How committed to professionalism are you?

In May of 2004, the PAR Strategic Thinkers Group issued an Issues Briefing Paper that proposed two new overarching goals for the Strategic Plan for the association: (1) keep REALTORS® at the center of the transaction and (2) REALTORS® must validate their professionalism. The PAR Board of Directors overwhelmingly approved these two goals at the September 2004 meeting. As an additional outgrowth of the Strategic Things Group, a “mantra” of sorts was created – it’s about good business practices and being profitable. This is the first in a two-part series addressing education, professionalism and profitability.

How can REALTORS® validate their professionalism? One way is to constantly update their knowledge of the industry. That’s right. Education. Real estate licensees in Pennsylvania are required by regulation to attend 14 hours of continuing education in each two-year renewal cycle. Many agents take just the required 14 hours to maintain their licensure and others take well over the 14 hours. A recent study conducted by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research notes a trend that appears to indicate that licensees seem to be taking the easy way out of satisfying continuing education requirements – either taking simpler courses (when they are more experienced licensees) or taking just enough hours to fulfill continuing education requirements.

Real estate has become a fast-moving, rapidly changing industry and there is a decreasing occupational half-life of knowledge for this industry as well as other industries. (A half-life is the rate at which someone’s knowledge and skills become obsolete.) Like computers and high-tech televisions – knowledge can become obsolete before it’s even been used. Consumers are becoming more knowledgeable and expect their agent to be knowledgeable, too. Buyers and sellers will have more confidence in agents that demonstrate superior knowledge about the real estate industry. They will see the knowledgeable agent as a professional and will be more willing to pay for that knowledge.

There is a tremendous variety of classes available to real estate licensees including designation and certification courses; continuing education courses; and instructor-led or distance education courses. According to an article in the June Association Management magazine (“Live and Learn” by Apryl Motley), 92 million adults participated in formal education activities (those with an instructor or some other defined structure) in 2001. In calendar year 2001, more than 2,200 Pennsylvania real estate licensees took some kind of education class from the Pennsylvania REALTORS® Institute. Were you one of them? More importantly, were you a willing and active participant in the education process?

The key to getting the most out of any class rests with you, the participant. You must make a commitment to yourself to engage in the learning process. Ask questions … probe. And if the instructor hasn’t made something clear – ask again! In other words, participate. Contribute. Volunteer to answer questions. Adult learning should not be a passive experience where only the instructor talks and only the “students” listen. The best schools and instructors in the world can’t make a participant learn something. They can only offer the opportunity.

It is also important to use the time you’ve set aside for a class wisely. Schedule this time for yourself, just as if you were meeting with a client. Pennsylvania regulations require attendance monitoring at all courses that have been approved for continuing education credits (including those at conferences), so if you leave a class frequently or for extended periods of time you not only jeopardize the credits required for license renewal, you also short-change yourself by missing material and losing continuity of the class.

There is a difference between merely attending a class and actually taking something away from it. The choice is yours to make. You are paying for the class (either through a cash outlay or time away from the office) – so get your money’s worth! Engage in the learning process and embrace your professionalism.