Gold Coast Schools

Keith Grandy was the best instructor I’ve ever had when it comes to certification testing courses. Kept us engaged and covered what was needed. Already passed my State Exam and can’t thank GCS for kickstarting this new venture for me. Took me only 12 days to get this done!

Good school and very knowledgable, however my instructor named peter klein tends to overly state his love towards obama. For him to get an A rating he would have to keep his liberal comments in his pants.

I can’t begin to describe how grateful I am to GC! I had instructor Grandy and I pass my exam with flying colors!!! If you are thinking about giving real estate a shot, I highly recommend GC and only take the class that Grandy is teaching.
Thank you for everything!!!

I was contacted via phone and email afterwards by Tim Marcus, Marketing Coordinator to discuss the incidents in more details; he was very professional and understood everything I wrote and said to him, he admitted the school «dropped the ball» and invited me back to the school to get the entire course at no charge, he also corrected the refund discrepancies and noted what went wrong so this issues does NOT happens again in the future…
I truly believe errors do happens, the great thing about being humans is the way we react and fix problems & mistakes. I’m upgrading my ratings to a 4 stars one taking in count his approach and follow up as well as my experience in the initial course taken where the Insurance Instructor: Hyman Levy was very knowledgeable and managed to have an interesting class.
After I retake the courses I will reevaluate this rating and I hope it will be upgrade to a 5 stars one.
PS: My original experience is below just for proper records of the incident which I already mentioned was promptly and satisfactory fixed by Tim Marcus.

I took the real estate sales associate pre-​license course. They are absolutely the best school, they’ve been doing this forever. Keith Grandy is the best instructor, he’s straight up and tells you exactly what and how you need to prepare for your exam. I ate at ikea almost everyday since its within walking distance and everyone is racing in and out of that parking lot at lunch time. I got a 92 on my exam, I highly recommend making your own flash cards and only highlight what he tells you to.

I was going to wait til I was done the course to post the review. I’m still taking classes, but I will say that the location is great… free parking and close to the Dolphin Mall. So far I’m learning a lot from my knowledgable and charismatic instructor Keith Grandy. More to come…

This is my favorite location I’ve been too. Grandy is the best teacher by far, he makes the information easy and fun to learn. I’m currently taking a review teacher with Marilyn, I really like her teaching skills as well. There is a break room with about 6 vending machines. Lots of surrounding food options for lunch break as well.

I was in Mr. Nelson class both Saturday and Sunday (yes I have no life) for the P&C course. This man is an expert I learned so much and his class both things to help with the class exam and real world example. The class was fun and very informative. He gave us homework that would be beneficial and crucial to student’s success in the industry (ex: going to the division of workers compensation and familiarize ourselves with the forms). His student’s LOOOVE him he is Google for the insurance industry.

Update response to the owner.
Hi John,
Sorry it took so long for me to see this message but I usually don’t think to check the messages at Unilocal.So, to address the issues you had with my review. The absolute biggest gripe I have with GC is the instructor Gayle wouldn’t answer any questions regarding the state exam period! During the 7 days I attended class at GC the instructor refused to answer questions from about 10 different people every day! She even had issues with other students being loud and rude, she didn’t even stop telling her personal stories that had nothing to do with the exam to tell them to be quiet and respect others. The instructor wouldn’t even go over the questions at the end of the chapter. As for spending time answering questions on their breaks, that never happened!!! We would break for lunch for about an hour and when we returned she would take an additional 45 minutes to start class again for no reason, she just stood at the front of class reading something personal every day! In the mornings she would start 45 minutes late every day! That’s 1.5 hours a day times 7 days, that’s over 10 hours of time she wasted.
When I filled out my review of the instructor I gave my name and phone # and wrote «please contact me» on the review! Now, these were reviews were supposedly private and not given to the instructor for review but I can assure you she read mine because when I finished the exam and she handed me my passing packet she made a smart comment to me that «I see you passed even though you didn’t like the class». Then she gave me someone else’s packet that I had to return to your school the following day! Also, when I returned the incorrect packet I asked to speak with someone about the experience and I was told they were not in and to leave my cell phone #, that I would be contacted. Contact was never made, so that is why the review was posted on Unilocal.
It has also been a while so I’m sure there a few other issues I’m forgetting. It says a lot that about Gold Coast that the owner has to respond to bad reviews on Unilocal because none of his employees were able to address the issues when they were happening. Maybe you should covertly sit in on one of Gayle’s classes because I spoke with many of my classmates during our breaks and all of them shared my opinion of the class. What ever happened to my review form I filled out on the last day! Do you have it? Why hasn’t a supervisor called me! I willing to bet the instructor filled it in the trash can which is where her class room behavior belonged!
As for passing the exam with your methods! Anyone can pass your exam when the instructor reviews every single question one by one and gives you all the answers and hour before the exam! I could have just showed up for the Sunday morning review and passed that exam!
As for the state exam It was deceptive and very difficult, yes I passed but it was due to Tony’s review videos not your school.
Thanks for following up only after I vocalized my experience on Unilocal.
Sincerely,
Jim Dixon

