What is the best Real Estate Designation to have?

Hello to the Land of Enchantment!  I recently got my ABR (still waiting for the paperwork to be completed by REBAC).  I found the information in this two day course most helpful.  NJ has some weird agency rules so I found that portion of the class most enlightening.  I just signed up for ePro, but haven't started the training yet.  I've been asking these questions, so I'll watch to see what others have to say.

(Miss NM, I'm an NMSU alum...Go Aggies!)

Being a RE rookie, I'm probably speaking out of turn here, but...

I plan to work on GRI because I can substitute GRI 2 & 3 for the Broker (Associate) CE course. GRI 1 would have sub'ed for the Associate CE course, but I didn't know that at the time.

Without CCIM it's almost impossible to get any corporately owned commercial listings. Even then, most of the listings go to big, corporate, commercial only brokerages.

I don't think that your typical residential seller knows or cares about the designations, but any time spent networking with other RE professionals (classroom time) is time well spent IMHO. Then you have the braistorming and exchange of ideas, how they do it in other offices, etc.

The newbie shuts up now...

 I have to say, I haven't gone after these, they seem to be important in the 90's before the internet got big, it was something to talk about, but if you have to tell the public what they are then why have them. The business model is a revenue generator for the people selling designations that most people don't know what it means and won't be the deciding factor in whether they hire you.

Think from the customer's perspective, the only thing the designation can say is 1 - you have some extra training or 2 - you are better than the average agent. If you can't explain these 2 things without the designation then you haven't really built your business for a competitive market. It's free to build a better business and not pay a third party for letters. Take it from a PSG (Pretty Smart Guy)

My friend told me about a real estate agent she new that used the WGAS Designation after their name in his email signature. He used the desination for years and many people may have been impressed but others not so much. One day she asked what the WGAS Designation represented. His response was it stands for Who Gives A Sh*t. She was laughing for weeks over that story. I still find it amusing to this day.