Within the real estate industry, a long list of designations after a sales professional' name indicates industry sophistication, commitment to business and self-improvement, and, more often than not, longevity in the profession. Until the mid-1990s, earning most residential designations required not only numerous courses but also demonstrating dollar volume in sales. Designation courses were not easy to obtain locally. The majority of designation courses were administered through the National Association of REALTORS® sponsoring councils and scheduled only at NAR conventions and a few locations throughout the country. Attending designation courses required travel, money and time away from business, but acquiring designations was perceived as worth the time and effort because the letters after a sales professional' name had clout. Designations such as GRI, CRS, and CCIM meant that licensees were not only interested in professional development but that they were top producers. Unfortunately, the recent proliferation of designations has reduced their clout and prestige. 70s NOT A LOT TO OFFER IN THE 1970s When I entered the real estate business in the early 1970s, my state of Georgia did not require a pre-license course to obtain a real estate license. Licensing exam candidates bought the real estate textbook, read it, and took the state test. There were no continuing education requirements for license renewal. The full responsibility of training was placed on the broker who held the sales associate' license. At that time, there were no national franchises offering extensive in-house training to join local brokerage firms. Real estate company models were based on the conventions of commission splitting with the broker and of sub-agency. In my area, most brokers were listing and selling along with their agents in order to keep the doors open. Training was marginal at best, and the availability of the broker to provide additional mentoring was slim to none. After a few years, I realized that I needed more business information than I was getting from my company. I changed companies— as most agents do when their personal and professional needs are not being met. The first avenue I chose to expand my knowledge was to obtain a broker' license. My thinking was the broker' course would give me the knowledge I sought to move my business to the next level and make me more confident in my decisions regarding day-to-day business. The course helped but did not cover some of the specific business answers I was seeking. About that same time I became aware of the GRI designation offered by the state REALTORS® association. From there, my quest for designations and more specific real estate knowledge began. 80s WHAT THE DECADE OF THE 80s BROUGHT IN DESIGNATION AWARENESS Though sub-agency was still the transaction mode for real estate sales in the 80s, business models began to change. The 1980s introduced consolidation of large corporate franchises and the beginning of private real estate companies, either selling to large corporate entities or buying into national franchises that could provide an umbrella of services and training. One of the most significant influences on professional development came from RE/MAX, a national real estate franchisor best known for its 100% commission concept. One of the features of a RE/MAX franchise package was access to the RE/MAX satellite network. The satellite network, a closed circuit, direct-access system beamed directly into the individual RE/MAX broker' offices. The lineup of daily network broadcasts featured sales and skills training as well as orientation and awareness of RE/MAX features and benefits. RE/MAX was one of the first franchises to negotiate with NAR to provide designation courses that could be broadcast directly into the individual RE/MAX franchise broker' office through their closed circuit TV. Until the advent of closed circuit TV programs, the availability of receiving NAR designations locally was not possible. 90s DESIGNATIONSIN THE 1990s: WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DECADE MAKES The 1990s was the decade of the most drastic change that the real estate industry had seen since the local board multi-listing systems caught on and made cooperating with other companies a reality. A new and widespread awareness of other types of agency representations surfaced. Industry as well as the consumer awakened to the fact that sub-agency was not the only way to practice real estate. In the early 90s the ABR designation first made its appearance. It was followed shortly thereafter with a second buyer representative designation, the Certified Buyer Representative (CBR). Neither course was written or endorsed by NAR, but both gained popularity among agents eager to learn more about representing buyers. RE/MAX offered the ABR course on the satellite network. Now RE/MAX agents had access to the CRS designation and other NAR-sanctioned courses. This new designation course was cheaper than the NAR-recognized designations, took a total of only two days of in-class hours, required only that the agent sell five buyer-brokered transactions in the 18 months following the course and counted any buyer representative sales that might have been sold 18 months before the class started. WOW! A designation that could be obtained conceivably within the first six to eight months after an agent was licensed. None of the NAR-sanctioned designations could be obtained that quickly or cheaply. (My ABR designation cost $250 in 1996 in contrast to the CRS which could cost $6,000 to $8,000, not including travel.) By late 1996, NAR negotiated with both ABR and CBR course owners to purchase their designations. ABR was ultimately purchased and ,with the marketing power of NAR, quickly became a profit center for Real Estate Buyer Agency Council (REBAC) and started a new trend in designation presentation and criteria for NAR. The three-day CBR course is currently owned and managed by RealNet Learning Services in Virginia. At the same time, several other designations for target markets were emerging. One of the first originated in California by a partnership between Tim Corliss, a well-respected and long-time volunteer in the California Association REALTORS® and NAR who created the Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES) designation