I took a course in real estate and found it be fairly easy. As long as you study and take the course seriously you will not have a problem passing. Try to take the course with Marilyn she is awsome. Really explains the subject in detail and breaks it down to where you understood everything.

It’s well known that Gold Coast is #1
What sets Gold Coast apart are instructors like Marilyn Guevara. I attended Gold Coast for Real Estate. She breaks the information down into small manageable pieces, uses analogies to bring home concepts and makes the math easy. All the information is covered while making the class fun and entertaining. Marilyn covers the information required to pass the state exam. She manages the class well and keeps everyone on track. I’m happy to say I passed the state and am officially licensed. I will choose Gold Coast for my Post-​license, Continuing education or any additional licenses I choose to pursue in the future.

In the years that I have had my insurance licenses (Life, Health and P/​C) and most recently my real estate agent license and real estate broker license, the vast majority of my insurance continuing education and all of my real estate pre and post licensing were completed at Gold Coast Schools.
I have used Gold Coast Schools for many years and plan to continue for many more years to come. In that time I have had several different instructors and a range of courses.
The one thing that has been constant is the service of the staff, at the front desk. Alba Ortega and Claudia Guerra both have been there. Others have come on occasion, however, Alba and Claudia have been more than professional, competent, reliable, knowledgeable and kind.
I would like to point that out to your management because, as you know, the first face you see in any business sets the tone of the relationship with the clients.
As I plan to look forward to widening my professional portfolio, I look forward to seeing Alba and Claudia in the months and years to come.

I just wanted to update my review and thank Grandy, Rich, and everyone over at Goldcoast. I attended the 63 hour course through Grandy and passed on the first try. I then took the cram weekend with Rich and took the state exam the following week and passed on the first try. I just signed with Keller Williams and am ready to start my new career. Thank you!

My experience at Gold Coast for the Real Estate Sales Associate Pre-​license course was very positive.
The classes were well structured and animated. Rich, the Instructor, has an effective anecdote teaching strategy. He is, furthermore, dynamic, funny and caring about teaching us, not only for the class test or estate exam but also for our future professional lives. I value this dimension a lot. I am thankful to him for this important component.

I went to Gold Coast for the Real Estate Broker Pre-​license course (FREC II) and broker cram. I think Gold Coast has the right structure to teach you everything that will be on the state test because the course materials are great. I took my class with Marylin and she makes the class interesting while ensuring you are extremely prepared for the class test.
I later took the cram course with Rich. Rich knows his stuff but the cram is mainly focused on the real estate associate material. The broker part of the cram is supposed to be the last 2 hours of every class but ours only lasted 45 minutes at most. This entailed the teacher reading the study guide questions and answers directly from the book a fast as he could. This can be done by the student on their own at home.
I don’t know why they don’t have separate cram courses; one for associate candidates and one for broker candidates. That way there is no waste of time for the students. I’m sure gold coast can afford to hire one extra teacher for the extra class.
The class is great if you don’t have the discipline to study by yourself at home.

