Are you a real estate educator or aspiring to be?  The Tennessee Real Estate Educational Foundation (TREEF) has setup a very good resources complete with Wiki’s and Blogs for real estate educators. 

It’s still fairly new, but already has had lots of good articles, job aids, presentation techniques and more.  You can check out this resource at http://www.treefcenter.org. 

Yes, I know that you know what post license really is, but I am not sure that it’s intent is working. My understanding is that the intent of post licensing is to instill knowledge into new agents, in what use to be the first two years of their first licensing cycle and as of July 1, 2008 will be the first year of the licensing cycle. My understanding was that it was suppose to be all the things that weren’t taught in pre-licensing. To submit for credit for PL classes, is a much more tedious and frustrating process than Continuing Education or Broker Education. The agent also needs to keep track of much more, and then different tracks (property management, residential, commercial) must be watched for.

The Structure

PL is not only more difficult to take for the new agent, it’s more complicated to submit for credit at DPOR. What I may be able to reasonable get approved for CE learners, may be more difficult for PL credits. For example, I submitted an 8 hour Technology class for Real Estate Related approval and received the 8 hour credits, but the same class submitted for PL only gets four hours, unless I figure out how to restructure the course to make it two distinct programs. If I am teaching a multiple discipline program such as ABR where one can get Fair Housing, Agency and Ethics; than one application goes to DPOR for CE credits and one number is issued for all three disciplines. However, with the same course for PL; each discipline has to be a separate application. Thus requiring twice (often more) the paperwork at the time of class, submissions, certifications and tracking. This also multiplies the opportunity for the school to miss a submission or misfile the credits. PL classes must be between 1-4 hours; or a minimum of 3 hours if mandatory topics etc…

Is the Mission Goal being accomplished?

I know that DPOR and leadership is trying to meet the demands of the membership to get agents better prepared early in their career, but many are struggling to get the 30 hours in a two year period - not for lack of trying’ but rather in difficulty in finding the required classes and finding them with sufficient hours approved. Most are simply renewing on-line or by correspondence because of lack availability of solid classroom education opportunities. Study, after study shows the retention rates for on-line or correspondence programs are considerably lower than classroom education.

I spend a considerable amount of time, as staff, trying to figure out how to get the most PL hours in each class submission. We also spend a large amount of time working daily with agents who are simply frustrated with PL issues. I find the new agents are much more concerned about their renewal credits and time lines that experienced agents In many, many occasions we find that agents must take 45 or so clock hours (often on the same topics) to get the 30 hours of credit time that they need.

What Say You?

At times I feel like the PL program was simply a way to circumvent apathetic Brokers who weren’t giving good oversite and education in their offices. I’m OK with that, as I don’t know how to do more to require Brokers to educate their agents. However, from standpoint, all agents regardless of experience should be taking at least 30 hours of training in a two year period seeing as how exponentially real estate is evolving. The additional 8 hours of Broker training was a good step in this direction.

How effective do you think the current program is, for actually better preparing the agent for their career, and if it isn’t working, what do you think could be done better?

Many things have made me proud be to a member and now staff with the Fredericksburg Association of REALTORS®.  One of the main aspects, is our leadership’s willingness to embrace new technology and make it relevant to our membership.  We are always trying to find good venues to communicate our services to the membership.

Having seen the success and in consultation with VAR, we’re proud to introduce www.FAARForums.com real estate blog.

We’re hopeful that this blog resource will help to enhance our interaction with our members and to provide solid relevant information.  We’ve got a wide variety of contributors from Affiliates, Attorneys and active members of the Association.  Regardless of what local association you’re with, we’d be happy to have you visit and share your views with us!

The Mission

Awhile ago fellow VARBuzz and AgentGenius contributors Jim Duncan and Daniel (The Zebra) Rothamel wrote articles regarding Paying NAR Dues and NAR Engaging it’s Members.  They are great posts, with tons of interactions from members who support and unfortunately some of those who don’t support the Association.  The entire mission of the Association is to be a relevant factor of support and advocacy for the REALTOR member.  A great deal of work goes into carrying out the directives to fulfill these missions, from both REALTORS and staff.  Having now been both a practicing Realtor and most recently a staff member, I am seeing that a vast number of the tools, initiatives and resources created to enhance the agent’s success have been underutilized.   I feel that the Associations are answering your call, but you can’t hear us.

