A Past National NAHREP President’s Brokerage Names Cameron Academy Its Exclusive Education Provider

Daisy Lopez-Cid’s RE/MAX Premier Properties chose the school whose educators created Florida’s first Spanish-language real estate pre-license course.

KISSIMMEE, FL, UNITED STATES, September 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — RE/MAX Premier Properties has named Cameron Academy its exclusive education provider, and the school now teaches the full Florida licensing sequence at the brokerage’s Broadway office in Kissimmee. Its broker-owner ran the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals nationally in 2018.

Daisy Lopez-Cid served as NAHREP’s national president that year and is a member of the RE/MAX Hall of Fame. Her brokerage chose Cameron Academy as its exclusive education provider, in one of Florida’s most heavily Hispanic counties.

“Daisy’s built something in Osceola County that her agents don’t leave,” said Michael Cameron Sidawi, Cameron Academy’s owner and director. “Teaching in a room like that is different. A student can see what a career actually looks like from where they’re sitting.”

FAST FACTS

• Osceola County added 90,588 residents from July 2020 to July 2025, a 23.2% gain and the second-fastest growth of Florida’s 67 counties (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).

• Daisy Lopez-Cid served as the 2018 national president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP).

• Cameron Academy’s educators created the first Spanish-language version of the Florida real estate pre-license course.

• In May 2026, first-time takers passed Florida’s sales associate exam at 48%, and repeat takers at 31% (DBPR/Pearson VUE monthly exam summary).

WHY THE ROOM MATTERS MORE THAN THE ADDRESS

Every Cameron Academy classroom was built with a partner firm, not dropped into anonymous office space, and the school’s argument is that the room teaches something the curriculum cannot.

A student in Kissimmee takes the 63-hour prelicense course in a working brokerage, walks past agents doing the job, and meets a broker before holding a license. For a first-generation buyer’s kid considering the business, that is a different experience from a strip-mall classroom, and Sidawi says it changes what happens after the exam.

“The test is the easy part to measure,” he said. “What matters is whether somebody is still in this business in three years. That has almost nothing to do with the test and almost everything to do with who they met in the first six months.”

THE NUMBERS UNDERNEATH IT

Homeownership is where most American household wealth is still built, and the gap in who gets there has not closed. Agents who can work in more than one language, and who understand a client’s family structure, are the practical bridge across it.

Florida licenses a great many people and keeps too few of them. The state’s most recent published annual report counted 94,473 inactive real estate licensees against 357,638 active ones, with the inactive number up three years in a row. In the 12 months to May 2026, first-time sales associate candidates passed the state exam 48% of the time; repeat takers passed 31% of the time.

“We license a lot of people and we keep too few,” Sidawi said. “The ones we lose fastest are usually the ones who had nobody. That’s a solvable problem and it’s not solved with a better textbook.”

GREATER ORLANDO

Kissimmee is one of five Cameron Academy classrooms in Greater Orlando, alongside Dr. Phillips, Hunters Creek and Waterford Lakes in Orlando and Clermont in Lake County. Statewide the school teaches from 15 Cameron Academy locations, roughly 380 miles from Key Largo to Palm Coast, and hired 18 instructors this year.

Anyone looking for real estate classes in Kissimmee can now take the full Florida licensing sequence on Broadway, prelicense through post-licensing and continuing education, in person and by livestream. The course covers how to get a real estate license in Florida from the first classroom hour through the state examination.

THE SCHOOL AND WHO RUNS IT

Cameron Academy has been independently owned since 2003, through a decade in which most of Florida’s best-known independent real estate schools were bought by national education companies. In Central Florida the buying is effectively finished, and Cameron Academy is the oldest real estate school in the region still under independent ownership, and one of the few of any size left in the state. “That’s not an achievement,” Sidawi said. “It’s just what happens when you keep saying no to the phone call.” Sidawi still teaches his own classes and has published two books, “Real Estate Agent Guide: Thriving in a Down Market” and “The Midlife Method: Life’s Too Short for Later.” The school gives its licensing coursework to Florida students aged 15 to 17 at no charge, and is rebuilding the exam-preparation app it first shipped in 2013 as the foundation of a wider student platform, arriving by the end of Q4 2026.

