West Virginia's First Online Real Estate School
Spruce is West Virginia’s first online real estate school — teaching the 90-hour WV pre-licensing course, and only that course, since 1993. We’re WVREC Provider #32-SP, ARELLO-certified, and locally owned by our family right here in Morgantown.
If you’re trying to get your West Virginia real estate license, that’s the short version of why Spruce is the school built for you and not a national platform that added a WV compliance module. What follows is the paper trail behind our WV credentials, and a short version of the family story that explains why we’ve stayed WV-only for 33 years.
Spruce was founded in 1993 by my parents — my stepfather Wade Caskey (a WV Real Estate Broker and State Certified Instructor) and my mother Vickie Caskey, who ran operations. By 2010, more than 4,000 West Virginia pre-license students had come through their Charleston classroom. My brother Dan and I both grew up in this business, apprenticed alongside our parents, and today we run Spruce together from our Morgantown branch — still family-owned, still WV-only. We are second generation owners and take pride in that history and drive to maintain the reputation of learning through us.
I’m Billy Zwiener, Spruce’s owner, and lead instructor — ARELLO-Certified Distance Education Instructor (CDEI #67468, certified since 2009), WV Real Estate Broker/Sales Agent, on staff at Spruce since 2005, Morgantown native and WVU grad (Class of ’98). When you email us with a question about the WV exam, you’re talking to somebody who has been teaching this specific exam for 20+ years, out of a school that’s been teaching it for 33.
That’s who’s teaching your West Virginia pre-licensing course. As for who’s in the course — Spruce students are adult West Virginians pursuing a real estate career: career changers, second-income professionals, retirees, and folks tired of watching commissions leave the state. This isn’t a classroom of teenagers filling a graduation requirement. It’s WV adults who chose this.
A Written Recommendation to the WV Real Estate Commission
Spruce’s West Virginia real estate course is entirely online — you can complete the full 90-hour WV pre-licensing curriculum on any laptop or tablet, at your own pace, from anywhere in the state. We’ve been delivering it this way, WV-specific and self-paced, since well before online real estate education was regulated.
When the West Virginia Real Estate Commission was preparing to formalize ARELLO certification into WV legislative rule, the Commission’s Director of Education asked me directly to write a written recommendation supporting that formalization — because Spruce had been operating under that standard voluntarily for years and could speak to it as an actual WV provider.
I wrote the letter. The rule was subsequently codified as §174-3-6.3 in April 2024. I don’t claim my letter alone made that happen — it was the Commission’s work — but I’m a small part of that record.
What this actually means for you, the student: when you take Spruce’s course, you’re not just taking a course that meets the current WV rule — you’re taking a course from a school that was already operating at that standard before the state made it law. That’s the difference between a national course that added WV compliance and a WV course that helped shape the compliance standard.
Thousands Of Satisfied Customers
Samantha Mullens
3 months ago
Awesome place to prepare you for the real estate test!!! Best decision!
Brian Smith
4 months ago
Excellent class! Passed both the National and State test this morning! Thank you Billy and the entire Spruce School of Real Estate team!
Christine Hahn
4 months ago
I loved my Spruce experience and recommend it to everyone!! Even if you just want financial and real estate literacy, its amazing. This is down to earth and done in a way that meets all schedules. The jokes, acronyms, and fun way of learning was a key to my success in passing both exams on the 1st try!
Scott Petrock
5 months ago
test prep was top notch and nothing in West Virginia compares to it. I felt prepared going into the exams. Ty Spruce!
David Labrozzi
6 months ago
Absolutely recommend Spruce School of Real Estate. Billy does an amazing job of teaching and leading you through your journey. Five stars, indeed!
The Paper Trail Behind Spruce’s WV Credentials
Spruce was teaching West Virginia’s pre-licensing course online before the West Virginia Real Estate Commission required online providers to be ARELLO-certified — and before the state formally wrote ARELLO into the legislative rule that now governs the industry. That’s an unusual claim, so here’s the paper trail that backs it up.
WVREC Provider #32-SP. Spruce is listed as an approved pre-licensing course provider under West Virginia Real Estate Commission approval number 32-SP. For comparison, Cooke Real Estate School (Florida) is #57 and The CE Shop (Colorado) is #70 — both listed 25 and 38 provider numbers after Spruce. Provider numbers are assigned in the order schools were approved, so lower numbers reflect longer WV tenure.
Approved in both In-Class and Online sections. On that same WVREC provider list, Spruce appears twice — once under approved in-class providers and once under approved online providers. That dual approval is not typical for out-of-state operators.
ARELLO-certified today. Spruce’s current 90-hour Pre-License Salesperson course is certified by ARELLO (the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials) as certificate #6747, certified May 28, 2025 and valid through August 28, 2028. You can verify any Spruce course on ARELLO’s public course lookup.
