Normally, by this time we have all of our NC Continuing Education courses taken care of, after all the deadline is June 10th. This year though was different. Living in a small, somewhat remote area, we are left to the mercy of waiting until a course travels our way or driving to Asheville. It's all about timing. All that's left to do is our Mandatory Update and we'll do that in just a couple of hours. Luckily a course was offered in Waynesville at the Waynesville Country Club Inn.Agents have to take 8 hours in Continuing Education every year, 4 hours Mandatory Update and an elective. If you are the Broker in Charge, you take the BICAR (Broker in Charge Annual Review) in lieu of the elective. Leslie took her elective early on and even though I don't need an elective (Broker in Charge), I took it anyway with her because I wanted the information. The topic was Foreclosures, Short Sales, and Broker Price Opinions. I didn't need the course to satisfy my license requirements and I certainly could have used the $59 in some other manner but I wanted the education since it is a topic we are frequently asked about. I also have already taken my BICAR.
So, in a couple of hours we will be inside the classroom for half of the day learning about any changes to the rules and regulations we must abide by in our industry. We do get regular bulletins about the changes as they occur, so we aren't operating without that knowledge...but that's just us. I guess the NC Real Estate Commission doesn't want to take the chance that there might be agents out there who don't read the bulletins.
You know, they are probably right. An agent operating out there under the guise of guiding the consumer with the largest purchases of their lives really has no business doing that without knowing the latest real estate laws and regulations.
This is clearly one of those cases that government needs to have oversight on industry. There isn't an agent among us who would claim that without that government oversight, 100% of us would do everything we are supposed to in real estate to protect the consumers' interests.
What makes our industry any different from those who claim regulations are bad for the economy. When our environment and safety are at stake, in my opinion...I don't trust industry and people to regulate themselves. Our history is littered with instances where profit ruled over the safety of consumers and the integrity of the environment.
Even though the timing is NEVER good to take these Continuing Education courses, I'm always glad to go. We've been fortunate that the schools teaching the courses take it as seriously as we do.
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