by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Many Realtors spend hours, days or even years to earn a Realtor designation. Does the alphabet soup behind their names really mean anything?
Yes, they do, say North Florida real estate leaders.
Getting a designation, not to mention a whole string of them behind your name, shows that you as a real estate professional have gone above and beyond in educating yourself to better serve your customers.
November is Realtor Designation Awareness Month and the National Association of Realtors wants you to celebrate it by taking time for your professional development. NAR boasts that getting designations will help build your network, sharpen your skills, increase your knowledge and increase your income.
“Designations have a tremendous amount of value,” said Linda Sherrer, president of Prudential Network Realty. “One of the things that is so important in today’s world is not having an education, but keeping one. It’s so hard because just as you learn one thing, everything changes. So, it’s not getting an education, it’s keeping an education that is essential.”
Selby Kaiser, also of Prudential and president of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors, agrees.
“Yes, I think designations are meaningful, more to other agents as recognition for those who choose to further their education and knowledge of the business,” said Kaiser. “Those holding designations tend to try to refer people to other agents who hold that particular designation. In residential sales the most widely recognized designations are GRI [Graduate of the Realtors Institute], CRS [Certified Residential Specialist] and the CRB [Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager]. All of these, plus some others, are designations earned through the National Association of Realtors. The National Homebuilders also has designations: CRP [Certified Site Professional] and MIRM [Member of the Institute of Residential Marketing].”
About 30 members of NEFAR earned designations between June 2002 and May 2003. That may not sound like a lot, but according to Kandace Dickover, education director at NEFAR, getting these designations can be fairly costly and time consuming.
She said that more agents than that take courses, but that sometimes it can take years to earn a designation.
Designations can be earned at either the local real estate board offices or at state or national conventions.
“Because it is so costly to put on several a year in one designation area, they may have to wait a year or two before another course if offered in the area,” said Dickover.
Realtors can travel to other locations to take the courses if they don’t want to wait for it to be offered locally. If you visit Realtor.org and go through their list of approved designations, each designation has a link to its site and a schedule of when and where the courses are offered.
“The courses offered by the various real estate societies that offer designations are the best the industry has to offer,” said Grace Lipman of Century 21 John T. Ferreira & Son Inc. “A person who wants to succeed in this business has a much better chance of doing so by gaining as much knowledge about business planning, marketing, prospecting and selling as possible. That’s what the designations offer.
“The real estate license course tells you how not to get in trouble with the state of Florida. The designations teach you how to make a living in the industry. When you see another agent’s designations, you can tell that they are serious enough about the business to have spent their time and money learning to be an excellent Realtor. You also know the caliber of that agent’s work if you have taken the same courses. You’re all on the same page when it comes to serving the client or customer. They’re all good for different reasons. The more education you can get, the better your potential is for success.”
NEFAR only offers a portion of the courses available due to time and financial constraints.
“They are fairly costly to put on, so we can only put a few classes toward a designation every year,” said Dickover. “Each designation has different requirements. For instance, the GRI is usually one of the first designations that Realtors go for. It requires that they attend three GRI courses and one is six days and the others are four days in length. They need to attend the classes and receive a passing score on each of the tests to get the designations. Some of the other designations are fairly involved.”
The designations show that an agent has gone above and beyond, but sometimes they also show that a Realtor has become a specialist in a certain area of real estate.
“For example, the ABR [Accredited Buyer Representative] designation shows they have further education as a buyer’s representative,” said Dickover. “There is also the ALC [Accredited Land Consultant] for someone who specializes in land. It’s not a master’s degree, but some of them are very extensive. After completing the course, they would be considered a specialist in that area. If the public would know a little bit more [about designations,] they would be able to recognize who they would like to work with based on the designations earned.”
There are so many different designations out there to get with varying degrees of difficulty, but Sherrer feels the CRB, GRI and MIRM are very important designations for all real estate professionals to have.
“I think they give you the foundation that you want,” said Sherrer. “I even pay for our managers to get those designations and we also do tuition reimbursement because we think it is so important.”
Sherrer said that those three designations are not only good for managers but that all agents should earn those designations.
“All three of those are important because you are managing your own business whether it’s more than one person or managing yourself,” said Sherrer.
According to the 2001 National Association of Realtors Member Profile survey, “Thirty-three percent of Realtors have a professional designation, a slight increase [one percentage point] from the 1999 Profile. The most frequently cited designations held by Realtors were GRI and CRS. As with affiliate membership, professional designations can significantly increase a Realtor’s income. Sales agents holding professional designations have incomes that are $27,000 higher, while brokers with designations earn $18,900 more per year.”
