“Broker Beware will provide licensees with greater knowledge of the steps required to get from contract to closing including an in-depth examination of known property issues (home buying hazards) and transaction issues so that they can protect their home buying clients. Attendees will also discuss the importance of writing the RANM Objection, Resolution and Waiver Notice and Agreement properly to ensure that sellers are using licensed contractors and obtaining required city inspections.”

That description is very similar to the one I submitted to the New Mexico Real Estate Commission for course approval, but it doesn’t really say what the class will be all about. Let me explain further:

Broker Beware grew out of my consideration of the broker duty that says “Written disclosure of any adverse material facts actually known by the broker about the property or the transaction, or about the financial ability of the parties to the transaction to complete the transaction…”

I think everyone knows adverse material condition in a property when they see it, when it is readily apparent, but how about those adverse material conditions that you can’t see?

That’s where the experience of a seasoned Realtor becomes valuable to their clients – when the Realtor knows what items/systems should be investigated by a inspection even when they can’t be seen. Examples of this are plenty, such as the presence of aluminum wiring, in-floor heating/cooling ducts, and polybutylene pipes, just to name a few. These are red flags that an experienced Realtor should know.

But how about the inexperienced Realtor? There are plenty of them out there right now, to be sure.

The new licensee goes through 90 hours of prelicensing classes where they learn plenty about protecting the public, and they probably go through some forms training when they join a brokerage, no doubt, but in most cases they have to learn the kind of items that seasoned real estate brokers discover over time.

In other words, there is no substitute for experience, right?

Of course experience is the best teacher, but what if someone could teach a class that covered these known adverse property conditions and share their experiences with transaction issues that can destroy closings too? Now that would be an awesome class.

That’s what I was thinking as I created this course.

Broker Beware: Getting from Contract to Closing, should be available June 2018,p pending final approval by the New Mexico Real Estate Commission.

 

 

 

 

 

Note: I was going to post this on the blogging site for Realtors called ActiveRain, but after careful consideration I’ve decided to start a blog here on MesaREI. This post is rather personal, I anticipate that the majority of posts will be about real estate industry topics as they relate to continuing education. So bear with me while I tell you how this whole thing called Mesa Real Estate Institute, LLC got started.

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Well, hello ActiveRain! It’s been since forever that I’ve posted anything here, and I apologize. You see, I’ve been very busy with my new business, Mesa Real Estate Institute, LLC.

Mesa Real Estate Institute, LLC, provides continuing education classes for New Mexico Realtors.

I’ve been a teacher all my life, but the idea of teaching continuing education for Realtors hadn’t crossed my mind for even a split second until I was taking the new “Core Course” here in Albuquerque in December 2016. It was a small class, but there were 2 or 3 Realtors sitting in the back of the room, set aside from all the rest.

At break, I asked one of those people what they were doing there, and she said “I’m auditing the class.”

I thought to myself, “who audits a continuing ed class anyway, the whole reason we are here is to get credit!”

When I asked my friend why she was there, she told me she was one of the new Core Course Instructors, she was auditing the class before she taught it, and that I ought to apply.

Turns out the gentleman in charge of the project was sitting at the back of the room as well, and when I asked if I should apply, he said “registration closes in a half hour, are you in or out?”

I jumped right in, and although the selection process was very competitive, somehow I was picked to participate in the upcoming bootcamp for instructors.

The first day of the bootcamp, I’ll have to admit, I still wasn’t all in, but as I looked around the room I thought, wow, what a great bunch of real estate professionals that got chosen, I’m not sure if I even belong here! I thought to myself: if nothing else, this is a great networking opportunity.

The bootcamp was fun, except the parts where we had to stand up in front of the class and present for them. Talk about nerve-wracking! I had to do it 4 times over the 2 day event, and I didn’t do very well.

I made it out of the bootcamp relatively unscathed, but I still wasn’t too excited about the prospect of standing up in front of a bunch of Realtors and practicing for the first time. Until I actually did it! Then it dawned on me that I had been a teacher for most of my life, and that real estate was no different.

As a result, I actively sought out opportunities to start teaching, and before too long I launched my own real estate school, Mesa Real Estate Institute, LLC.

Well, the rest is history, I realized I loved teaching so much that I soon applied to teach other classes, and as of this writing I’m up to 9 classes that have been approved by the New Mexico Real Estate Commission.

So that’s where I’ve been – travelling the state of New Mexico, teaching at the various Realtor Associations, and teaching in Albuquerque for my own school.

Needless to say, there has been no time to blog.

Please forgive me, and hear my story. Even if you really love selling Albuquerque real estate, you will never know what other surprising opportunities might be out there for you unless you keep your mind, and your ears, open.