By Pamela R. Rorie, Continuing Education Officer
Completing annual continuing education requirements is one of the major responsibilities you have to maintain your real estate license on active status. Opportunities for learning abound with greater variety than ever before. And in this past year, the first distance education elective courses have been approved, making the process more convenient and more easily adapted to busy schedules.
Commission records show that most North Carolina real estate licensees take their continuing education courses in the final quarter of the license year with 50 - 52% of those who complete the requirements doing so between April 1 and June 10 - the last possible 71 days!
Courses Offer Variety
Especially for those still at work on CE credits, here's an update of what's new with this vital part of the business:
As of mid-March 2001, the Education Division reported 184 Commission-approved continuing education sponsors. Of those, 109 sponsors offer both the mandatory Update course and electives, 59 offer elective courses only and 16 offer only the mandatory Update course.
Currently, there is a greater number of different elective courses approved than ever before with a total of 329 as of mid-March, and still growing. In fact, in the current license year (since July 1, 2000) a total of 60 brand new courses have received Commission approval. That's over seven new courses a month thus far. Hopefully, this increased variety will enable licensees to attend courses on new areas of interest and to receive updated materials on topics with which they have basic familiarity.
The Commission approves continuing education courses on a variety of elective topics such as agency, appraisal, brokerage practices, building styles and designs, closing procedures, commercial real estate, contracts, environmental issues, ethics, fair housing, finance, investment, land use, legal issues, property management, and taxation.
As noted, this year has also seen the approval of the first continuing education courses available through distance education delivery methods, with a total of 13 computer-based courses among the 329 approved elective courses.
For an idea of the variety of offerings, look at the Commission's web site or the final printed Continuing Education Schedule for the 2000-2001 license year, which lists course offerings for April 16 through June 10. Highlighted are course offerings in the areas of Commercial Real Estate and Property Management as well as information about sponsors with currently approved distance education CE elective courses.
Update Course Preview
For those licensees who have completed the current year's continuing education requirement and are looking forward to course offerings for the 2001-2002 license year, here is a preview of the mandatory Update course which will be offered beginning July 1, 2001:
Approximately two hours of the coming year's Update course will be devoted to amendments to the Commission's rule on agency agreements and disclosure, which become effective July 1, 2001 and modify current procedures for establishing buyer agency relationships. A key part of the disclosure process is a new brochure that agents will give to their customers/clients at the time of the first substantial contact.
(A reproducible copy of the brochure is included in the center of this issue of the Bulletin).
One to one and a half hours will be devoted to home inspections. This portion of the course will contain instruction designed to promote a better understanding of the home inspection process including the duties of real estate agents and home inspectors, common problems encountered and suggestions as to how to minimize them.
The remaining time of the Update course will cover any law changes enacted by the 2001 General Assembly that impact real estate brokerage or other topics to be determined.