Recently in The ACRE® course Category

At the end of this month, we'll be embarking on a laboratory experiment: teaching the entire ACRE® course...to a live class.

I've taught consulting before ACRE® was born and have had several requests over the last three years which I've always put aside, mostly for lack of time. However, I received a request two months ago that changed my mind.

A couple of months ago, I posted on the members-only Coaching Exchange that it was our intention to upgrade the ACRE® course. Counsel Member Tom Pickering (our education guru) is working on this project; taking my "prose" and making it into a true course book, both because it needs to be, and because it will better ACRE®'s chances of being picked up for CE credits.

Once the new course book is completed, it is our intention to raise the bar in terms of the requirements to become an ACRE®. Clearly, in order to become a successful consultant, one needs to not just understand the model, but also have developed a strategic focus (I don't want to use the phrase "business plan" as it makes most agents' eyes glaze over) and most importantly, have calculated your hourly rates and any fee packages that you want to offer. Without this practical work complete, the theory is useless.

ACRE® Coach and Tech Guru Merv Forney is busily at work, putting together a new, expanded, and more user friendly Consulting Times. Here are just two of the changes (that I know about!)

FINALLY, the old course site (ACREcourse.com) will be brought in under The Consulting Times (TCT) umbrella. The old course site was set up before Merv joined us and the two sites have never talked with each other, not only providing conflicting information, but making for a lot of extra work behind the scenes.

Well, the lazy summer is over and if you're like me and observe the Jewish holidays, autumn signals a new year and time for new beginnings. And we have huge changes coming to the ACRE® program. The Council members have been putting our heads together and I have been speaking with many of our ACRE® grads regarding what works, what doesn't, what needs to be changed, and what needs to be adapted.

Frankly, my goal has always been, not just to have an organization that promotes, teaches, and supports real estate consulting, but eventually have ACRE® become the BEST training program in real estate, bar none. But to reach that goal, we need to make some major changes and we have quite a few that will be coming over the next few months into the beginning of 2010. I'll be posting them in the next days and weeks.

If you've been thinking about registering for the ACRE® Program, please do not use these upcoming changes as a reason for putting it off. All new materials will be available through our Resource Library so you won't "miss" anything.

Remember, the changes we are seeing in real estate are not going to go away once the market recovers - rather, the changes are systemic in nature and if we are to survive, we need to heed their call. "On the road of life, there are drivers and there are passengers." It's time to become a driver!

I've noticed that during the last few months of every year, agent list-serves and forums begin popping with posts regarding the newest and greatest software, tools, and must-have cool gadgets to buy for their businesses. This crazy rush to purchase the newest and greatest is in full swing by the NAR® (National Association of Realtors®) Convention in November and only seems to slow down when the realities of holiday shopping hit home - usually when the bills begin arriving in January.

Below is a response from one of the ACRE graduates and coach, Judi Bryan, to a post on a list-serv regarding programs that teach fee-for-service type models.

There is a program available which gives the "availability" of fee for services, but goes, I believe, a whole lot further. It's the ACRE® program for Accredited Consultant in Real Estate. Since the program is designed around a "consulting" model where the seller has options with what services they want and how they want to pay for them, and the agent has the opportunity to get compensated for time and expertise, whether a transaction ensues or not, it offers a real win/win. And there is no need to sell a prospect on anything. All it is meant to be is an option...an option that gives us "transparency" in how we are being paid and does not require that the seller take an "all or nothing" package.