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REAL ETHICS by Steve Stazel | December
2004 | Index of all Real Ethics columns
Required courses
There seems to be a great deal of confusion about required courses in Colorado. Let me address the situation.
Two courses are mandatory for Colorado REALTORS® - one to maintain your license with the Colorado Real Estate Commission (CREC), and the other to keep your Association membership intact.
CREC for licensees
The first course relates to all real estate licensees, regardless of whether they are a member of a REALTOR® board or association. That is the Colorado Real Estate Commission (CREC) Update course. It is a three-hour course, and it carries three hours of continuing education credit. All licensees are required to take this course every year.
Ethics for REALTORS®
The other class you must take is required of all REALTORS®. It is an Ethics Update Course, and its place on your education schedule is mandated by the National Association of REALTORS®. Some associations, including the Aurora Association of REALTORS®, require this class every four years, others require it every three years. At AAR, the class is referred to as the Quadrennial Ethics course; it carries four hours of Continuing Education Credit.
Call to be sure
Now don't all of you do this at the same time....but I would suggest, if you are uncertain, that you call your Association and find out if their records show you as having completed your Ethics class requirement. It may be that you took the required class from another board during the last two or three years. If so, you need to show the certificate you received from the other board to your own.
Save, save, save
One other thing...please remember to save your certificates of completion, not only for these two classes, but for all those you take. It's important to be able to prove you fulfilled your education requirement. While your Association does keep copies of certificates given at each class offered onsite, it does not keep an education file for each member, and has no way of knowing whether you took classes at other locations.
Each month, the Aurora Association of REALTORSŪ Web site features Real Ethics,
a column by Steve Stazel devoted to explaining Code of
Ethics issues for members. A REALTORŪ since 1974, Stazel is a Professional Standards
instructor and senior Ethics
instructor for the Colorado Association of REALTORSŪ.
If you have an ethical concern or an issue you would like
to see addressed, please call Stazel at (303) 773-3333 or e-mail him at
stazels@msn.com. The comments of this article reflect the understanding and
opinions of the author and do not represent an official expression of policy by the National Association
of REALTORSŪ.
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