to help real estate professionals serve the needs of aging baby boomers. The SRES designation conferred by the Senior Advantage Real Estate Council (SAREC) is recognized by the National Association of REALTORS® but is not a NAR program. Another designation targeted for a specific market is the Consumer-Certified Real Estate Consultant (C-CREC) designation created in the 1990s by Julie Garton-Good. As a result of consumer contacts through her syndicated column The Frugal Homeowner, Julie realized that most consumers were not satisfied with the traditional service model for real estate transactions. She created a survey to identify the specific areas of consumer concerns. The results became the foundation for her C-CREC designation and the National Association of Real Estate Consultants. In the past year RealtyU, a consortium of real estate schools throughout the country, has purchased the C-CREC designation who will make it available through its nationwide network ofreal estate schools. NEW MILLENNIUM, NEW METHODS, MORE INFORMATION With the start of the new millennium, many of the designations discussed earlier became available online. NAR even introduced the e- PRO designation, a program available online only. This course teaches real estate agents how to use the Internet to their advantage, create a website and make the Internet aviable part of their daily business. COULD ANYTHING BE WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? New delivery systems for designation courses have led to their proliferation. There are literally hundreds of designations that real estate professionals can earn within the REALTORS® community and through other professional societies. The number of designations and corresponding education programs raise some serious questions. First, who recognizes the designation letters behind the real estate agent' name? Unfortunately, industry insiders often are clueless about the value or meaning of designations. Practically no one outside the industry has a clue as to what the designation abbreviations stand for, either. The consumers who hireagents to list their homes usually does so because they know the real estate practitioner from another transaction, some community involvement or by referral. Consumers may be impressed by a string of abbreviations after a practitioner' name, but they don' care enough about the agent' educational efforts. Does the real estate industry have too many designations? Probably! We have designations for consulting, consulting with seniors, selling to buyers, leadership through Women' Council, CCIM for commercial management, CIPS for dealing with international buyers and sellers, designations for assistants and land and farm agents and everything in between. Designations are only as important as the individual agent makes them. Some designations have more clout than others. As an example, the CCIM designation is a long standing icon of excellence in the commercial field of real estate. It takes a great deal of time, money and energy to obtain the designation. As a consequence, the CCIM is as respected as a Ph.D. in the academic arena. The Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS) designation enjoys a substantial presence, mainly because agents need to develop the cultural sensitivity necessary to work with growing populations of cultural minorities. If I were a listing and/or selling agent, how valuable would all the letters after my name be? Only as valuable as the marketing I did to distinguish the particular designation. Most agents in my designations classes are there for two reasons: to obtain the continuing education credit and to obtain the abbreviations to use on their business cards. For the most part, they have no intention of doing a marketing campaign to notify their sphere of influence (most do not bother to keep a list of people they know and work with) that they now have a new specialty— of buyer representation or diversity awareness, consulting or senior specialization. They come, sit in class, leave class and wonder why business doesn' come flowing to them from the areas of specialization because they paid for the abbreviations they now have behind their name. Would I advise real estate agents to seek numerous niche market designations? Not unless they are going to use the information to market to the group who can recognize its importance. A FINAL NOTE My designations are valuable to me because of the information I can share with my students. They also add credibility and respect. But if I were a real estate sales professional, I' not sure I would have spent the time, energy and money just to have abbreviations after my name. There are way too many designations out there today. In years past, designations were very challenging to obtain, took a great deal of time and money and when earned, indicated an excellence that was very well deserved. The ranks of designated professionals were small and elite. Now earning some designations require nothing more than taking a two-day course, paying to be a member of the association sponsoring the designation and paying a yearly fee for the use of the designation name or abbreviations. Real estate professionals are inundated through e-mail to be the only agent in the area to receive referrals— a fee. They are hounded by requests to be coached by people who are sure they know better than anyone else how they should operate their businesses. Agents keep seeking more groups of letters that will surely make them an unprecedented success. Designations will not make a real estate professional successful. It is only what the individual who takes the time and energy to get them does with the information that will make the difference.

Sylvia Shelnutt, DREI, CRS, GRI, LTG, ABR, ABRM, CBR, CSP, C-CREC, e-PRO, SRES, teaches the ABR and ABRM courses, as well as the NAR multicultural certification course. She is an instructor for both the REEA Instructor Development Workshop and the Distinguished Real Estate Instructors Workshop. She was honored with the Real Estate Educator of the Year award for 2000 from the Georgia Real Estate Educators Association. In 2002, NAR named Sylvia as one of the top ten One America Cultural Diversity instructors in the nation. Sylvia can be reached at nuttshel@mindspring.com.