Some Realtors feel that earning a designation in real estate is the equivalent of an accountant becoming a Certified Public Accountant.
“It means you take your profession seriously and want to be the best you can be,” said Phyllis Staines, a Realtor with Re/Max Coastal Real Estate who has many designations. “And, it helps your business, not only by the education and knowledge that comes with earning the designation, but also through networking. For example, CRS and GRI designees have a separate council whose sole purpose is to support its members through networking opportunities, advertising, seminars, and special events. It tells me that the Realtor takes the time to improve him/herself and understands the importance of education in our industry.”
Staines said that there really isn’t one designation that is best.
“Some are more difficult to earn, such as the GRI and CRS which require classroom hours as well as production. Some others, such as the E-PRO, can be done online in a day. And, if you want to specialize in certain fields such as finance, the CFS would be a good one to have.”
What does it mean when you meet someone with a string of designations behind their name?
“It means they have invested in their career,” said Sherrer. “It is so essential that you keep moving forward so they have made that investment in themselves and that is very smart.”
Customers don’t know or care about the amount of designations a Realtor has, they just want someone who can help them and those with designations are more apt to do that.
“I don’t think you do it for the buyer at all. You do it to make the investment in yourself,” said Sherrer. “It’s just like getting your master’s degree. You are investing in yourself so you can give a higher level of service. Even though the alphabet soup behind their name doesn’t mean a lot to the general public, when they start talking to buyers or other agents, you will know how much they know. It will speak for itself.”
Watson also urges its associates to continue their real estate education throughout their careers.
“An educational opportunity which also gives the associate a designation is valuable for many reasons,” said Wendie Mayfield, the company’s regional vice president. “The designation gives you instant credibility in the eyes of your peers, it shows that you are dedicated to your craft, you have internalized standardized information recognized as important to our industry, and, although the public may not understand what the specific designations are, you have set yourself apart as a serious and professional practitioner...raising the bar.
“The information itself gives the student tools to rise to the next level, to stay out of trouble and to more easily glide through the most complicated transactions. Obtaining your broker’s license opens new management opportunities to the associate. The CRS designation allows the associate to participate in a valuable referral network. The value goes on and on.”
Staines’ designations include ABR, C-CREC [Consumer-Certified Real Estate Consultant], CFS [Certified Finance Specialist], CRS, GRI, E-PRO [Internet Real Estate Professional] and SRES [Seniors Real Estate Specialist] and feels that they have been very valuable to her.
“We look upon professionals for their knowledge, experience and ability to assist us with a specific need,” said Staines. “In real estate, I believe it is critical to continuously improve and learn as much as we can in order to better serve our clients. Continuing education is one way to accomplish that goal.”
Even though customers don’t always know what the designations mean, others in the industry do.
“The designations help distinguish the true professionals from just someone that has a real estate license,” said Mike Hickox of A. Michael Hickox Appraisal Services. “You can take the required classes for a salesman license in one week. That hardly qualifies you to handle someone’s largest investment. Therefore, I think the public looks at all the letters behind their name to have some significance. It doesn’t guarantee anything, just that the individual has taken additional classes. GRI and CRS are the most recognized.”
A classroom setting gives Realtors a whole new perspective at the business they actively do day-to-day.
“When someone has to sit in a class, they are being exposed to new ways of doing the same old thing,” said Gary Harlow, broker/owner of Realty Executives of Jacksonville who has the ABR, ABRM. CRB, CRS, e-PRO, GRI, CRP [The Certified Relocation Professional certification], CSP, CSAII, and soon the MIRM designations. “This knowledge then becomes a stepping stone over the hurdles we face daily in our business. In the past it was easy to B.S. our way around a subject when we didn’t know the answer and get away clean. The Internet allows the consumer to become more educated in the process thus exposing poor [or unethical] business practices.
“Also, attending classes is a better alternative to asking someone in the office how to do something because the advice received may be incorrect which could cause an innocent agent to loose credibility and a deal.
“There are some designations, which are touted as very important because of the potential business from exposure, but they really don’t provide anything but revenue [annual dues] for the association offering the designation.
“The bottom line is there are the core designations; CRS, CRB and GRI, and there are specialty designations for advanced skills in a particular segment in the market. Each agent should learn which market segment they fit into with their personality traits before they invest in knowledge they probably won’t use.”