Creative Real Estate: Then and Now
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Foundation President’s Message
Can you remember what you were doing 30 years ago? Perhaps you were graduating from high school or college? One thing is for sure; you would endure and perhaps enjoy the one and only Disco craze. Go Donna Summers! Remember the Bee Gees? Oh yeah, the minimum wage was about $1.10 per hour.
So, having survived these last 30 years, I found myself asking some questions recently that I thought I would share with Observer readers:
- How has the real estate world changed today?
- Can you imagine being in the real estate business 30 years ago?
- How and where would you go for advanced educational needs?
- What education was available to you back then?
- How has technology changed our business with speed and ease in obtaining knowledge and distributing information?
- Who is the new real estate practitioner? A generalist? A specialist?
It’s a forgone conclusion that the real estate world is ever changing yet the basic needs of the real estate practitioner have remained the same. We have to stay on the cutting edge and we do that by expanding our knowledge on a regular basis. We educate ourselves or we get left behind.
I recently found a list of the creative real estate courses offered in 1975 and compared them to those being offered today. Upon examination, we can reach a common conclusion; that the basic creative real estate courses, although always changing, are similar and in some way have proven themselves and have passed the test of time? We owe a huge gratitude of thanks to the leaders of education and to the California organizations for leading the way.
Understanding that the future of, and survival of, all real estate professionals would be through education, the Society of Exchange Counselors established the S.E.C. Education Foundation in 2001. Funded through individual contributions, the Society’s Foundation now offers and sponsors a broad selection of courses. These courses provide the basics necessary to succeed in any type of real estate market, in any type of expertise and in any type of financial status.
An example of these courses is entitled Broker Estate Building, which was originated some 30 years ago by Cliff Weaver and Colby Sandlian, and rewritten and offered today by Phil Corso and myself. This course provides the attendees with the expertise and knowledge of how to be your own best client. Our students learn how to live on cash flow not commissions. Once that transition is made from commissions to cash flow you now rely on yourself and your decisions instead of the decisions of others. You are in control!
The S.E.C. Education Foundation would love to bring one of our courses to your town. Contact the EDF by visiting our website at www.secedfoundation.com and tell us which course would best serve your real estate community.
