Real Estate Education: Transactional or Transformational?

In my home state of Pennsylvania, we are deep in the throes of Continuing Education to renew salesperson's and broker's real estate licenses. "CE" as it is known, is required in almost every state to maintain an active license. In my state, for reasons best known by the state real estate commission, all licensees renew at the same time (unlike other states, which renew licenses on staggered dates which coincide with either a birthday or the date of initial licensure). So, here in PA, agents who plan to stay in the business for another two years are trooping off to get their 14 hours of CE.

Coincidentally, this coming week, I'll be privileged to attend a summit for real estate education directors, speakers, etc, known as the RAPDD Summit and put on by the Wichita, KS Association of REALTORS®.  I'm really excited about getting together with other people who share my passion about real estate education; and I'll admit I'm "over the moon" about the opportunity to present to this group; to ‘audition', as it were, for people who don't yet know me.

In preparation for my presentation, I have been doing some major soul-searching about just what it is I do, and why I'm passionate about it. My husband and son joined in the conversation the other morning, and helped me focus my thoughts on what it is I'm passionate about-and why. The phrase we came up with was: "Real Estate Education-Transactional or Transformational?" You see, if you are licensee who simply needs 14 (or however many) hours of CE to keep your license, you may show up at a class really not expecting much-if anything at all. In fact, many students routinely search out classes based on cost (cheapest) and potential (will the instructor skirt the rules and let them out early?). For those students, it's simply a transaction: "I'll give you my time and money, you give me my hours (and no one gets hurt)".

Transformational education is something else entirely; it's when an instructor gives students much more than the credit for the time and money. It's when we are able to give students an "Aha!" moment-which I know has happened by the looks on their faces-or when people start furiously writing down something you just told them about because they want to try it, use it, claim it as their own.  A transformational moment in education is when you show the students another way to do something, a better, or faster, or easier, way to do something.  A transformational moment is when you urge them on to become the best they can be-to notch themselves up.

I love it when I get someone in a class who came for a transaction-and ends up getting a transformation anyway. They'll come up after class and say things like: "You know, I really didn't think I'd learn anything today-but I did." Or, "Usually this stuff is really boring-but you made it interesting." That's the point for me-real estate education should never be boring, or useless. It should be transformational, not transactional.

            Here's my point for the students out there: if you are in a state which has CE (and virtually all states do; New Jersey is even finally coming onboard) and you have so many hours you ‘have to' spend on education, make it transformational, not transactional. Learn something that will make you a better agent; learn something that will help you work smarter, not harder; learn something that will make you more money and give you more time for other things. Our business is changing more rapidly now than at any time I can remember. The ‘same old same old' just doesn't cut it anymore-isn't it time you got transformed?

 Visit my website at www.TheMelanieGroup.com for some transformational real estate education!