In Part 1 of this article, Bea Lozano discussed the antecedents of Mexico real estate licenses, and mentions that Thomas Lloyd, president of TOPMexicoRealEstate, was the first recipient of the new degree and professional license. Here she continues to discuss Thomas’ preparation for the exam, as well as the exam content and procedures.
Preparation Course
For Thomas Lloyd, the process of obtaining the new Mexico real estate degree started with a preparation course at La Salle University. The process was new, so universities and organizations did not have a clear understanding of exactly what questions or what areas would be covered in the exams. La Salle offers an 80 hour course, with a diploma. The preparation course at La Salle has a requirement of 3 years of experience.
A general outline had been distributed to the universities such as La Salle, which in turn was distributed to the applicants who had registered and paid their application fees. The diploma course, which included studying the text guidelines, lasted for several months, with classes each weekend, lasting from early in the morning to the late afternoon. In the course we studied various areas of the real estate profession, including marketing, Mexico real estate law, accounting, taxes. The themes covered in the class are as follows:
• To understand the supply and demand factors for real estate products and services.
• To know the classifications of property use (in addition to land use regulation of land use)
• To know the functions of the sales area.
• To understand the methods to acquire the rights of the property
• To know the stages of testamentary and non-testamentary succession
• Understand the classification of contracts for various real estate transactions
• Understand the concepts of Internal Rate of Return, present value and future value.
The application of the exam
The day before the exam, Thomas travelled to Cancun to relax. He stayed in a hotel across the street from where the exams were applied, and turned in quite early to be rested and fresh for the next morning.
Apart from what had been studied in the preparation course, the exam also included administration, economy, and finances, among other aspects of Mexico real estate. The exam had a time limit of five hours, and consisted of 177 multiple choice questions divided into 8 sections. Breaks were allowed, under clear restrictions and conditions, following the official exam guidelines. The exam was administered in strict accordance with guidelines in order to ensure that the questions were not revealed prior to the exam date to ensure formality and professionalism.
There were 16 cities throughout Mexico where the exam was applied; Morelia, Cancun Mazatlan, Zacatecas, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Veracruz, Cd. Juarez, Tijuana, Toluca, Guadalajara, Mexico City, the metropolitan area, Queretero, Puerto Vallarta, Monterrey. Likewise, the exam was applied in every city simultaneously, coordinated to have the exams distributed at the same hour, for the same reasons mentioned above.
Continued in Part 3