Good evening,
Overall, I think that Gold Coast is an excellent school. However, I am very disappointed with the results I received on my test today. I do understand that this may appear like I am not taking responsibility for my score, but it is much more than that and I am not one to make excuses.
The amount of students that pass after taking Rich’s class is far lower than Keith and Marylin (I’m not sure if I spelled her name correctly) and that leaves a lot of questions in my head. I’m retaking the one week class Monday Keith and regret not looking into teacher reviews first.
I left each class more confused than the previous day because so much time in class was spent hearing irrelevant stories that were repeated over and over again and he would never answer class questions directly. «Just do the online test questions,» was the ONLY advise given to us or he’d rush through giving us answers to a question we had. Concepts were not thoroughly explained as to how they pertain to real estate and if I had to estimate how much time was taken to thoroughly explain concepts per four hour class, I would say 1.5 hours.
How many times do we need to hear about Texas, why oil is going up, the girl that sells boat slips at a Marina, why taking roll is so important (at least 4 times a class, every single class), stopping EVERY SINGLE time someone walks in or out of the room. I cannot express to you how many times sentences were cut off to make a joke, say bye, say hello, remind us to put our name on the board, etc. Is Rich a great person, it seems so. However, his teaching style is extremely difficult to follow and the pass rate is too low for me to find what happened today acceptable.
Now, I would have addressed this earlier, but I had NO IDEA that I would be taking an exam with test questions that made hardly any sense to me.
The state requires 63 hours of class time, an in-​class exam pass and a state exam pass, however, I would have passed with more than a 90 had I gotten a personal tutor and ignored all of the lectures. Many of the students failed under Rich’s instruction (or were on round two), while Marylin’s class students received 90’s or better and her pass rate is 89%? The students from Marylin’s class felt sorry for us.
I am very serious about my career, am on hold with the brokerage firm I was to start with and now it’s back to the drawing board?
I am a two time college graduate with honors and embarrassed by the entire experience and am highly disappointed that I had not read Unilocal prior to registering. I would have chosen a different instructor or gone to the night class. What am I missing here?
– Not a happy camper.

Seems there are glaring reviews for everyone except Rich… and rightfully so.
He rushes through people’s questions saying «we need to move along» yet finds time for his personal stories every 5 minutes. Total waste of time

Five stars truly aren’t enough. I attended the 63 hour RE prelicensure course and enjoyed every second of it. Keith Grandy is by far the best instructor I’ve ever come across. He’s knowledgeable, personable, and extremely funny. The 63 hours flew by. I was able to pass the end of course exam on the first try because of Mr. Grandy. It was definitely worth the time and money.
Additionally, I took the weekend CRAM with Henderson and passed my state exam in a little over an hour. They both did a great job of teaching and making sure I understood all aspects of real estate! Thank you, both!

Generally I’m not a fan of school. I tend to get the feeling that I will learn more from the textbooks than the classroom, because my attention wanders and I get bored.
That was before I took a course with Keith Grandy. I took the 1 week real estate sales associate course with Keith. This was about 8 classroom hours a day for a solid 7 days straight. The time flew by. Keith was both funny and informative. Keith took what appeared to be dry and boring subject matter and spun it into gold.
I would highly recommend this course with Keith Grandy to anyone who is looking to get into Florida Real Estate.

I signed up for the 1 week 63-​hour real estate associate pre license course not knowing too much about real estate, and walked out of there Sunday evening after my exam extremely satisfied with the knowledge acquired from our amazing instructor Keith Grandy.
Let me tell you, the man knows his stuff! He has awesome stories me examples of practically every single topic covered in our book. His humor and charisma kept us all engaged from 9am-5:30pm every day. I highly recommend Keith Grandy for this class. I was advised that if I walked into class Monday morning and Mr. Grandy was not at the front of the class, to simply walk out and sign up for the next one. Boy was that accurate! It’s great to see someone that loves what they do so much and are willing to pass their knowledge and experience over to us.