OCBOR creates the "OCEAN CITY REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST CERTIFICATION"
I thought I'd share this effort by the Ocean City Board of Realtors (Ocean City, NJ) and their Education Committee who worked long and hard to obtain state and national approvals along with some sound thinking about what should be required in order for local agents to achieve this certification. I won't go into all of the details regarding the requirements ... just visit www.OCBOR.org or phone our hard-working, great Executive Officer for our Board, Christine Bauder at 609-399-0128.
Part of the effort is "continuing education" which involves on-gong workshop programs (mostly two hours in length) such as "Short Sales" which was given two different times a month ago. We have also scheduled a variety of other programs to meet the needs of new agents such as "Realtor Basics" which is an introductory workshop highlighting a variety of significant roles for realtors including "the sale and rental process, OCBOR forms and web-site usage, MLS/Paragon, 1031 Exchanges, and Lead Generation."
Another workshop in 2010 will be "Professionalism" reviewing Agency/Dual Agency, Professional Standards/Conduct, NAR Certification, Realtor.org, and Multiple Offers. The 2011 workshop will be "Strategies/Legal Issues" covering research tools/CMA, fair housing/discrimination, zoning issues, and condominium regulations.
Again, as mentioned earlier, these three introductory workshops will continue to be revised as we move along with the program ... but they will continue to form the basic topics for new agents on a continuing cycle. A wide variety of other workshops will focus on the many topics and challenges facing real estate agents more as elective offerings enabling interested participants to select as interested.
Our Board has received a number of applications from experienced agents who will be the first recipients of the certification. New agents will continue to work toward the certification as they complete workshop requirements, community service participation, and total numbers of required property sales. Other experienced agents and affiliates will be encouraged to participate as instructors for many of the workshops.
We are off to an excellent start on what can clearly be described as a well organized, interesting continuing education effort by a local Board of Realtors. I am quite pleased that I had an opportunity to be a part of the total effort. Dap
Comments(2)