In May 1975, Ron Oslin and Bill Whisnant met in a real estate principles class in Dalton Georgia. Ron taught the class and Bill attended the class to better understand real estate investment. Ever since that meeting and continuing up to today, Ron and Bill have been business partners and Tennessee Real Estate Educational Systems Inc. or TREES® was born.
Over the years, Ron and Bill have had the privilege to work with talented and experienced instructors and staff to bring professional real estate education to the people of Tennessee in order to meet the student’s real estate educational needs.
In the mid 1970s, there was no prelicense education requirement to take the affiliate broker license exam. An affiliate broker license candidate would simply make an appointment to take the license exam and hope for the best. Ron and Bill had an idea to write a two-day “crash” course to better prepare affiliate broker candidates to pass the license exam. In 1976, the first TREES® Crash course was taught in a Knoxville motel to a handful of students.
Since Ron had a full time job as a mortgage broker and Bill had a full time job as an international consultant, they would a teach crash course only one weekend a month. Each would meet in Chattanooga on Friday afternoon, load teaching materials, drive to the scheduled city and teach the weekend crash course
In 1981, the Tennessee legislature passed a law requiring a 30-hour prelicense course in order to qualify to take the affiliate broker license exam. Ron and Bill had a decision to make. Either walk away from real estate education and keep their full-time jobs or quit their jobs and teach real estate courses. They quit their jobs to devote their full time to real estate education. But the economy drastically changed after that decsion, as home loan interest rates skyrocketed to 18%, which had a very detrimental effect on class attendance. However, the two partners were determined to succeed, sometimes even sleeping in the classroom to save money.
With God’s guidance, TREES® has grown over the forty plus years and now has five training centers in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Murfreesboro, Nashville and Sevierville as well as offering home study and online courses. TREES® instructors are the most skilled in the profession. Each trained instructor has real life experience and exceptional teaching abilities to better communicate real estate concepts for affiliate broker and broker license courses or continuing education requirements. Also many of the TREES® staff employees have been with the company for decades and are able to quickly and efficiently assist students in their career choices.
Over the decades, TREES® has had the privilege of being a small part in assisting over 100,000 students achieve their personal, family and career goals as a real estate professionals. And in turn, these TREES® student have offered their professional skills to assist their real estate clients and customers reach their real estate objectives and a better way of life.
So as you evaluate real estate schools for your real estate education, we hope you will seriously consider TREES® and its many benefits such as Tennessee Real Estate Commission approved courses, professional instruction and superior customer support. We sincerely thank you for considering TREES® as part of your real estate career.
Please feel free to contact us to answer any questions or to be of any assistance to you. TREES® toll free telephone number is 800-572-8733 or email us at help@tntrees.com .