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Capturing REAL moments in real estate since 1995
SEPTEMBER 2019 • VOLUME 24 • ISSUE 5
So you want to sell
Luxury Homes? WRITTEN BY RIKI MARKOWITZ
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Finding a niche in real estate is a common strategy many REALTORS take to find that sweet spot. Selling luxury homes is an area that can seem beyond your reach if you don’t know where to start. Acquiring one or more professional real estate designations is pretty normal for REALTORS who want to increase opportunities and earnings. Certifications are not the same as licensing classes, a broker program, real estate electives or continuing education credits. For example, a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) is the highest designation awarded to residential real estate agents. To qualify, applicants must have 60 residential real estate transactions or $30 million in volume over the past three years. Agents with their CRS designation can earn up to four times more than agents who don’t, according to the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Agents that have a Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) designation receive specialized training to
serve the needs of senior buyers and sellers over the age of 54. Each year, hundreds of REALTORS in Austin enroll in courses to earn these and other certifications. Kim Dydalewicz, the president of Champions School of Real Estate, says that agents should start working on getting certifications as early as possible because they’re a great investment. Since Austin seems to have a robust luxury real estate market, we asked Dydalewicz what she thought about the Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS) certification. She said Austin has a great market for agents who like working on high-end properties. The Luxury Home Specialist accreditation was developed by Jim Remley in 2005, one year after co-founding the Luxury Home Council. When his age still ended in “teen” Remley was listed in the top 1 percent of REALTORS in the
country. In his early 20s, he launched a start-up real estate business, which he grew into the largest independent real estate company in Oregon. Later, NAR recruited Remley to be an instructor.
Why Austin REALTORS should care about the ALHS designation According to KVUE’s Boomtown 2040 series, the biggest population jump in the Austin area happened between 1990 and 2000. Ryan Robinson, the city’s demographer, says the population is set to hit 1,000,000 in 2020. As the number of people here swells, so too does our luxury housing market. Technically, REALTORS are not required to be an ALHS to work with luxury buyers and sellers. And the general public doesn’t really know what the designations even mean, says Michelle Allen, CRS, SRES, MCNE, CLHMS,
Luxury Homes continued on page 28
