Being the rules-oriented person I am, as soon as I got my property management license, I started myself on a very responsible track of systematically getting my 30 hours of continuing education classes out of the way. With time to spare, I racked up 34 hours taking classes on landlord tenant law, electrical codes, fair housing law, mold remediation, and renovating when lead paint is present. Let me tell you, 8 hours of lead paint class is tedious. Lucky for me, the class was 99% male and the instructor was skilled in the art of profanity, so it kept things interesting.
All of my responsible pre-planning came crashing down on me when the State decided to implement new continuing education rules 3 months before my renewal date. To add insult to injury, they only apply to a small portion of property managers, of which I am part. Fantastic.
Interestingly enough, the newly required 27-hour "Property Manager Advanced Practices" class is only available from a single vendor (online) for the low, low price of $193. That doesn't seem suspicious at all. In vain, I searched for a coupon code. After resigning myself to the fact that I had no choice, I paid for the class, and started my "advanced" class. Right. It turns out to be a complete recycling of the class you take to prepare for taking your licensing test. Great.
To add insult to injury, after I finished the class, they emailed me a universal 15% off coupon that anybody can use, for any class, including the one I just took.
Lesson learned: The early bird is left to squirm (when the rules get changed at the last minute).
