Real Estate Professionals Are A Dime A Dozen, Right? - by Janene Johnson

Real estate professionals are a dime a dozen, right? It seems like everyone and their brother has a license to sell real estate. It makes sense; the money can be decent depending on your market and motivation and the flexible hours are extremely appealing. What the general public may not understand is that while there are many licensed real estate agents in the world, the number of practitioners that work the profession in a full-time capacity, that give back to their industry by serving the various real estate associations, that not only take the minimum continuing education requirements but strive to obtain designations of a higher educational level, are very rare indeed. At Real Estate of Winter Park, we pride ourselves in the fact that each one of our eight owners has at least 20 years of experience in the real estate industry. In this fantastic company, located in the heart of Colorado Ski Country in Winter Park, Colorado, the company has eight broker owners and ten broker associates. Of the eighteen total, three of us have attained the highest level of licensing by becoming Managing/Employing Brokers. Five of us have our Certified Resident Specialist (CRS) designation, which is a nationally recognized level of expertise in the real estate industry. Seven of us have the Graduate of the Real Estate Institute (GRI) designation, another high-level designation recognized by the National Association of Realtors. Year to date sales figures as of December 8, 2014 show that Real Estate of Winter Park carries about 27% of the market share for the entire sales of Grand County as reported in the Grand County Board of Realtors MLS. This is an interesting statistic because we are not physically the largest company in the area, we are actually quite small in comparison to the next company down in the total sales. This just shows the dedication of our company's practitioners to their chosen industry. On top of these marvelous statistics and designations, the owners and associates alike here in this ski town company have dedicated their lives not only to real estate but also to giving back to the local community. We have people that serve on several Boards of Directors of worthy non-profit organizations in the area. We give back countless volunteer hours to these organizations in Grand County. Our marketing budget contains large contributions to events and causes in the area that provide unbelievable service and support to members of our community in need. The next time you interview a real estate professional to either list your property or assist you in purchasing a property, take a look at who they are and what role they and their company play in your community. Just as in all other walks of life, you'll probably work well with the kind of person that has your respect.