Real Estate
What is A Real Estate Certification?
Many would say that the largest industry in this country is the real estate industry. Anything that can be done involving some kind of real property is considered part of the industry. This could range from acquiring and improving land or buildings, transferring ownership from one owner to another, demolishing obsolete structures, maintaining and managing a development, or even working for the government to regulate all the real estate activities in a particular area. So, if real estate is your career, you might be selling, designing, managing, regulating, financing, or performing any number of other functions.
To become a real estate agent or salesperson, you will need to get a real estate license. To get the license, you’ll need to take a training program—either in a classroom setting or online. Training in real estate sales may only take a few months to complete, but to increase your training at least to the Associate’s degree level will expand your general knowledge, nearly all of which will be relevant to your work. If real estate is likely to be your career for the foreseeable future, a Bachelor’s degree or even a Master’s degree in Real Estate, Business Administration or one of the business areas like Finance or Marketing, can only improve your career outlook. Your license, in most places, will allow you to sell real estate while working under a real estate broker.
Only real estate brokers can sell real estate independently or have other real estate salespeople working for them. To become a Real Estate Broker you will need, first, to have sold real estate as a salesperson for an amount of time specified by regulations in your geographical location. Then, you will need to have broker’s training and pass a broker’s licensing exam. This may be a step that you will be interested in, especially if the kind of real estate you’d like to sell can be handled best as an independent salesperson and broker. Also, at the Broker’s level, at least a Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate or some related business area is nearly a necessity, with an MBA degree becoming more common in today’s more complex world of sales and finance.
