Aliso Viejo, June 13, 2007.  Puffery has been used in the real estate industry for years to describe properties such as “Best Home in Neighborhood” or “Great Deal.”  Unfortunately it has even extended itself to some agents’ description as the “South Area Specialist” or the “Neighborhood Expert.”

Some agents tout the term “Expert” or “Specialist” when they start selling in a community while others at least put up a neighborhood oriented website.  While it’s a wonderful idea, utilizing a website or just selling in a neighborhood does not make someone that neighborhood’s “Expert.” You clearly need to do more, know more and be a cut above the “other” agents in the neighborhood.

So what makes a “neighborhood expert?  What knowledge should an agent have to call them self a specialist of the neighborhood? What proof can validate or demonstrate this knowledge and expertise? 

After 12 months of research, writing, focus groups and editing, the answers recently resulted in the creation of a new real estate course focused on enabling agents to learn the intimate details of their neighborhood.  Aptly titled “Certified Neighborhood Specialist” (CNS), this new course goes far beyond just using the information found in the MLS and seeks to empower agents in advancing their skill set as true specialist in their neighborhood and community.

Stefan Swanepoel, CEO of RealtyU states, “This is a powerful, dynamic, new course that shows  Realtors the enormous resources and huge pool of information available via the Internet, which can be used to vastly improve their personal knowledge of their neighborhood.  This will allow them to ensure that home buyers are aware of all pertinent and critical information they need to know about the neighborhood they plan on buying in.”

Allen Wright, one of the primary contributors to the course states that, “This designation is a necessary tool for any serious real estate agent in any market. You have to really know your area”, he says. The course not only enhances the agents’ knowledge but for the first time provides a designation that home buyers and sellers can actually relate to; Certified (being approved by an authoritative group); Neighborhood (the area they live or want to live); Specialist (having specific knowledge beyond the level of their peers). “It couldn’t be any more comprehensive or simpler than that,” Wright says.

Over the past several years more and more emphasis has been placed on expanded knowledge of a specific community.  As thousands of new agents have flooded into just about every neighborhood in the country, it is has become increasingly more difficult for consumers to distinguish between those that art truly specialists and those that aren’t.  By covering Property Development and Construction, Critical Neighborhood Information and Community Demographics, the course not only fills that void by identifying and illustrating to agents the vast resources that are available to research a specific neighborhood, but upon completion provides access to a special Intranet site with tools and links that can be used for neighborhood research and samples of ways to disseminate information.

To become the Neighborhood Expert in your are take the Certified Neighborhood Specialist course (CNS designation) now from one of the over 200 RealtyU real estate school locations (www.RealtyU.com) across the country or online at www.RealtyUonline.com. For more information on CNS visit www.CertifiedNeighborhoodSpecialist.com