Each new year brings a fresh opportunity to understand how the Vermont real estate landscape is evolving and how you can adapt to these changes in your practice. This course covers the latest updates in Vermont’s real estate regulations, offering insights into adjustments you need to make to stay compliant and effective. In addition, it explores best practices for reviewing and implementing remaining legislative changes, ensuring that you remain up-to-date with the laws that still require attention. You'll gain a solid understanding of how to integrate these changes into your daily work while protecting your clients and your business.

Course highlights include:

• Significant laws passed in the most recent legislative sessions
• Vermont case studies of interest
• Recent Vermont Supreme Court decisions
• Act 250 – Updates on housing development, Road Rule, and Farm Business
• Act 181 – Transfer Tax and Rates updates
• Act 181 – Short-Term Rentals Disclosure and updates
• Flood hazard and lead paint disclosures
• Vermont Zoning Act updates
• Amendments to Aboveground Storage Tank rules
• Education Tax prebates and rebates
• Review of age-restricted housing in Vermont
• Real Estate Withholding Tax review
• Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Certifications
• Designated vs. Non-Designated Agency
• Service agreements and contract terminations
• Commercial practices and environmental site assessments
• Sign Law and Signage Regulations
• Filing Complaints

Green homes aren’t just the latest trend anymore. Thanks to sky-high energy bills, most homeowners are looking for ways to cut costs by making their homes more energy efficient. This means that understanding the popularity of green homes, being able to detangle the terminology and certifications, and identifying how the improvements impact value is a must for any licensee.

This two-hour course explores the key features found in green homes, as well as an assortment of eco-friendly remodeling strategies to green up a listing. Green features can help a listing stand out from others on the market, so this course prepares licensees to provide their clients with practical suggestions that will help them make their homes more appealing to the environmentally minded without blowing their budgets.

Course highlights include:

• Green and sustainability terms and concepts
• Vermont energy goals
• Green energy ratings, labels, and certifications
• Green home features
• Sellers and green homes
• Buyers and green homes
• Quick and inexpensive green changes
• The Residential Green and Energy Efficient Addendum
• Green financing and incentives

While conducting real estate business, have you encountered a situation in which you weren’t sure what the proper course of action was? What the right thing to do might be? Or maybe you’ve heard your colleagues’ stories and got that uncomfortable, itchy feeling that an action they took wasn’t quite on the up and up.

Let’s look at an uncomfortable truth: real estate agents have a small tarnished image problem. With every transaction being unique, real estate licensees often face ethical gray areas. Some real estate professionals simply don’t understand how to handle complex issues in the most ethical manner, and others bend the rules if they think it’ll keep a transaction on track or a commission in their bank account and not a competitor’s.

Aligned to the requirements of the current NAR cycle, this three-hour course helps licensees deepen their knowledge—and practice—of ethical rules of conduct according to the National Association of REALTORS® Code of Ethics & Standards of Practice. The code isn’t applicable to REALTORS® only, who are duty-bound to uphold the code as a privilege of membership. The code’s guidance serves anyone possessing a real estate license, and licensees who heed the code’s various articles and standards of practice can do the greatest good of all: protecting consumers while also bolstering the reputation of all the industry’s professionals.

Course highlights include:

• Laws vs. morals vs. ethics
• Top articles of the code involved in the most complaints (plus a few more)
• A candid look at the industry’s image problem
• Common ethical dilemmas and using the code to solve them
• Foundation and enforcement of the code
• Competency in real estate practice as a matter of ethics
• Steering clear of procuring cause disputes
• Ethics concerns with technology and social media
• Tips and best practices to keep your reputation polished to a high shine

*This course was designed by us to meet the REALTOR® Code of Ethics Training Requirement. Please confirm that your local association, who administers the Code of Ethics training, will accept this course.

Fair housing law stands as a cornerstone of civil rights legislation, aiming to eliminate discrimination in housing markets and ensure equal opportunities for all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, disability, or any other protected characteristic. By understanding the importance of fair housing law, licensees recognize its pivotal role in fostering inclusive communities and combating systemic inequalities. This course explores the historical context, key provisions, and practical applications of fair housing law, equipping licensees with the knowledge and tools necessary to uphold these principles in their professional endeavors.

Real estate licensees play a vital role in upholding fair housing principles and safeguarding the rights of all individuals in the housing market. As gatekeepers of property transactions, licensees must stay abreast of fair housing laws and practices to ensure ethical and nondiscriminatory conduct. Beyond legal compliance, embracing fair housing principles fosters trust, promotes diversity, and enhances business success in an increasingly diverse marketplace. This course will empower licensees to navigate complex fair housing issues with confidence, fostering a culture of inclusivity and advancing the vision of fair and equitable housing for all.

This course was designed to meet the REALTOR® Fair Housing Training Requirement. Please confirm that your local association, who administers the Fair Housing training, will accept this course.

The inspection period is a big hurdle to jump over on the way to closing. The inspector’s job is to call out defects. The buyer agent’s job is to negotiate repairs. The seller agent’s job is to mitigate damage. It can sometimes be hard to hold a deal together.

Protecting your buyer as a buyer’s agent means understanding the importance of the home inspection contingency and its deadlines, and identifying the need for specialized inspections.

Protecting your seller as the listing agent means helping the seller understand disclosure obligations, prepare for the inspection, and respond to a buyer’s reasonable repair requests.

Course highlights:

• The importance of the inspection contingency
• The licensee’s role in the inspection process
• Licensee and seller disclosure obligations
• Red flags related to common structural, plumbing, and electrical issues
• Specialized inspection types addressing radon, asbestos, sewer lines, septic tanks, mold, lead, and wells
• Interactive activities and scenarios

If a buyer who's not paying cash can't obtain financing, the transaction will fail. To provide the best service to consumers,it helps to have a clear understanding of the financing process, from loan application through funding. This course provides you with the must-know financing facts to enable you to better serve your  clients who require financing.

Course highlights:

• Key players in financing
• The loan application package and process  
• Consumer options for loan packages and types
• The government’s role in real estate financing
• Loan terminology
• Activities and scenarios to reinforce key concepts