Real estate is an exciting and dynamic business; staying informed of the latest best practices is the only way to stay at the forefront. The Washington State Department of Licensing and the Washington State Real Estate Commission release a set of Current Issues (CORE) curricula every two years. In this iteration, licensees examine updated state forms and learn how best to use them effectively in their real estate practice. The course also reviews several 2025 legislative changes that impacted real estate-related statutes.

This mandatory three-hour course also explores professionalism in real estate, including key practices, risky business situations, and top violations in Washington. Licensees will also review best practices for ensuring personal safety while practicing real estate.

Course highlights include:

• Forms review and updates
• Inspection addendum and response
• New forms
• Buyer broker compensation
• Early or delayed occupancy best practices
• The Real Estate Brokerage in Washington Pamphlet
• Earnest money best practices
• Legislative update
• Raising the bar of professionalism in interactions
• Managing broker responsibilities
• Multiple-offer scenarios
• Risky practices in an abundant market
• Transaction coordinators and agency issues
• Top violations by brokers
• Broker personal safety

The federal Fair Housing Act reached its 50-year milestone anniversary in 2018. But the work isn't done yet in ensuring that everyone is treated fairly when seeking housing opportunities. When disparities in housing opportunities exist, there are far-reaching consequences that impact whole communities. As a real estate professional working in your local community, being informed leads to understanding how the old real estate adage "location, location, location" has a different context in light of fair housing, with greater implications. To understand where we are and where we're going, it's helpful to review the road we've traveled. While great strides have been made, history must still be written in the years ahead so that discrimination in housing truly becomes "history."

This three-hour mandatory course introduces real estate brokers and managing brokers to the federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.) and the Washington Law Against Discrimination (chapter 49.60 RCW) as it relates to real estate transactions. The course teaches real estate brokers and managing brokers the historical and societal context of housing discrimination, legal framework intended to prevent housing discrimination, and steps to take to prevent housing discrimination.

Course highlights include:

• Different types of racism
• Disparate treatment and disparate impact
• Historical context of U.S. and Washington fair housing law
• Contemporary issues in fair housing
• U.S. and Washington fair housing protected classes
• Fair housing case studies
• Gender pronouns
• Cross-cultural communication and negotiation
• Property management and reasonable accommodations
• Love letters
• Avoiding unfair practices
• Unfair bias in financing
• Washington financial assistance programs
• Fair housing-related complaints process

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

Fraud has become a major issue in the industry. Lawbreakers use real estate as a vehicle to steal the life savings of unsuspecting homeowners and defraud lenders out of millions of dollars for their own gain. Federal, state, and local governments have taken steps to combat real estate fraud, but it remains a major problem—one you need to have a solid understanding of to ensure you're able to shield your clients and yourself from being defrauded or unknowingly committing fraud.

Keeping It Honest: Understanding Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud has been updated to discuss the latest fraudulent schemes and explain recent government initiatives aimed at stopping fraud and protecting consumers.

Course Highlights:

• Fraud and its impact on the real estate industry
• The newest and most prevalent types of fraudulent schemes
• Red flag behaviors that suggest someone is engaging in fraud
• How to report fraudulent or suspected fraudulent activities to the proper authorities
• Key government initiatives aimed at stopping fraud and protecting consumers
• Activities and scenarios to provide real-world context for course content

Lead hazards aren’t just a concern for homeowners—they’re also a big deal for real estate professionals. If you're listing a home built before 1978 or guiding buyers through disclosures, understanding the risks of lead exposure isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. Federal laws require specific disclosures and safety measures and skipping them can lead to hefty fines and legal trouble.

This course helps you recognize where lead hazards lurk, stay on top of your legal responsibilities, and follow safe practices help protect you, your clients, and your transactions. But beyond compliance, having a strong grasp of lead safety makes you a trusted advisor. When clients see that you take their health and safety seriously, it strengthens your reputation and sets you apart as a knowledgeable, reliable real estate professional. Ultimately, keeping people safe, reducing risk, and staying compliant aren’t just obligations—they’re smart business moves supporting long-term success.

Course highlights include:

• Common sources of lead in residential properties
• Health risks of lead exposure
• Community-based approaches to lead hazard prevention
• Review of federal lead disclosure laws
• Compliance with lead disclosure laws
• Consequences of non-compliance with disclosure requirements
• Mitigating lead hazards
• Lead-safe work practices for renovations and repairs
• EPA’s Renovation, Repair, and Painting Program
• Preventing lead hazards long-term

Attacks on real estate professionals have made headlines at an alarmingly more frequent rate in recent years. After an incident where a licensee is harmed, everyone vows to do better, and the topic of safety is pushed to the front of training schedules. Then complacency sets in.

Criminals count on complacency.