What Is The Barrier

As a staff member of FAAR, I’ve received countless calls and e-mails asking for a wide variety of assistance, and I always have resources from our local association, VAR or NAR to give to the member.  The members frequently ask why they didn’t know about these tools in the first place - good question.

Recently our Association had a meeting planned for Brokers, so that they could come provide open-forum feedback in preparation for our Strat Planning session.  Four days before the meeting and after a ton of notices, e-mails and marketing we had two members registered.  The workgroup decided to call the Brokers and in response we had almost 50 people attend the meeting.

What Works?

While pondering this post, I asked my friends on Twitter how they would like to be communicated with.  Almost all of them said e-mail.  However, one commented  that e-mails have become so ubiquitous that they are almost irrelevant.  There are so many people trying to e-mail you and get your attention that people are scanning them over without registering their importance.

This would explain why only about 20% of our e-mails, sent to members, are actually read.  But it begs the question; why with so many agents asking for their Associations to provide services, are members not paying more attention to the primary resource for their business? 

Call To Action

Most all Associations use e-mail, post cards, brochures, fliers, etc…  Calling on the phone, for most Associations, isn’t an option because of the size of the organizations and lack of staff.  So, what do you feel is the best way for your Association to keep you up to date and show you the plethora of tools that we’ve developed to help you with your business?

This week I received an e-mail from the Virginia Real Estate Board that, among other things, advised the schools that the requirement for CE and PLE instructors have changed. This is a good start, but we must do better…

Up to this point, schools submitted their classes to VREB for credit and included an instructor’s name and bio. There wasn’t much more required than a loose idea that the instructor could teach the topic. The new requirements state that the instructor must have three years experience in their area of instruction, letters of reference, etc… I am a fan of high quality instruction, but I am not sure that we’re attacking the issue of practitioner competency from the correct angle. I fully agree that it starts with the instructor. Not everyone who is teaching is effective. These requirements, although a bit cumbersome, will help.

Beneficial Changes?

There are other changes going on this year as well. Two significant changes are coming up as of July 1, 2008. The first is that licensed Brokers (Associate, Supervising and Principals) will be required to earn eight additional hours, on top of the limited services two hour requirements and the 16 hours of Continued Education. It’s obviously a good move to require those who carry the title of broker to get that higher level of training that most consumers perceive the broker as having. I’ve been surprised at the number of Associate Brokers who have balked at this requirement. I don’t even know what to say about that, other than the fact that it’s necessary and it’s only one extra day out of the 730 that you have between license renewals.

The other significant change is that VAR and VREB worked together to have legislation passed to require agents licensed after July 1, 2008 to obtain 30 hours of Post Licensing credit in the first 12 months of licensing. The theory, as I understand it, is that there are obvious failings in the pre-license program, as the 60 hour requirement does not typically carry information about the practical practice of real estate. There is so much theory and principle that things such as drafting a contract, short sales and marketing simply don’t find their way into the training.

I fully support the idea that the 30 hours should be “everything that we should have learned in pre-licensing and did not” but I think we’re going to see the nature of unintended consequences. Having sat as an association staffer now for the past few months and getting many daily phone calls from agents who find the relicensing program complicated, I have found that many (most) are taking the path of least resistance and simply taking an all inclusive on-line program. Many of these agents are very honest that the 30 hours can be gotten in 10 hours and they can do it while watching television.

Online Education Isn’t Cutting It

I’ve ventured through some of these online programs, and they can be done in far less time, than the “learner” is given credit for. At some point I have to ask: “Why do we even bother requiring CE or PL hours?” Almost all adult learning studies I’ve reviewed show that online learners have a much lower retention rate than those who learn in a classroom. The relicensing process for many is too complicated and frustrating to keep track of and they feel that there is no other option but these online classes. To compel the issue even further, most schools only have a limited number of these classes approved and don’t offer them often enough.

Learners have to take 30 hours, with 15 of them being in mandatory topics and the other 15 in a variety of electives. No one can get credit for taking any one class more than once. So, if I take “Short Sales” and get my three hours, but feel I need to take it again, I will not get an additional three hours, unless I take that topic through a different school.

