2005 Education Report

By Lucy Hadley
Director of Professional Development

It was another good year for the Education Department at the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. CBR continued to offer MLS Tempo classes, which featured three hours of continuing education credit for each level- Tempo I (Solo), Tempo II (duet), and Tempo III (Symphony). Instructed by CBR's Matt Warren, these courses have proven to be a valuable tool for our members. The Tempo classes are available each month throughout the year and are usually sold out. Matt also instructs our Realist and Tarasoft Titan training classes. In the month of ovember, nine (1-hour) classes were given on the Client Listing site. From now on, that information is incorporated in the Tempo III class.

In 2005, CBR offered 156 classes and issued 3,165 certificates for continuing education credit. Many students chose to take the Tempo classes without the continuing education, but we still issued 400 CE certificates for the Tempo classes. In addition to Tempo, we also offered many other computer-related classes including Realist and Tarasoft Titan, as well as Word: Creating Newsletters and Flyers, PowerPoint and the Top Producer Series (7i).

The Residential Education Committee, chaired by Pat Himes, was diligent in offering all of the required courses several times in 2005; Civil Rights three times, Core Law five times- including "Sales Associates Day", and Ethics was offered three times to help our members meet he NAR Requirement for Ethics as well as their state requirement. There were many special interest courses including: Held Up without a Gun; Predatory Lending, Everything to Know About Condominiums, Digital Camera Course, Feng Shui for Real Estate, Columbus' Hot New Market/Its Old, Bidding on HUD Homes, Franklin County Auditor's Website, Safety Seminar for Real Estate Professionals, Avoiding the RESPA "Police," and Mold: Legal, Scientific, & Practical Issues in Real Estate.

When the new Residential Purchase Contract was introduced in 2004, CBR offered numerous classes for members to learn and use the new contract. In 2005, CBR offered the course 3 times for members to review and for new members to learn. It is a goal to continue to offer a review course every quarter. As with the MLS Tempo classes and Realist classes, continuing education credit was offered but was optional. Approximately half of the students opted to take the class for continuing education credit.

The C/I Education Committee also had a fulfilling year providing 3-hour courses for our members, as well as nine C/I Luncheons, which provided 1-hour and 2-hours of continuing education credit. Altogether, 69 credit hours of education focused on commercial real estate this year. That is a new record. The C/I Education Committee, chaired this year by Peggy Varrone, worked hard to bring the following topics to their fellow agents- Introduction to Business Brokerage, Issues Related to Procuring Cause, Update of the Commercial Purchase Contract, C/I Property and Environmental Inspections, Understanding the Commercial Real Estate Appraisal, Introduction to Real Estate Investment & Development Analysis, Applied Real Estate Investment Analysis, Core Law for Commercial Agents, and ADA for C/I Agents. In addition, the C/I Luncheon topics included commercial development updates in Hilliard, Polaris, Canal Winchester, Southern Delaware County, New Albany and the OSU Campus area. The 5th Annual Halloween C/I Forecast was a success as always. And the Outlook for Commercial Real Estate 2006 & Beyond in partnership with CCIIR and CREW was a great success, as well. In preparation for the Central Ohio Commercial Data Exchange launching in January 2006, nine 3-hour training courses (with continuing education credit) were offered from the middle of October through December.

As you can see, it was another exciting year in the Education Department. More members than ever are using online registration at CBR's website. It is easy to do, and so if you haven't looked at the course listings, be sure to log on to ColumbusRealtors.com. Just click on the "Classes" box. You are able to view a course description, register and pay the tuition (if applicable) online, as well.

Thank you to all the committee members, the instructors and the students for making the CBR course offerings valuable learning opportunities.