This course reviews studies and statistics of safety issues in the real estate industry, and best practices for personal safety.       

Course highlights include:

• Crime statistics and studies that challenge preconceived notions
• Risk factors and vulnerabilities that unique to real estate professionals
• Case studies to illustrate how criminals target their victims
• How to develop a personal warning system and trust your instincts when something feels “off”
• Activities and scenarios to provide real-world context for course content

Chances are good that, if it hasn't happened yet, you will one day work on a transaction involves a property that’s part of a tax-deferred exchange. When this happens, will you be ready to guide your client through the process and ensure they meet the critical deadlines?

With an appropriately formed exchange, an investor can defer paying taxes on the profit from one investment and instead use all of the profits to fund another investment. 

This course helps licensees become more comfortable with guiding clients through a 1031 tax-deferred exchange transaction and ensuring critical deadlines are understood and met.  

Course highlights include:

• Section 1031 tax-deferred exchange definitions
• Starker’s Exchange background and application
• U.S. Internal Revenue Code requirements
• IRS Safe Harbor Guidelines
• Investor taxes advantages
• Setting up an exchange
• Selecting a Qualified Intermediary
• Licensee role in a Section 1031 tax-deferred exchange
• The non-exchanger's role in a Section 1031 transaction
• Reverse exchanges
• Rare exemptions to exchange deadlines

Real estate wholesaling is not a new concept. However, the practice, regulation, and public perception of wholesaling have changed significantly in recent years. For real estate professionals navigating a market where wholesaling is becoming more popular and increasingly problematic, understanding its legal, ethical, and professional implications is more important than ever.

This three-hour course provides a straightforward examination of wholesaling: how it operates, when it crosses legal and ethical boundaries, and why it faces greater scrutiny from lawmakers and the public. You’ll examine how some investors use wholesaling as a legitimate and transparent strategy to build wealth, while others exploit it to bypass licensing requirements, mislead sellers and buyers, and disrupt housing stability, particularly in vulnerable communities.

Whether you are new to wholesaling, advising clients involved, or simply looking to avoid legal issues, this course is designed for you.

Course highlights include:

• Foundational principles of wholesaling
• Strategic uses of wholesaling
• State laws and licensing implications of wholesaling
• Red flags to indicate predatory wholesaling practices
• When wholesaling becomes illegal
• Ethical wholesaling
• Collateral damage of wholesaling
• Legal and civil penalties
• Effects of predatory wholesaling on housing market
• Real-world cases, interactive scenarios, and activities to understand wholesaling in your real estate practice

There’s a reason real estate agents often rank among the least trusted professionals in the U.S. But what can you do to improve the public’s perception? And what should you do when you run into an ethical dilemma or into a licensee who’s not behaving ethically? As a real estate professional, you can help raise the bar and improve the reputation of the industry. You can lead by example.

Aligned to the requirements of the current NAR cycle, this course will empower you to recognize and respond to ethical dilemmas, inspiring consumer confidence. For answers to ethical dilemmas, we’ll look to several articles of the National Association of REALTORS® Code of Ethics, and draw from real-life ethical scenarios. In three short hours, you’ll be better prepared to exemplify the professionalism and cooperation that’s the true foundation of the real estate industry.

Course highlights include:

• Meets both regular ethics renewal requirements and new licensee ethics course requirements
• The importance of ethical behavior in NAR members and non-members alike, fostering a spirit of cooperation
• History and evolution of the Code, the preamble, and the Code’s influence on state licensing laws
• Structure of the Code
• Review and application of articles 1, 2, 3, 9, 12, 15, and 16 of the NAR Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice
• Case studies of real-life ethical challenges
• Mediation and arbitration, with arbitration as the monetary dispute resolution process between REALTORS®
• Application of Article 17 of the NAR Code of Ethics to the complaints and hearing process
• Grievance committee vs. professional standards committee
• Best practices for demonstrating ethical behavior every day

*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.

In this course, you’ll learn about the history of housing discrimination and its lasting impact in order to better understand why fair housing laws are necessary. You’ll review the federal laws that provide protection against housing discrimination and what actions are prohibited and required by these laws in the business of real estate. This will include reviewing the personal characteristics—race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability--that federal law protects from discrimination in housing. Besides these federal protections, there are state and local government fair housing laws that protect additional personal characteristics from discrimination in housing and you’ll find out where to get more fair housing information for your clients.

You’ll also learn some best practices for fair housing marketing and some strategies to avoid steering and making assumptions based on stereotypes. You’ll role play some scenarios to practice interrupting any implicit biases so that consumers are treated with equal concern, respect, and fairness. By allowing consumers to choose which communities/neighborhoods they want to live in, you can do your part to uphold fair housing laws and end housing discrimination.

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.