Entry by Pat Tristram

Should You Be Licensed to be an ACRE?

  3 Comments

Jim and I had a meeting this afternoon with 2 agents within our company explaining ACRE® and why we have become involved etc.

Question one of them had was if one have to be a licensed realtor to become a member of ACRE® ? I thought this was a good question because no doubt as consulting takes off there will be other companies surface with similar programs.

3 Comments

JudiB said it best in responding to a similar inquiry: "The practice of assisting others, for compensation, in the purchase or sale of real estate is licensed activity. That's true in all states and provinces. If your objective is to work with buyers and sellers in the selling or buying of property, you must have a real estate license."

If you are interested in ACRE and you do business as a real estate professional, you need a real estate license. The only exception is in the area of Industry Partners - these are folks that believe in the consulting practice but work in affiliate or sister businesses. We certainly invite these folks to become ACRE partners but they are not ACREs per se.

I'd be curious if others have heard this question and what their thoughts are.

Pat-

I agree with what Mollie said and her quote of Judi about real estate being a licensed activity.

Do you know what the agent was thinking about? Was she/he thinking of unlicensed assistants, office staff, etc?

You also said: no doubt as consulting takes off there will be other companies surface with similar programs

What kind of companies were you thinking about?

There has already been at least one previous ACRE who was licensed who took what he learned from ACRE and turned it into his own "training" program. There was also a company (now defunct) that "affiliated" with ACRE and wanted to use ACRE to build their business. I believe they were also licensed. (Not sure whether anyone in that company was officially an ACRE.)

It seems there might be instances when a non-licensed person could take the ACRE training, but it would definitely need to be on a case-by-case basis. Likewise, granting the ACRE would be case-by-case. (I'm making a distinction between taking the training and getting the designation.)

That brings up a question for Mollie...

When signing up or getting the designation, do you ask if the person is licensed? Do you ask for a license # and confirm it? (Sorry, it's been so long ago, I don't recall.)

No, we don't ask Betty - it's hard to verify and there are some instances, as you said, that a license would not be needed.

I do think I will post Pat's question and our answer on the Times Community (our Public Blog) under Ask the ACRE Council so that our feelings are clear.

This page contains a single entry by Pat Tristram published on February 19, 2010 10:33 PM.

Communication: First experience! was the previous entry in this blog.

Baby Steps Toward Consulting is the next entry in this blog.

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