A Matter of Courses: New CRS courses enhance your knowledge and skills
The Council of Residential Specialists has always been recognized for its education. Members consistently rank our CRS education as the best in the industry. But we’re not resting on our laurels. This year, CRS is launching many new courses and expanding eLearning offerings in response to member requests. As the busy season starts to cool, it’s a good idea to start planning your continuing education to improve your knowledge, skills and bottom line.
Check out all of the Council’s new courses and register online at CRS.com/education. And don’t forget, any of these courses apply toward fulfilling the new education maintenance requirement for all CRS designees.
Negotiations: A Four-Part Series
eLearning, 2 credits each, 8 credits total
Starting in 2016, CRS launched a series on negotiations, consisting of four two-hour eLearning courses. The first course, Foundations of Negotiations, laid the groundwork for the three following courses, which continue to launch this year. By breaking up the series, CRSs can take all four for a full eight credit hours, or jump in on areas where they want to focus.
Negotiations: Understanding People
- Recognize and work with others’ communication styles
- Enforce the preparation work needed prior to a negotiation
- Differentiate positions from interests
- Knowledge is power
- Personalities and analysis
- Discovering positions and interests
Negotiations: Win-Win Game Plan
- Strategy
- Techniques
- Repairs
- Trade-offs/alternatives
- Common ground and goals
- Contract inspections
Negotiations: Difficult Situations
- Tricks and tools
- Communication
- Breaking through barriers
- Objections
- Contingencies
- Using alternatives
Photography: A Four-Part Series
eLearning, 2 credits each, 8 credits total
Like the negotiation series, this four-part series on photography launched in 2016 with a foundational course, How Do I Make My Photos Look Like That?
A Photo Sells a Thousand Homes
Photos now have a major impact on how homes sell. Buyers view fewer properties as a result of narrowing down the homes they want to see by looking at photos online. Just as every real estate agent should have a marketing plan, they should also have a plan for their photos. An agent must know what photos attract buyers to homes, how to identify the correct photos and how to compose the best photos. In this course, you will learn what photos every home must have, what photos not to use, how to compose the best shot and, most importantly, how to get more buyers viewing listings as a result of great photos.
Capturing Professional Photos Through Bracketing
It can be difficult to get the perfect image with a single shot. Taking several shots of the same subject using different camera settings is a technique called bracketing. In this course, you will learn how the best photos are taken through bracketing. The course will show you how to use software to blend images to create the best photos for every listing.
Using Drones in Your Real Estate Business
Should you or should you not go out and get a drone? Drones are hot topics, but there is always more than meets the eye. This course will explore the different reasons for adding a drone to your business, as well as different ways to effectively use a drone to promote your listings and ultimately show you a return on your investment in equipment and time.
Listing Strategies: A Four-Part Series
eLearning, two credits each, eight credits total
The four-part listing strategies series launched in 2016 with the course Pre-Listing Preparation. Each eLearning course is worth two credit hours and can be taken separately or all together.
Clinching Your Listing
There are distinct methods for successfully closing sellers that differ from the techniques you may use for closing your buyers. But what are these differences and how can you employ them to increase the number of properties in your current inventory? In this course, learners examine best practices for achieving key results by employing best-fit strategies in the listing presentation process, effectively countering seller objections and successfully closing sellers.
Pricing Your Listing
Appropriate pricing is a key component of selling your listings. In fact, it is the listing price that generates interest and showings. No amount of marketing will sell an overpriced property. So how do you position the property to compete effectively with other listings and satisfy your sellers’ needs? In this course, you will examine a variety of pricing strategies, competitive market analysis, absorption rates and techniques for collaborating with your seller to achieve effective market positioning and increase sales.
Marketing/Selling Your Listing
To effectively market a listing, agents want to employ targeted marketing, engage in internet marketing, create an effective listing description and identify top agents in the area to target with an internal marketing campaign. Marketing, however, is not the only component for professionally servicing a listing and building your personal brand. Communicating, providing feedback and countering seller objections are essential elements of your marketing and sales processes.
Other New Courses
Top-of-Mind Techniques to Boost Your Brand
One-day classroom course, eight credits
In this one-day classroom course worth eight credits, attendees will learn to apply advanced techniques for remaining top of mind with their spheres of influence. Through a series of engaging discussions and activities, you will explore the effective use of social media, neighborhood farming and other marketing strategies to distinguish yourself as the trusted advisor for existing and prospective clients. You will leave with an action plan that you can confidently implement to enhance and maintain your brand to generate a continuous stream of repeat and referral business.
For Sale by Owners (FSBOs)
eLearning, two credits
FSBOs are a fantastic source of listings! In any good seller’s market, many consumers contemplate the possibility of selling on their own. When agents make it look easy, then it looks, well, easy. The draw of selling on your own unleashes a different kind of potential seller. This course explores a proven method for approaching, helping (yes, we said helping) and ultimately converting the FSBO prospect. With many markets in full-on seller mode and those FSBO signs popping up all over, now is the time to sharpen your FSBO skills.
How Technology Can Ruin Your Real Estate Business
One-day classroom course, eight credits
We live in a world in which the internet, cloud-based tools, social media, messaging/communication platforms and other technologies enhance our productivity and efficiency. However, if used without the proper safeguards in place, these can put you and/or your company and the consumers you serve in a vulnerable position. In the current world of viruses, malware, social engineering, identity theft and more (all of which are growing at alarming rates), this is especially concerning when combined with the fact that in many cases you are collecting and storing your clients’ sensitive personally identifiable information.
