In the competitive world of real estate, education is the cornerstone of success. We looked into the industry leader, Key Realty School, with its main campus in Las Vegas, Nevada. Key has helped more than 40,000 students move toward licensing, gain advanced knowledge, and determine their niche in the real estate industry. Key Realty School is a private, distance-learning and on-campus institution that provides classroom study, online enrollment and correspondence courses, enabling students from all walks of life and from any background to get a real estate license. The institution has taken over real-estate education in the Western U.S., with courses offered in Arizona, Oklahoma and California in addition to Nevada, with plans to expand to Utah, Oregon, New Mexico and Hawaii in 2013.

Key fills a void in real-estate education. Prior to the latest recession, real estate license fraud was rampant, and state licensure bodies struggled with deficits in real estate education. Though Key Realty started in 1992, it grew rapidly over the past decade to meet the demands of government and students who wanted to get licensed in Western States. Key's support staff is rated by current and former students as being some of the most knowledgeable and effective within their field of expertise. The age-old adage within educational confines of 'publish or perish' refer to the importance of maintaining the most current and up-to-date information available to students, and the industry alike. Key Realty School also owns a publishing company: Key Realty Publishing Company, which was launched in 1998.

Led by second-generation President, Mike Federwitz, Key Realty School provides preparatory and advanced courses required for licensure as well as continuing education credit coursework  for those licensed or soon-to-be-licensed professionals who focus on staying current with the latest developments, information, strategies and techniques that can provide their clients with the most effective assistance possible. The courses that Key Realty School offers include the fields of: appraisals, business brokerage, community management, home inspection, mortgage lending, Nevada, Arizona and California real estate, property management, and managing time shares.

For example, Nevada requires that a person complete ninety hours of education before he or she may earn a license in real estate. This does not mean that a person must complete 90 hours of class time, but rather that the individual understand the fundamental principles and practices of real estate that include laws pertaining to Nevada before earning his/her license. Key Realty School provides the essential means by which any individual may meet the Nevada requirements. These methods are designed to be flexible to accommodate family and professional obligations and challenging schedules. Whether the student prefers classroom, home study, online or a combination of two or more, it is deemed acceptable as long as the student understands the subject material associated with the license he or she aims to acquire.

The school does not administer and is not associated in any way with the State of Nevada's licensing examinations, but its courses are approved for training for the license exam. Students from out of state are welcome to attend Key Realty School classes and as long as they are legally permitted to work in the United States, they can become licensed.

Key Realty School is a foundational step toward any individual's dreams of becoming licensed in the field of real estate and being successful in their professional endeavors. It fills an unmet gap in real estate education and, as it continues to expand eastward, helps real estate agents to satisfy homebuyers and overburdened real estate licensing offices still coping with the real estate fallout from the last recession.