Education & Products
For New Recruits! Sales Prelicense Course - Madison
This program is also available through self-study video or a self-study Internet program.
To obtain a real estate license in the state of Wisconsin, you must first complete 72 hours of approved education courses such as our sales and prelicensing course.
Second, you must pass a state-administered exam. The WRA is offering an 8-day Accelerated 72 Hours Sales program on
July 14-17, 21-24, 2003 and
Sept. 8-11, 15-18, 2003 at the WRA in Madison. Brokers can purchase a $50 discount coupon for only $10, which entitles your new recruit to a $50 discount on the registration fee.
Your new recruits can be ready to take the exam as soon as they complete the class. Call 1-800-279-1972 to register!
New CRS Course • CRS210 - Building an Exceptional Customer Service Referral Business - first time offered in Wisconsin
The WRA and the Wisconsin CRS Chapter will be offering CRS210 - Building an Exceptional Customer Service Referral Business on
August 20-21, 2003 at the Country Inn, Pewaukee. Building an Exceptional Customer Service Referral Business is a highly interactive course designed to deliver all the essentials for refocusing the student's business plan to a customer service centered, repeat and referral business. The information provided will help identify the expectations of the "new consumer", the "new behaviors" necessary to meet those expectations and specific systems to make the agent's business more productive, more profitable and more enjoyable. Benefits of the program:
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Attracting a higher caliber client
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Meeting the expectations of the "new consumer"
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Dialogues and strategies for building a referral database
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Delivery systems to generate a successful referral business
Registration includes a networking coffee/rolls session each morning.
REALTORS® with their CRS Designation receive a $15 discount. Members of the Council of Residential Specialists may request a $50 off coupon by going to
www.crs.com/04_courses/1_schedule/210_coupon.html
It Will be Smooth Sailing with Quickstart
New agents will want to attend the four-day QuickStart Program (offered in two parts as two-day sessions). Course contents include working with FSBO and expired listings,
 farming, advertising, technology tools, creating a business plan, time management, listing presentations, overcoming objections, working with buyers, closing techniques and more.
Modules 1 and 2 will be offered June 11-12, 2003 and Modules 3 and 4 will be offered
July 9-10, 2003 in Madison. The fee is only $230; however, the WRA offers a new member discount of $40, making the cost of this course only $190. This is a fantastic price for four days of instruction for new agents.
Upon completion of the four modules, participants can
take a GRI Course 1 Equivalency Exam and move directly into GRI Course
2 or 3.
Buyer Agency-You Can Do It Too!
Get in on buyer agency and watch your career take off! This is turning into one of the WRA's most popular classes as Buyer Agency is becoming the way more and more buyers are choosing to do business. This two-day course covers agency, service delivery, marketing and promotion, and negotiation and risk management. The next course
offering is
August 13-14, 2003 in Madison.
Register now
ABR Elective Course Requirement Reminder
Members who completed the ABR Designation course BEFORE January 1, 2002, but did not earn their designation by that date, are not required to take an elective course to earn their ABR designation provided they complete requirements within three years of their course completion date. Members who completed the ABR Designation course AFTER January 1, 2002 must successfully complete an elective course to earn their ABR designation.
Is There a Broker's License in Your Future?
Video Course Now Available!
If you are interested in obtaining your broker's license, you must complete 36 hours of education. Areas of study include: contracts, marketing, trust accounts, business ethics, personnel, and more.
A video course is now available, or you can attend one of our live courses
scheduled for
June 16-19, 2003 at the WRA in
Madison and August 4-7, 2003 in Milwaukee at the Greater Milwaukee Association of
REALTORS®.
*Completion of the class, passing of the exam and applying for the broker license will fulfill your 2003-2004 Continuing Education requirements.
Appraisal CE-Mark Your Calendars!
Sept. 23, 2003 Wisconsin Dells
The Technology Assisted Appraiser, 7 hrs.
Oct. 7, 2003 Sheraton-Brookfield and
Oct. 8, 2003 WRA-Madison
Effective Appraisal Writing, 7 hrs.
Nov. 19, 2003 Appleton,
Nov. 20, 2003 Crown Plaza-Madison
and Nov. 21, 2003 WICPA-Brookfield Predatory Lending-Crossing the Line, 3.5 hrs.
Appraising Environmentally Contaminated Prop., 3.5 hrs
Dec. 8, 2003 Crown Plaza-Madison
and Dec. 11, 2003 Sheraton-Brookfield
How to Analyze and Value Commercial RE, 7 hrs.
Dec. 9, 2003 Wisconsin Dells
and Dec. 10, 2003 Appleton
USPAP Update
Will be submitted for Wisconsin appraiser, Assessor CE, Michigan Appraiser and Minnesota Appraiser CE.
GRI Course 1 - You Have Options!
You can take the online version of the GRI Course I Equivalency Exam for only $85. Call or visit wra.org to register today!
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REALTORS® in Paradise - Convention 2003
Three Designation Classes to Be Offered at WRA Annual Convention-Sept. 21-22, 2003
To remain competitive in an ever-changing industry, you need to take advantage of every opportunity for professional growth. Isn't it time you did? Get started on a designation at this year's WRA annual Convention at the Kalahari Hotel in the Wisconsin Dells.
CRB-2-day "Managing for Peak Performance" course, taught by Drexanne Evers, CRB
SRES-2-day "Seniors Real Estate Specialist" course, taught by Barb McGill, SRES
CCIM-2-day "Introduction to Commercial Real Estate Analysis" course, taught by Jay Keenan,
CCIM*
* completion and passing of exam qualifies for nine hours of 2003-2004 CE. Participants will be required to complete CE 3 in addition to the
above course.
