I’m getting this question a lot and it also begs a couple of other questions – Who needs to take NMLS approved courses, and should you take NMLS approved courses if you are not required to?
First – If you secured your license before July 31, 2009 in the State of Washington, you can take either DFI approved classes or NMLS approved classes. We mean one or the other, not a mixture of the two. This is important because we all need to accumulate 20 hours pre-license credits by the end of May 2010. If you were licensed after July 30, 2009, you must take NMLS approve courses and must have all 20 hours by the end of this year.
With DFI approved classes, you can count the CE credits you earned in 2007 and 2008 towards those hours. This means if you had 6 hours in ‘07 and ‘08, your additional 8 hours this year completes your 20 hours. So, to take the fewest hours possible, under this scenario – take DFI approved Classes.
Than being said, is there any advantage to taking NMLS classes if you were licensed before July 31, 2009?
If you were licensed in ‘08 before July 31, you will still need to take additional hours to reach your 20 pre-licensing hours, so the number of classes question does not matter. Everyone should choose simply based on their professional needs. NMLS pre-licensing classes are designed to help you gain the knowledge you need as a mortgage professional and to assist you with studying for the National and State exams. If you have not taken the National exam and feel like you need to study, you might want to take courses that are specifically focused on pre-license subjects.
But, if I was licensed before ‘08, won’t I have to take extra hours, you might ask? Not as many as you might think. In 2009, if you take 3 – 3 hour courses you have 9 hours towards the 20 required by end of May 2010. Remember, you will still have CE requirements next year. If you take another 3 classes before May 31, you will be up to 18 hours. This leaves you needing 1 additional class to get your 20 hours.
To address this need, AppleTree is offering 1 class free to those taking the rest of their NMLS approved PE classes with us; therefore they will have no additional expenses if they choose to take NMLS classes over DFI classes. You will have to spend the time, but not the money.