How To Gauge The Retention

However, even aside all these issues, my real concern is that we never establish a mechanism by which to gauge the retention of the student. How do we know that the student really learned anything? What’s the point of requiring the student to meet certain criteria, if we’re not evaluating the student to see if they retained the information? I know that by suggesting that written evaluations be implemented I will become the least favorite person here, but really, how can we otherwise gauge our effectiveness? If the student is required to pass a written evaluation, then the instructor will be sure to deliver that material better and the learner will pay more attention.

Here are my suggestions:

First, we should consider requiring all mandatory PLE and CE classes be in a classroom setting, with a written evaluation. (Otherwise, what’s to stop an agent from reading a romance novel or comic book for the three hours I am supposed to be taking ethics?)

Second, electives can be taken in a classroom or online, but if they are taken online than it should require some mechanism to ensure that the learner is interacting at intervals that equal the clock time of the program. So, maybe you have to have mouse or keyboard activity every five minutes for the three hours, or you have to start all over. The technology is out there. All online training should require written evaluations at the end of the course.

Third, licensing and relicensing should be more relevant to the discipline of the practitioner. I am curious to see if anyone else thinks that Commercial, Residential and Property Management should have different licenses, with separate pre-licensing and separate post licensing requirements. There are a lot of different litigious pitfalls involved with these various types of practice and it seems that most all of pre-licensing and post licensing programs are directed to residential.

There are folks smarter than I am looking at the issues and overhauling as we go, but I just don’t feel our current structure is as effective as it can be. I am sure that there are some solid objections to these concerns, but if we’re all interested in improving the competency of agents than we need to find a better way to proceed in the future.

Are we having fun yet? I usually like to try and guess the answer to my own rhetorical questions, but in this case I have no idea what percentage of Realtors would say that they enjoy their career. It could be 50/50, I suppose. Why do I ask? As an instructor, I get to see agents when they first get into the business and they are excited and having fun. The freedom, the new toys, the healthy income, all the lunches from vendors, Realtor Balls and awards make it a very fun job. However, it seems that over time, some folks become less excited and less friendly toward the industry.

We’ve all met them unfortunately, the folks who just seem to be negative all the time. It seems that there is almost nothing that can be done to make these folks happy.

Here’s the thing… This is a tough industry. Practitioners give and give of themselves to their clients, while balancing shrinking income and meeting the needs of their families. The often times unrealistic demands of the consumer and constant need to reinvent themselves is a difficult task to achieve.

There are always things to consider when interacting with another, and at times these folks who may seem difficult are simply subject to the many demands of the industry. I’ve found that there are very few people who truly have malice intent to another and even fewer who realize that their negativity affects you so heavily. My belief system encourages me to forgive those who offend me seventy times seven per day. I’m not real good with math, but that’s a lot!

I have a difficult time being upbeat and happy all the time and the current market conditions aren’t helping. However, this is still a fun job and maybe all of us would benefit by addressing it as a new beginning each day. I’ve heard it said that you are most greatly influenced by those who you surround yourself with.

Try learning something new each day, look for opportunities to do something new and, start each day as if you are in your first year. Also, try to understand where that other person is really coming from. At the core of our Code of Ethics, is the belief that we should do unto others, as we would have done to us. That Golden Rule has been a cornerstone of most religions since the beginning of recorded history.

Above all, make sure you’re having fun and let others know!

Every morning, when my wife and I wake up, there is some type of connection. Either holding hands, snuggled together, etc. It’s not always been that way, we’ve faced a failing marriage together and come through on the other side. However, that effort has taken close to ten years and many fires to walk through. We realized that we were in this marriage together and that it was us against the world and not against one another.

I use that illustration to lead into my rhetoric for this post. I want to liken being a real estate practitioner (whether REALTOR or not) to a marriage. I have struggled with the “blog-sphere” for almost a year now, because in many cases it’s simply being used to attack everything and everyone. There are more than enough anti-Realtor blogs out there and strangely enough, they aren’t just from consumers.

Real estate practitioners need to take a hard and long look at who they are attacking. If we continue to spend such significant effort and energy attacking one another or the National Association of REALTORS, then what energy are we left with to build or re-build the industry? I am not, at all, talking about knuckle-headed stuff, like how to pronounce Real-a-tor or if it has to be all capitalized, or have the copyright. I used to care about that stuff. But we have some real honest-to-goodness things we need to fix in the battlefront, before we can attack the Empire.

