Real Estate Designations

People who are choosing careers in real estate can choose either to do their mandatory real estate courses and nothing after that, or they can choose to continuously educate themselves.

Ariette and Tanja have decided to opt for the latter. We find that a realtor cannot be taken seriously if he or she does not do all that is possible to stay up-to-date on everything that is going on, in and outside the real estate market.

Real Estate Designations: education, of ongoing importance

The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) offers its realtors courses on a continuous basis. These courses are not mandatory, so every realtor has to use his/her due diligence in staying educated. Examples of some available courses are on marketing, home evaluations, economics (with ATB’s Todd Hirsch), staging, cross cultural selling, commercial and rural real estate. The course inventory is so extensive that realtors could take one new course each week if they wanted to.

Besides CREB’s non-mandatory courses, often there is a mandatory yearly course through the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA). This RECA is an independent, non-government agency responsible for the regulation of the real estate industry and as such, also responsible for some mandatory schooling for real estate professionals.

Maybe the most important courses are the courses that reward realtors with specialist real estate designations. They can come from the CREB, but also from the NAR, which is the National Association of Realtors.

The most important real estate designations you can earn as a realtor are:

• CCS

CCA stands for Certified Condominium Specialist. It is a 3 day course about everything that is involved in assisting people in selling or buying a condo. To earn this designation, you need to complete the full course and have completed several transactions involving condominiums. This to make sure that realtors fully understand what is expected from them. In my opinion, this course should actually be mandatory as there is so much more involved in condo transactions than single family home transactions.

• ABR

ABR stands for Accredited Buyer’s Representative. This course comes with an exam that needs to be passed in order to actually carry and use the ABR designation. In this course the emphasis is placed on the specific needs and wants of buyers, whether they are first time home buyers of have bought before.

• GREEN

The GREEN real estate designation, is also subject to an exam in order to carry and use this designation. The GREEN course is an excellent course for those realtors interested in helping people sell or buy green homes. Tanja was one of the first realtors in Calgary to carry this designation.

• SRES

SRES stands for Senior Real Estate Specialist. In this course the emphasis is placed on dealing with seniors as they can potentially be a vulnerable group. For example, realtors have to take special actions if they believe that the elderly who are selling their home appear to be confused about the overwhelming aspects of the buying and selling processes.

We have all four real estate designations between the two of us. Therefore, we are very well equipped to deal with many different types of situations that may occur.