Join our Island Escape and Benefit from Educational Opportunities
Featuring these workshops and many more:
- Attitude of a Top Producer
- Top Ten Negotiating Secrets for Buyers and Sellers
- Applying Feng Shui Principles in Real Estate
- The Art of T'ai Chi and Chi Kung
- Building Buyer Loyalty in a Disloyal Market
- The Principles and Punch of Ad Writing
- Managing the Unmanageable REALTOR®
- Effective Marketing: Prospecting Using E-Mail Marketing
- Agent Beware ... Don't Work Yourself to Death
- The Twelve Tips on Getting and Staying Focused
- Dominate Your Market by Building Your Brand
- Fired-Up Leadership: Recruiting your Dream Team
For a complete schedule of convention workshops and events click on the convention
logo above
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Life Insurance Protection Now ... Your Premiums Refunded Later
Does a term life insurance policy that not only guarantees your premium costs at a level rate for 15, 20, or 30 years, but also refunds your premiums at the end of the term sound too good to be true? It's not. Your beneficiaries receive death benefit proceeds if you die during the term of coverage, however, if the benefit is not used and coverage is terminated at the end of the term, you get all of the money back.
Imagine the different uses for such a plan ... to provide coverage until the children are grown, using the return of premium to help pay for college ... income replacement upon retirement ... divorce decrees that require coverage until the kids are grown ... to cover a mortgage or development contract.
Call REGIT today at 800-537-9786 to learn more about this unique plan and to get a personalized quote for $150,000 to $20,000,000 of coverage. Years from now you'll be glad you did.
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Rate Increases and Carrier Withdrawals
A Cause for Concern Among Real Estate Professionals
by Lisa Scoble, regional sales manager, pearl & associates, ltd.,
realtor® errors and omissions insurance administrator
With insurance rates on the rise, choosing your insurance partner is now more important than ever. According to insurance professionals, this rise in insurance rates is long overdue. While across-the-board rate increases are common, spikes such as we are experiencing now are not.
Insurance, like any other consumer product, experiences cyclical fluctuations caused by supply and demand. Just as in the real estate market, stable demand and reduced supply in the insurance marketplace will cause prices to rise, while reduced demand and increased supply will cause prices to drop. After 15 years of falling prices driven by surplus insurance capacity, the soft property and casualty market has taken a significant swing into a sudden and an unpredicted hard market.
Driving forces behind this strain on many key casualty insurance markets are under-reserved asbestos claims, increasing claim frequency and severity, and falling interest rates. These, along with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, have caused a significant financial drain on the seldom impacted reinsurance market. For the first time in insurance history, the reinsurance marketplace saw the demand suddenly exceed the supply of reinsurance capacity.
This capacity limitation saw carriers scrambling to secure coverage at significantly higher rates while being required to assume more risk from potential losses. The increase in cost and exposure has forced insurance carriers to pass on significant price increases and to reduce or limit the coverage being offered to policy holders-forcing policy holders to pay higher premiums, sometimes 20 to 50 percent more, and to assume more of their individual risks through higher deductibles and lower limits.
Throughout the '90s, technological advancements, such as the Internet, fueled the stock market to produce record highs. During this time, insurance carriers relied heavily on dividends from premium investments to generate an investment cushion and offset bargain premium rates. As that investment cushion ground too a halt, so did bargain premium rates.
The insurance market began to tighten for property, liability, automobile and workers' compensation as early as 1999. Reduced investment income was causing a gradual rise in premium pricing. According to Rod Sockolov, senior vice president for technology at ABD Insurance and Financial Services in Redwood City, CA, Sept. 11 "basically accelerated everything and put an exclamation mark on where we were already going."
Insurance carriers are now facing their own premium increases from reinsurance companies in addition to increases in both claim frequency and severity and are being forced to reevaluate risk factors and tighten underwriting policies. Firms that would have been considered insurable a few years back are now being rejected. Some carriers have even gone as far as to withdraw from the market entirely.
Premium increases and a more conservative approach to underwriting is not only inevitable, it is now essential because of the swiftness of our hardening market. While relief does not appear to be in the near future, it is coming. As premium rates more accurately reflect claim costs, the market will begin to stabilize and rates will level out.
As a sponsored insurance administrator, Pearl & Associates, Ltd. has spent the last fifty years meeting the many challenges faced in the insurance marketplace while providing uninterrupted coverage and outstanding service to our customers. Now is no different. We offer risk reduction seminars to help reduce claims, an experienced sales staff to handle any questions you may have, and a commitment to consistently research the market for the best E&O programs.
Pearl is committed to its customers and will continue offering the Real ProTM Errors & Omissions program-known for outstanding coverage, consistently fair pricing and solid underwriting practices-to real estate professionals like you.
Pearl & Associates Ltd. is a nationally known broker, marketer and administrator specializing in the design and administration of quality insurance plans for associates, affinity groups and large firms. earl has been providing insurance programs to professionals for 50 years. For more information about the sponsored E&O programs for members of the Wisconsin
REALTORS® Association or to request information regarding the WRA sponsored REAL ProTM Errors & Omissions program, call Lisa Scoble, Regional Sales Manager, Pearl & Associates, Ltd. (800) 289-8170 or send a fax toll-free (866) 817-9009. We also invite you to visit our Web site at
www.pearlins.com.
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