WHAT GETS TAUGHT IN THAT ROOM

Lopez-Cid’s agents had been through the method themselves long before her brokerage signed anything.

Cameron Academy teaches with songs, rhythms, repeated phrasing and stories, built in-house for retention and application, and much of it has since been absorbed into the industry’s leading course materials and adopted by instructors and providers across the field. The school’s educators also produced the first Spanish-language version of the Florida real estate pre-license course, which is not incidental in Osceola County.

“What Daisy cared about was what happens in the room,” Sidawi said. “Including the fact that a student can take this course in Spanish because our people built that first.”

HOW THESE PARTNERSHIPS START

Lopez-Cid isn’t the only broker-owner on the roster with a national record.

“Their agents had already been through our classes,” Sidawi said. “That’s usually how it starts. Somebody sits in a room, goes and builds a career, and mentions where they started.”

WHO SITS IN THAT BROADWAY ROOM FREE

The Kissimmee campus carries the same no-cost seats as every other: Florida 15-to-17-year-olds, and adults restarting after domestic violence or incarceration.

“Osceola County has plenty of people who need a door and can’t afford one,” Sidawi said. “The room is already there. The seat costs us nothing to give.”

WHO’S COMING TO OSCEOLA

“Osceola’s adding people faster than almost anywhere in Florida, and plenty of them will build a career here in two languages,” he said. “Daisy’s agents already do. That’s the room we get to teach in.”

ABOUT CAMERON ACADEMY OF REAL ESTATE

Cameron Academy of Real Estate runs the largest real estate campus network in Florida, is the oldest real estate school in Central Florida still under independent ownership, and has been family owned and operated since Linda Cameron founded the school in 2003. Its mission: “Teach it so it stays. Treat every student like the point. Keep a seat open for anyone starting over.” It has been licensed by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation as a real estate school under permit ZH1002075 since June 9 of that year, stayed open through the 2008 housing crisis, and employs 35 people today. That permit is one of the 40 oldest of Florida’s 558 active real estate school permits. Her son, Michael Cameron Sidawi, helped run the school from the start and became its owner and director in January 2013. He holds its state permit, is a licensed Florida real estate broker (BK3198873) with an active Florida real estate instructor license (ZH1002785), and still teaches his own classes. Linda Cameron remains with the school as its instructor coordinator. Cameron Academy has taught more than 100,000 students across a catalog of 800-plus licensing and continuing education courses, offered in all fifty states through its partner network, and holds a 5-star average across more than 3,000 reviews on various platforms, such as Google, Yelp, and others; more than 150 student testimonials have been filmed in its classrooms and published. It was among the first schools in the country to put real estate testing on computers, shipped the first mobile exam-prep app for real estate students in the United States, and ran livestreamed classes in Florida years before remote learning became standard. Its educators built the school’s mnemonic teaching method of song, rhythm, phrasing and story, since adopted into the industry’s leading course materials, and created the first Spanish-language version of the Florida real estate pre-license course; Linda Cameron is credited as an editor of earlier editions of Dearborn’s “Florida Real Estate Principles, Practices and Law.” It teaches from 15 Florida campuses spanning roughly 380 miles from Key Largo to Palm Coast, with brokerages, real estate law firms and title agencies that have named it their exclusive education provider, and hired 18 instructors statewide this year. The school provides its coursework free of charge to Florida students aged 15 to 17, and runs no-cost seats for people re-entering the workforce, including survivors of domestic violence and people rebuilding after incarceration. Cameron Academy is a registered trademark of Cameron Academy LLC, USPTO Reg. 5610857, in continuous use since June 9, 2003. The school turned down an acquisition approach from a national education company and is not for sale. It’s growing through exclusive education partnerships and welcomes conversations with brokerages, title agencies and law firms in new markets, in Florida and beyond. Main office: 7009 Dr. Phillips Blvd., Suite 110A, Orlando, FL 32819. Telephone (407) 251-0051. Web: cameronacademy.com

Michael Cameron Sidawi
Cameron Academy of Real Estate
407 251 0051
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Bluesky
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
TikTok
X
Other

Media gallery