^[1]Knowledge is power. By expanding your real estate knowledge and keeping at the forefront of what’s next, you and your agents will stand apart from the crowd in today’s competitive marketplace. NAR offers extensive resources to help you continue to increase your professional skills and stay on top of industry trends, from online courses through REALTOR® University to webinars, products, videos, field guides and more.

Relevant Courses for Today’s Marketplace

REALTOR® University is NAR’s education destination. Within REALTOR® University, the School of Professional Development and Continuing Education is the premier online real estate school, offering more than 400 hours of specialized online courses addressing a broad range of real estate fundamentals and industry topics.

REALTOR® University courses can help you and your agents earn designations and certifications to help you enhance your reputation, build your referral business and increase earnings. In fact, REALTORS® who earn professional designations have a distinct competitive edge as a result of their increased expertise and marketability. Based on 2012 NAR survey data, the median income of REALTORS® with at least one designation was $21,100 higher than the median income without designations.

You can complete courses online anytime, anywhere through REALTOR® University’s global online campus. And soon, almost every course will be available in a mobile, tablet-friendly format—so you can easily access courses from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Also, many REALTOR® University courses are approved for continuing education credit. Currently, 12 courses are approved in more than 40 states, and NAR is in the process of getting approval for many more. So, you and your agents can acquire leading-edge real estate knowledge and skills, and earn CE credits at the same time—at no extra cost.

Designation Awareness Month

November is REALTOR® Designation Awareness Month—the perfect time for you and your agents to get started toward an official designation or certification through NAR or one of its Institutes, Societies and Councils. Register for a course in November and receive 20 percent off online courses through REALTOR® University.

Master of Real Estate Degree: Comprehensive, Academic and Practical

REALTOR® University’s first degree-granting program—the Master of Real Estate (MRE)—is now a fully recognized degree by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. This 36-credit-hour, 12-course, graduate-level program isn’t your traditional graduate degree. What makes it unique is that it was designed from the start to be practical, so you’ll walk away with skills you can immediately apply to your day-to-day career.

“Many of the major universities have real estate programs,” says Richard Rosenthal, DSA, chairman of the REALTOR® University Board of Regents. “But what makes ours distinct is a concentration on what our members actually do to make a living.”

The program’s eight-week sessions are taught exclusively online through REALTOR® University’s global online campus. So you can go back to school no matter where in the country you live and without taking time away from selling real estate.

Other Resources

NAR provides numerous other resources to help you stay in touch with what’s happening throughout the global real estate community, including:

• Webinars. REALTOR® University offers cutting-edge, affordable, live webinars weekly and an archive of past webinars. One example is the new Boost Business through Social Media Webinar Series that helps you learn to build a social media plan to better engage prospects.
• Library. NAR’s online library catalog provides access to the world’s largest real estate library, including thousands of field guides, books, e-books, audio books, journals, reports, videos and more.
• Products. NAR also has a vast store of hundreds of physical and downloadable e-publications on real estate topics.
• Code of Ethics Training. Take an online course to learn the requirements by the December 31, 2012 deadline.

For more information, visit www.RealtorU.com ^[2] or www.REALTOR.org/education ^[3].