Each time I read an anti-REALTOR Spokesperson Blog, I cringe. I rarely remember the author, but I always remember the negativity of the post. If we can’t stop the infighting, than how are we going to work on the publics perception? The public’s perception of your professionalism is where you make your money. Many of these post illustrate rants (many ill prepared) but rarely a valid solution. Don’t complain if you can’t make it better or aren’t willing to roll up your sleeves and try.

I see it everyday in the newspaper ads and online: “I’m a multi-million dollar producer” – and then we get ticked when the consumer thinks REALTORS make too much money.  “If you want an honest agent – call me” – as if to say, everyone else that works in real estate is out to screw you. I’m the only one who can save the industry! “That so-and-so from NAR has screwed it up again” as if to say that the consumer makes the distinction between you the citizen, and the empire.

On a more “battlefield” mentality, how often have you called the listing agent with a home inspection addendum, only to find them defensive and slightly abusive? GET OVER YOURSELF. The purpose of negotiations should not be to “slaughter” the other agent. The purpose of negotiations is to find a peaceful and professional point of agreement to get to settlement. Isn’t that what the consumer hired you for – to buy or sell property? Too often, agents want that badge of honor to gain respect from their client “I really had to go to the mat with that so-and-so agent to get this for you.” Here’s a hint – they don’t care and often the battle you choose would not have been the battle they would have chosen.

Our clients want us to be professional and professionalism is not attacking, it’s getting results in a respectable manner. The opposing agent should be your best friend in a transaction. You will probably have to work with them in the future and we’re judged on our village, not the lone warrior out to battle the masses – most of the time it makes you the martyr or a fool. Strangely enough historians make that distinction, and not the martyr/fool.

I firmly believe that the real change in our industry and the Association will only occur if it starts with you and me and not “them.” Focus on good customer-centric practices and involvement in the machine and you will see positive results and change over time. To me, it’s simply lazy to write four paragraphs about it on a free blog and then not take any substantial effort to change it. I fully agree that change is desperately needed, I just don’t agree it’s someone else’s job.

We are a mobile industry. Finding new tricks to hook us up to information while on the road is pretty important.

Looking for a new trick to save some change? How about spending nothing (if you have an unlimited cell phone text messaging plan) as opposed to $1 or more for calling 411 and having to write down a phone number. Have I got your attention?

A few years ago, Amy Chorew – national technology instructor taught this trick at a VAR Convention. This is why I go to all the classes I can get, but if you ever get the chance to attend a Chorew class… GO!

Ok, here’s the trick….

First, go to your txt message / SMS message software on your phone. I use the Treo 650 and will use screen shots from my phone (which is pretty cool in and of itself) to illustrate.

Open the new message screen and enter Google in numbers, which is 466453. Then go to the message area and type in a clients name or business name and the zip code. Then hit “send”.

Once you hit send, it will take a few seconds and you’ll get your response.

Notice that your message comes back with a hyper-linked telephone number and the address. If there are more than one in the area, it will list all the people or business in order of those nearest the center of the zip code and out. You can click on the telephone number if you have an iPhone, BlackBerry or other type phone. Otherwise select it on your cell phone and hit “send” on your phone (usually the green button on most phones, with the telephone symbol on it.

From there it will not only dial the number, without having to write it and re-dial the number. It also allows you to save the number in your sms messages so that you can add it to your contacts later.

One last hint: I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember 466453, so I saved it as a new contact under Goggle in my phone book for future reference. It’s really a cheap and cool trick – ENJOY!!!!

As I change from my role as a REALTOR to an Education Director, I find that many agents struggle to understand the sometimes confusing requirements of renewing one’s license. For that reason, I am going to try and lay out how one might renew their license. The classes are available most everywhere, but knowing which ones will actually help you might be more of a challenge. I strongly recommend that REALTORS keep track of their own attendance and what CE/PL/Broker hours were applied.

As a reminder, licensees must renew their licensees at specific intervals. Renewals are every two years, on the last day of the month in the anniversary month of licensing. After July 1, 2008 all agents receiving their licenses after that date must obtain their 30 hours in the first 12 months.

In addition to the hours below, everyone must take 2 hours of Limited Services before their next renewal.