ARELLO in WV law. The requirement that WV real estate distance-education courses carry ARELLO certification is now codified in West Virginia Legislative Rule Title 174, Series 3 §174-3-6.3, effective April 10, 2024.
Locally owned, WV only. Cooke Real Estate School is based in Florida. The CE Shop is based in Colorado. OnlineEd is based in Oregon. Those are fine national platforms — but they don’t live here, they don’t testify to the Commission here, and they don’t know the West Virginia broker community. Spruce is a locally-owned West Virginia business run by our family. We teach one thing: the 90-hour WV pre-licensing course. One flat tuition, one course, everything included, priced fairly for West Virginians.
The West Virginia Real Estate Commission — pictured here in the WV State Capitol in Charleston — is the state agency that regulates all WV real estate licensing. Our WVREC Provider #32-SP status is granted and maintained by this Commission, not by a private accreditation body.
Your Instructor Is Certified to Teach Online, Not Just the Course
Spruce’s 90-hour course is ARELLO-certified. That certification covers the course. Separately, the person teaching it is certified too — I hold Certified Distance Education Instructor (CDEI) credential #67468, issued by the International Distance Education Certification Center, the ARELLO-affiliated body that certifies distance education instructors. My certificate is countersigned by ARELLO’s Chief Executive Officer.
I have held the credential continuously since 2009. That is 17 years of staying current on how adults actually learn in an online classroom — not a box checked once. Most schools you will compare us to can tell you their course is certified. Fewer can tell you the same about the person teaching it.
What the certification covers
The four badges above are earned separately. LMS Utilization — running the learning platform itself. Learning Preferences — teaching to the different ways adults absorb material. Learner Engagement — keeping students moving through a self-paced course. Professional Networking — connecting students to the working WV real estate community.
That is the training behind the online course you would be taking, and behind the answer you get when you email us a question about the WV exam.
Frequently Asked Questions About Spruce School of Real Estate
The most common questions we get from West Virginia students about who we are, how we’re certified, and what makes Spruce different from national real estate schools.
Who owns Spruce School of Real Estate?
Spruce School of Real Estate® is a family-owned West Virginia business owned and operated by Billy Zwiener. The school was founded in 1993 by Wade Caskey — a licensed WV Broker, Million Dollar Club member, and State Certified Instructor — who taught over 4,000 pre-license students before his passing in 2019. Billy has carried on Wade’s teaching methods and continues to personally answer student questions by phone, text, email, and chat.
How long has Spruce been teaching WV real estate courses?
Spruce has been teaching West Virginia real estate courses since 1993 — over 33 years. We were the first school native to West Virginia approved by the WV Real Estate Commission for online delivery of the 90-hour pre-licensing course. Our WVREC Provider Number is #32-SP.
Is Spruce School of Real Estate ARELLO certified?
Yes. Spruce School of Real Estate® is ARELLO Certified (Certification #6747, held by Arthur Zwiener III, valid through August 28, 2028). ARELLO — the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials — is the international body that sets standards for real estate education providers. You can verify our certification directly at ARELLO’s certified course listing (course #6747). We are also approved by the West Virginia Real Estate Commission as Provider #32-SP.
What makes Spruce different from Cooke, The CE Shop, or OnlineEd?
Spruce is the only pre-licensing school native to West Virginia — we teach WV law, WV forms, and WV-specific exam content, not a generic national curriculum with a WV supplement bolted on. National providers like The CE Shop (WVREC #70) and Cooke (WVREC #57) serve dozens of states; we serve only West Virginia. Every question, every case example, and every instructor answer comes from someone who has taught WV real estate for decades. We also publish the WV Real Estate Law Code Bible, our own WV-specific text book written to match the WV state exam.
Where is Spruce School of Real Estate located?
Spruce School of Real Estate® is located at 5000 Greenbag Road, Suite D-18, Morgantown, WV 26501. Someone is available to answer phones, emails, and live chat during our posted business hours. In-person visits are by appointment — call (304) 282-9611 or email [email protected] to schedule.
Does Spruce offer in-person classes?
Spruce is an online real estate school, but yes — we do run live in-person classes in Morgantown, WV whenever we have enough interested students on our waitlist. Once 15 or more students sign up for our in-person waitlist, we schedule the next live class. If you want to be added to the waitlist, or if you’d rather not wait and prefer to start immediately, you can enroll in our fully online 90-hour pre-licensing course today — everyone on the waitlist has that option too.
Take In-Person Classes to Obtain Your Real Estate License in Morgantown, WV
5000 Greenbag Road, Morgantown
WV 26501, USA
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