Cameron Academy Adds Palm Coast and Wildwood Campuses in Two of Florida's Fastest-Growing Counties

Grand Living Realty and Down Home Realty named Cameron Academy their exclusive education provider in two counties that grew 21% since 2020.

PALM COAST, FL, UNITED STATES, September 24, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Cameron Academy of Real Estate has opened classroom locations in Palm Coast and Wildwood, extending the northern reach of a statewide network that now runs 15 locations from Key Largo to Palm Coast.

In Flagler County, Grand Living Realty on Colbert Lane has named Cameron Academy its exclusive education provider for real estate classes in Palm Coast. Down Home Realty did the same in Sumter County, where the school teaches real estate classes near The Villages from the brokerage's Wildwood office. Both rooms teach the 63-hour Florida real estate pre-license course the state requires before the licensing examination.

"Flagler and Sumter are growing faster than almost anywhere in Florida," said Michael Cameron Sidawi, the school's owner and director and a licensed Florida broker. "If somebody wants to build a career here, they should be able to learn here."

Flagler County has added 24,329 residents since 2020 and Sumter County 27,479, the seventh- and sixth-fastest growth rates among Florida's 67 counties, according to Census Bureau estimates released in May.

FAST FACTS

• Sumter County added 27,479 residents and Flagler County 24,329 from July 2020 to July 2025, the 6th- and 7th-fastest growth of Florida's 67 counties (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).

• Sumter County has one active real estate licensee for every 116 residents (DBPR licensee records and U.S. Census Bureau 2025 estimates, September 2026).

• Down Home Realty lists 44 licensed agents and brokers in state records (Florida DBPR, September 2026).

• Only 39.6% of the 51,455 Florida sales associate exams graded in the year to May 2026 ended in a pass (DBPR/Pearson VUE monthly exam summaries).

THE FIRMS IN FLAGLER AND SUMTER

Both firms approached the school. Neither needed the traffic.

Grand Living Realty is led by broker and chief executive Lindsay Dolamore, a past president of the Flagler County Association of Realtors. The firm's ownership also includes chief marketing officer Suzie Johnston, a fourth-generation Flagler County native who was elected mayor of Flagler Beach in 2021, and chief financial officer Mike Charland, a finance executive with more than 35 years of experience who began his career in General Electric's Financial Management Program.

Down Home Realty in Wildwood works extensively in the manufactured-home market around The Villages and carries several designated manufactured home specialists among the 44 licensed agents and brokers state records list with the firm.

"Down Home knows a segment most schools never teach properly," Sidawi said. "A manufactured home transaction isn't a condo transaction. Our students there will learn that from people who close them every week."

THE SCHOOL BEHIND THE CLASSROOMS

Cameron Academy has stayed in the same family since 2003, teaching more than 100,000 students across 800-plus licensing and continuing education courses offered in all fifty states through its partner network. It taught through the 2008 collapse. Most of Florida's independent real estate schools have since been absorbed into national education companies. This one was approached and said no.

Cameron Academy was ahead of the state on computerized testing, shipped the first mobile exam-prep app for real estate students anywhere in the country in 2013, and livestreamed classes long before the industry needed to. It's rebuilding that app as the base of a wider student platform, with a launch set for the end of Q4 2026.

Sidawi is a licensed Florida real estate broker and after 23 years with the school still teaches his own classes. He has written two books, "Real Estate Agent Guide: Thriving in a Down Market" and "The Midlife Method: Life's Too Short for Later". Florida teenagers aged 15 to 17 take the coursework at no cost.

Florida's most recent published annual report counted 94,473 inactive real estate licensees against 357,638 active ones, and of the 51,455 sales associate examinations graded in the 12 months to May 2026, 20,398 passed.

HOW THESE ROOMS TEACH

Both new campuses run the same method as the rest of the network, and it isn't lecturing.

Cameron Academy teaches with songs, rhythms, repeated phrasing and stories, built in-house to make a rule survive the exam and resurface on a real transaction. Much of the approach has since been taken into the industry's leading course materials and is now used by instructors and education providers well beyond this school.

"It travels," Sidawi said. "Palm Coast, Wildwood, Kendall, doesn't matter. The method is the product."

HOW A SCHOOL ENDS UP IN PALM COAST

Cameron Academy didn't pick these two towns off a map.

"The firms up there saw the growth before anybody," Sidawi said. "They asked for a classroom, and that's how every one of these starts."

WHO GETS IN FOR NOTHING

Both new rooms carry the same free seats as the rest of the network: no-cost coursework for Florida teenagers, and free seats for adults restarting after domestic violence or incarceration.

"Smaller markets are exactly where a free seat changes the most," Sidawi said. "There's less to fall back on out there."

WHO THE ROOMS ARE FOR

"Grand Living and Down Home know every street in their towns," he said. "The agents who'll sell those streets for the next twenty years are going to start in those offices. That's who these rooms are for."

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
info@cameronacademy.com
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