http://www.twincitiesusa.com/video/Education-and-Real-Estate-benefitting-you-in-the-sales-process

STEVE:  Hi.  This is Steve Westmark of Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog.  This week, I want to talk to you about education.  I’m here at Minnetonka High School, which is one of the things that everybody starts and gets their high school education.  Well, in real estate, there are many things that people do to get education, and I’m a strong proponent of getting good designations and good education.

Before a person can sell real estate, they have to go get their real estate license.  And of course there’s a lot of hours of credits and tests that you have to take.  And then you gain your real estate license.  Well, that allows you to be free to go out and start selling real estate.  But there’s a lot to learn before you just go start selling real estate.  The next choice that you have, I believe, is do you want to be a realtor or not.

Realtors have to go learn their code of ethics and test to show that they are going to live by a code of ethics and that they understand the ethics that you need to protect the consumer in the process.  The next designation that I worked on is what’s called GRI or Graduate Realtors Institute.  It’s over 90 hours of education that I got in my first couple of years of real estate, and it was a good foundation for helping me learn how to sell real estate.

The first big designation that I got in real estate, and I really recommend to people looking at for residential real estate agents, is the CRS or the Certified Residential Specialist.  In order to gain that designation, you have to have over 100 transactions, take five major courses, and then pass a test and have some other extracurricular activities that will allow you to gain that designation. 

The next designation that I went after was after I got my broker’s license through Minnesota was the CRB or the Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager.  That’s learning how to run a real estate business as a business rather than just being a salesperson.

The next designation that I went after was called the Accredited Buyers Representative or ABR.  Now what that means is that I’m able to after doing this study, learning how to represent buyers and their best interests through the process.  An ABR.  The next one is called an SRES or a Senior Real Estate Specialist.  That’s helping people that are Baby Boomers and seniors moving on into other areas of real estate and helping them through the process of seniors buying real estate. 

One that I recently just took was the CDPE, which is the Certified Distressed Property Expert.  That’s helping people through the process of short sales, which you’ve seen in prior videos.  Another one that I recently took was the Certified Investor Agent Specialist.  That’s helping people understand how to buy investment real estate, how to gain cash flow, and do proper tax planning so it makes great sense for them.

 And the last one I’m going to share with you is a thing called e-PRO.  E-PRO is a designation that you gain to learn how to work in real estate and technology.  As I gained that, I joined another group called the Cyber Stars, and so we’ve gained so much insight into learning how to work with websites, video blogging, social media, and all the different things that go on in helping people work with the Internet and helping our clients in the process.

Thanks so much about learning about education of a realtor today.  I hope that you’ve gained some insight into how you can find a good agent with good designations that will help you in your real estate transactions.  Thanks so much.