For Post Licensing Agents (everyone in the first renewal cycle)

Required Hours (30 hours)

3 Hours of Agency

3 Hours of Fair Housing

3 Hours Real Estate Law

3 Hours of Offer to Purchase

3 Hours of Ethics and Standards of Practice

15 Hours of Electives

For Continuing Education (everyone who has renewed at least once before)

Required Hours (16 Hours)

2 Hours of Fair Housing

3 Hours of Ethics

1 Hour Legal Update

1 Hour Agency

1 Hour Contracts

8 Additional Hours of Real Estate Related Topics

Broker Management Hours (8 Additional after initial 16 CE hours)

Must be 8 hours approved for Broker Management topics. All licensed Brokers, to include Associate Brokers must take these hours, if they are to renew their license in July 2008 or thereafter.

Ok, so now that you are reminded of the mandatory hours, how do you track it? Start at http://www.dpor.virginia.gov/regulantlookup.

When you open this web page, you’ll see:

Enter your name (or license number) and click on “Real Estate Individuals”. Choose “Search Licenses”.

Once the window opens, click on the “View Continuing Education Hours” link.

On the left you’ll see a breakdown of the required training hours. On the right you’ll see the summary of continuing education hours only if you’re a CE renewal. Post Licensing Agents will see the following blue space on the left:

Post Licensing agents need to click the “To review the specific Post License Education courses that you have completed, please click on the link”. Note that you need to ignore the hours on the right they do not apply, except for the Limited Services hours that will be shown here.

On this screen PL agents will see the school who granted the hours, the class title, the mandatory or elective category of the credits and the summary of hours. Note: I have been told that CE screen will one day be this useful.

This web page is very useful for keeping you on track, but it’s not easy to navigate. I hope this has made it a bit clearer for you.

If you have any problems finding certain hours, call VAR or the Education Director at your local association and they’ll be happy to help you develop a plan to get your required hours.

I think REALTORS have got it… “it” being the connection between current market trends and the need to set reasonable expectations.  The REALTOR seems to know that they are in for the long haul when taking a listing.  I am not sure that brokers and educators are doing a good job of equipping the REALTOR with what they need, to set the seller’s expectations.  Knowing the connection and relaying it to the consumer are two different skill sets.

My wife is a REALTOR and recently she has prepared two market analysis for indvidiuals wanting to sell for lifestyle upgrades.  It’s interesting to me that these sellers haven’t “gotten the memo”.  It’s a buyer’s market.  In the county where we live, in December there were 399 homes for sale and only seven went under contract.  In this same county these folks are asking to get substantially more for their homes than ANYTHING that has sold in the past year. 

I have recently gotten information from a Zillow.com survey that was done.  What was reported in the Real Estate Intelligence Report was of great interest to me.  Zillow reported that 77 percent of Americans do not believe that the value of their home has declined.  34 percent advised that they were going to try and sell their home….this year. 

Wow!  Someone really hasn’t been listening.  For a generation of REALTORS, we’ve been saying that it’s location, location, location; but isn’t that just if there are actually buyers looking?  I think it’s important to remind the seller that it’s price, price, price.  It doesn’t matter where you’re home is located in this current market if it’s overpriced, not compared to the appraisal the received a year ago, but in comparision to the other competition.  Let’s not forget, that even if it is priced well, the chance that a buyer is going offer full price is pretty slim in a lot of cases.

I’m sure that it’s not everywhere, but in plannig district 16 it’s a tough market.  It’s time that we frankly tell your seller just that.  Setting a reasonable level of expectation will help you and the seller sell the home.  It’s the REALTOR’s obligation to sell the home – not simply generate more listings.  I recently spoke to a listing agent complaining that her clients were calling her almost daily upset that there had been no activity on the house.  When I asked about the price point, she replied that it’s very overpriced and was when she took the listing.  She simply took it, so that she could get a sign up to generate more listings.

I have to ask… is the pain and suffering of dealing with a unreasonable seller, in a home that has no chance of selling worth the “free” marketing that you can get.  I would think a busness analysis would probably not relfect that ideology.

A marketing strategy employed by some other practitioners has been to find out who else the seller is interviewing and show the seller the “success rate” of that other agent jockeying for the listing.  If you are an agent who takes every listing, it’ll be pretty easy for these “success rate” agents to show the seller that you’ve failed in selling the listing more than you’ve succeeded. 

Whereas there may be many barriers to agents giving the sellers the hard facts about what’s going on, it’s still your ethical duty to let them know if they are off target.  It’ll save both you and them a lot of headaches in the long run.  As a buisness decision, every REALTOR should know their walk-away point.  You should be able to articulate to the seller why you can help them, and why as a professional you have to give them the tough news.