Top 3 Online MLO NMLS Courses in Arizona in 2023

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Helping people achieve their lifelong dream of owning a home can be one of the most fulfilling careers you can have. As a Mortgage Loan Officer (MLO), you help families realize this dream by finding the right loans to fit their budget. For most people, this will be the biggest financial decision of their lives.

As a result, the state has requires MLOs to receive proper education and testing to become a licensed loan originator. For the state of Arizona, you will need to complete a minimum of 20-hours of Pre-licensing Education (PE), a 4-hour Arizona State Law course, and pass the National Exam. 

It is incredibly important to find a good school to satisfy these education requirements. As of September 2022, the National Exam pass rate for first time takers was only 55%. If you don’t pass, you have to pay the $110 exam fee and wait another 30 days to re-test. It’s a good idea to do things right the first time, even if that means having to study a little harder.

We have gone through the entire list of approved mortgage schools and selected the ones we think will give you the best chance of success to start your new career in the mortgage industry. 

1. Mortgage-Education.com

Best School Overall

MortgageEducation.com is the premier place to get all of your mortgage courses done. They are one of the handful of schools that have nationwide coverage, so if you ever want to get licensed in multiple states, you will be able to get everything done in one school. Their program is best-in-class in virtually every category for a mortgage school.

One of the big qualities that set MortgageEducation.com apart from other schools is that they now offer the 20-hour pre-licensing course in full video. You get to watch an instructor teach the class from your computer, keeping you engaged as if you were sitting in an actual classroom. There are live instructors for support available to help you with questions along the way as well.

Another unique aspect of their program that students will greatly appreciate is their flexible scheduling options. Most schools have specific start dates and fixed deadlines that you have to meet by a certain day. MortgageEducation.com  has the most flexible program where you can actually start any time you want and work on it whenever you want. This means if you are in a rush to get licensed, you can finish the 20-hours in as little as 3 days. Or, if things change and you just want to take your time, you can spend the full 14 days allowed by the NMLS to finish the course.

MortgageEducation.com doesn’t just have the best pre-licensing course. They also have the best exam prep to help you pass the National Exam. While most other schools only offer practice exams, MortgageEducation.com has a full video course in addition to their practice exams that cover what you need to know on the exam, how to study, and other test taking tips. They incorporate interactive exercises and memory games to keep you on your toes. If you feel like you need some extra help, they even have office hours where you can meet with instructors face-to-face through a video chat.

2. Learn Mortgage

Best School for Online Reading

Learn Mortgage is a subsidiary of Colibri Real Estate, which is the largest online real estate school in the country. If you have heard of Arizona School of Real Estate and Business (ASREB), Hogan Real Estate, or Hondros Education, they are all part of the same family. Learn Mortgage is the school that handles all of the mortgage courses and has helped over 300,000 students across the country get licensed. 
 
Learn Mortgage offers the pre-licensing course in an online format, where you are reading the course material online and answer test questions at the end of each module. You can choose to finish the 20-hour course over 7 days or 12 days. Under this online format, you are free to read the course material at any time. However, there is a day-schedule that you have to follow. For example, on the 7-day track, you have to complete the first four modules by Day 1, the next three modules must be completed by Day 2, and so on. If you don’t complete the modules in time, you will have to start the course over. 
 
One nice benefit with the online program at Learn Mortgage is that their 20-hour pre-licensing bundle includes the 4-hour Arizona State Law course. Other schools may only offer the national pre-licensing package as 20 hours and make you take the 4-hour Arizona State Law as an additional course, requiring you to do more work and complete a total of 24 hours. 
 
For studying for the National Exam, Learn Mortgage only offers one option with their packages to help you study called CompuCram. However, it is a powerful tool. You can take a pre-assessment test to evaluate what you already know and optimize your time by focusing on key areas. There are simulated practice exams that mirror the real exam and a Readiness Indicator that tracks your progress to let you know when you are ready to take the actual exam. When you get the green light, that means you are good to go. 

3. The CE Shop

Best School for Knowledge Seekers

The CE Shop has been widely recognized as a leader in the real estate education industry for a long time. They have been growing very rapidly, acquiring companies and expanding their product line to include mortgage courses. They like to run a tight ship by sticking to a 100% online-only program. This allows them to leverage technology and quickly adapt to today’s ever-changing learning landscape.

The 20-hour pre-licensing course is in your traditional online course format. There are slides that you go through one by one to get to the next section. Their content has a balanced mix of reading, videos, and other visual graphics that help reinforce the concepts discussed in the course and keep things interesting. You can start the course at any time and work on it at your own pace for up to 13 days. However, no matter how fast or slow you go, the certificate doesn’t get released until Day 13. If you are in a rush to get licensed, this won’t be for you.

What makes The CE Shop different from other schools is how they want you to be an expert on the subject matter. They achieve this with their inquiry-based model by constantly quizzing you with questions in a variety of ways. This approach forces you to really understand the material as opposed to simply making a guess to get to the next question. If you are up for a challenge and have a love for learning, this will be a great program for you.