The concept of agency is integral to a real estate professional's role and the type of agency relationship informs what a consumer may expect from a licensee.

This course will explain when and how an agency relationship is formed between a broker/salesman and consumer, whether buyer, seller, landlord, or tenant. It defines the types of agency relationships used in Wyoming and duties owed to clients and customers.

Upon completion of this class, students will be aware of the responsibilities and obligations that are assumed by the parties in a transaction when an agency relationship is formed.

Course highlights:

• Agency definitions
• Customer vs. client
• Teams and agency
• Compensation and agency
• Designated and dual agency
• Intermediaries in Wyoming transactions
• Duties and responsibilities
• Unauthorized practice of law
• Agent transfer or departure, death of a broker
• Duties that survive agency termination
• State-recognized forms
• Buyer and seller representation

To do the right thing when it comes to complying with fair housing and antitrust laws, you need to be able to recognize what that looks like. This course is designed to give you a comprehensive overview of federal fair housing laws relating to the sale and rental of real estate. In addition, the course provides a detailed look at federal civil rights and anti-discrimination laws regarding real property transactions, and the intersection of antitrust laws with the real estate profession.

As a real estate professional, you have a responsibility to know and understand the applicable fair housing and civil rights laws governing your professional services, as well as your personal conduct. Your colleagues, clients, and customers expect competent actions based on comprehensive knowledge. Wise and experienced professionals strictly follow fair housing procedures. Keep in mind that federal definitions of protected classes expand and change and that both state and local laws can add protected classes. As you learn about and review protected classes and fair housing laws throughout this course, you will become better equipped to act with honesty, competence, and intelligence in serving your clients and customers.

Course highlights include:

• A review of the federal Fair Housing Act and related federal laws that prohibit discrimination in housing based on the seven protected classes
• A look at fair housing case studies from across the United States
• Applying fair housing law to property management activities
• Creating advertising that is in compliance with fair housing law
• A review of antitrust law and how it relates to real estate
• Activities and examples to seal in the new information and frame it in everyday context

This class is intended to inform real estate licensees of the components and practices relating to disclosures on real property and inspection of property in a real estate transaction. Upon completion of this class, students will have an understanding of inspections, disclosures and be aware of issues and liability that may arise.

Course highlights:

• Roles in property disclosure
• Structural and system issues
• Additions and alterations
• Encroachments and easements
• Environmental hazards
• Stigmatized properties
• Title insurance
• Zoning
• Deed Restrictions
• Mineral, Air, and Water Rights
• Land surveying basics

You've cleared all the hurdles and are ready to close that transaction. But don't spend that commission check yet. A lot can happen in the final stretch.

This course provides you with an overview of the process for escrow, closing and title insurance. You'll gain a strong understanding of each process, especially your role. 

Course highlights:

• The closing process, location
• RESPA
• Recordings
• Preparing clients for closing
• Lender's role
• Your role
• Key closing documents
• Title insurance, search, and commitment

How is the value of property determined? Is it just based on a seller’s opinion, or is there something more to the story?

There’s a lot more to the story, and in this course you will learn exactly what. You will go see how valuation is developed, and then how financing figures in to be the capstone to the selling process.

Course highlights:

• The basics of valuation, including the difference between price, value and cost
• Principles and forces that can affect value, and the meaning of “DUST”
• A look at the appraisal process and methods
• The Comparative Marketing Analysis (CMA)
• The CMA v. the appraisal
• A look at the difference between a CMA and a Broker Price Opinion (BPO)
• A review of financing
• Activities and scenarios to reinforce key concepts

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.

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.

Financing is integral to real estate transactions, and the more you know about how buyers qualify, the better you'll be able to help both buyers and sellers in your practice. 

Course highlights include:

• Roles and regulations of FNMA, GNMA, FHLMC, FHA, and VA
• Affordability Worksheet, to assist clients in calculating their maximum affordable purchase price
• Homebuyer Do's and Don'ts 
• Calculating LTV, front-end and back-end ratios, and monthly mortgage payments
• Details and qualification requirements for several popular financing options

The Fundamentals of Commercial Real Estate covers the need-to-know information on a broad range of commercial topics.

If you're an experienced residential licensee, a few of the fundamentals of commercial real estate will be familiar to you—the importance of location, for example. In other regards, commercial differs sharply from residential real estate. Executives, investors, and business owners in commercial real estate focus squarely on the bottom line.

This course will provide a foundation for the more complex aspects of commercial real estate as you gain more experience in the industry.

Course highlights include:

• Key terms and concepts of commercial real estate
• How to identify and meet the needs of commercial real estate clients
• How commercial and residential sales differ
• Valuation methods for real estate and businesses
• Tips on gathering the demographic and location-related details that clients need to make well-informed decisions

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

Whether you want to develop a niche business working with first-time homebuyers or simply increaseyour overall knowledge so you can better help inexperienced first-time homebuyers, this course willprovide you with the necessary foundation to serve this unique population.First-time homebuyers often rely heavily on agents’ expertise, and many feel overwhelmed, intimidated,and fearful of the prospect of buying a home. Your knowledge and calm influence can lead them towardtheir goal of homeownership, step by step.In this three-hour course we’ll explore the key characteristics of this niche market, how to cultivaterelationships with these buyers, and how to prepare them for the transaction ahead.

Course highlights include:

• First-time homebuyer market stats
• Pros and cons unique to working with this market
• Housing affordability’s impact on new buyers
• Targeted marketing approaches and conveying homeowner benefits
• Providing value to first-time homebuyer clients
• Walking clients through each step of the transaction
• Financing, loans, offers, negotiations, and closing