If there’s a better industry for obfuscation of a practitioner’s qualifications than the real estate industry, please let me know. Do you have any idea of what that
alphabet following an agent's name means? Or that most of it is completely meaningless? A few of them, the more established ones, reflect experience and skill but the majority are as worthless as the paper they're written on. In most cases, a check that doesn't bounce and sitting in a class or online for a few hours is what it takes to add letters after your name. My specific bone is with the following asinine so called designations:
AHWD - At Home with Diversity Sponsored by the National Association of Realtors, AHWD promises to increase agent awareness and sensitivity to people of different cultures. Agents can choose between in-class attendance or an online course. The certification can be used as credit toward other designations such as CRS. AHWD is not really a designation; it's a certification, yet worthy of inclusion in this list Really? Come on now! This is clearly in the top tier of idiotic. Aren't realtors required to treat everyone equally? For $50 I can add letters that mean nothing because this isn’t a designation. And why is it worthy of inclusion on the designation list?
E-PRO - Certified Internet Professional Sponsored by the National Association of Realtors, ePRO is an online course about using e-mail, navigating the Internet and incorporating digital devices into the workplace. Agents must pass an online exam. To use the designation, agents must be a Realtor and member of the National Association of Realtors If every breathing agent hasn’t been or isn’t doing all of this already then they need to do something else because they can't be making a living in real estate. How can you be in this business and not be skilled at using the web?
GREEN Designation The National Association of REALTORS® created NARs Green Designation to provide ongoing education, resources and tools so that real estate practitioners can successfully seek out, understand, and market properties with green features. So let's think this through, I need to be GREEN to look for the latest in building and energy technology, understand that storm windows and high efficiency HVAC are good and that homes built in the 20’s, on toxic dumps with lead paint and asbestos might have issues. Got it.
There are many many more of course but my issue with these in particular is that (in my humble opinion of course) they’re nonsensical and exist for two reasons; generate revenue for NAR and mislead YOU. Professionals in this field understand that the real estate industry would benefit greatly from more rigorous licensing and performance requirements; we still have far too many agents not taking care of business. I would love to see annual volume requirements (by state due to market differences) to distinguish “full time” and “part time” agents….but that’s another post.
We’re going to review some of the nonsensical designations we’ve created over the years and see how they fit into the current environment:
C.R.A.P. – Certified Registered Appraisal Professional
C.L.A.P. – Certified Licensed Appraisal Professional
N.I.T.W.I.T. – National Institute of Training with International Trainers
S.N.O.R.E. – Senior National Operational Real Estate Expert
We actually ran with the first two in NY with our appraisal firm back in the early 90’s…we would tell lenders that we all had either the “clap or crap” designations. I can report that all clients were very pleased (a few even knew of the designations) and we received work for years with the prestige resulting in those highly coveted designations….So is reality that far removed from make believe?
You folks are the ones that need to properly scrub your prospective agent - ASK QUESTIONS & ASK FOR PROOF OF CLAIMS. Here's the answer to How do I find a real estate agent? Those are easy questions to cut through the CRAP...
