forces are driving up prices. Being a home owner is not only a way to build wealth, it’s also a way to fight inflation and fight gentrification. If you’re renting, you might not be able to afford to live in the City of Inglewood in the future.”
For more information about the real estate license courses, visit www.carealtytraining.com. Tafari can be reached at (310) 733-9331 and visit her website at www.lovetafarirealtor.com.
