By Marcie Geffner, MBA
Inman News
Realtors really love designations. Education is fine, they seem to think, but it’s all the better with a suitable-for-framing certificate, a special lapel pin and the obligatory acronym for the overcrowded business card. In fact, real estate designations are so popular that 33 percent of Realtors have one, according to a 2001 survey by the National Association of Realtors.
Education is definitely good.
And more education is definitely better than less education or no education.
The more real estate brokers and sales associates know about property-related subjects, the better positioned they’ll be for successful careers and the better able they’ll be to assist property owners and buyers in making wise decisions.
But the proliferation of real estate designations is destroying whatever meaning these proofs of extra education ever had. Some of the many designations are a true representation of professional expertise. But others are just a marketing gimmick and a revenue stream for the sponsoring organization.
Worse yet, buyers and sellers have no idea what all those letters mean and whether they should know or care is doubtful. After all, a longer string of acronyms doesn’t really mean one broker is better qualified than another. Nor does it mean the designated broker is a better negotiator or a more ethical practitioner or whatever than another.
NAR owns the ABR, ABRM, ALC, CCIM, CIPS, CPM, ARM, AMO, CRB, CRS, CRE, GAA, GRI, RCE, RAA and SIOR designations, and the AHWD and ePRO certificate programs. A little research also turns up the CAM, CBR, C-CREC, CLHMS, CREA, CRIA, QSC and SRES designations.
Do you know what those 26 acronyms mean and what the qualifications are to use each of them? Do you know even half of them?
Some of those designations have extensive requirements, including several days or even a full week in a classroom setting, a written examination, a tenure of some years in the business and evidence of having closed a set number of transactions in the specialty.
But then there’s the CRE designation. Only 1,000 people hold it, the qualifications are secret, and membership is by invitation only. What meaning could that possibly have to property owners or investors?
Or consider the QSC designation. That one requires a live or online course, a 40-question multiple choice quiz, a signed commitment to quality statement and participation in a perpetual customer survey program that costs $50 for every 20 surveys, according to the sponsor’s Web site.
Re/Max International last week introduced a new designation for Re/Max sales agents. This one is the “internationally recognized CNHS designation.”
Never heard of it? It’s the “Certified New Home Specialist.”
The CNSH is awarded after completion of a 20-hour self-study course on recognizing and pursuing opportunities in new-home sales; understanding the builder’s perspective, needs and motivations; the psychology of new-home buying; reading blueprints and understanding scale rulers, site plans and topography; and understanding new-home contracts, legal and monetary issues, according to a Re/Max press statement.
Could four CD-ROMs and a 200-page guidebook really make someone a specialist in selling new-built homes? Even someone who’s never sold a new-built home? Or someone who’s never put on a hard hat and toured a housing development or a construction site?
The Women’s Council of Realtors, which awards the LTG designation, will add a new designation in “performance management” later this year. The program will require a course of study in negotiation, networking, organizational performance management, personal performance management and cultural awareness, according to the NAR affiliated-group’s Web site.
Yes, education is good and agents who want to specialize in a particular niche should learn as much as they can about it. But a true professional designation should mean more than having completed a self-study course or paid an organization for the use of a fancy logo. It should mean the professional so designated is a real expert among the field of specialists.
NAR has dubbed November “Realtor Designation Awareness Month.” Yes, it’s a marketing campaign for NAR’s designations. But maybe it also could be an opportunity for real estate to reassess what designations really should mean.