Yukon Real Estate Association - Courses

Agency Practice
Architectural Styles
Buyer Representation
"CLOSING" is Everything!
Code of Ethics under REBBA
Condominiums: What Every Good Salesperson Should Know
Grow Houses
Insurance Concerns for Buyers
Introduction to Wireless 101
Money Laundering
Multiple Offers: Risks and Rewards
OREA Standard Forms
Pricing to Sell
Real Estate Salespeople, Beware!
Recognizing Structural Deficiencies in Homes
Risk and Liability Reduction
SPIS Don't Leave the Office Without It
Title Insurance
Understanding the Internet for Real Estate Professionals
Understanding MPAC and Property Assessment in Ontario

Agency Practice
3 CEU Credits

Important Technical Note: Macromedia Flash version 6.0 is required to view the Flash animations in this course. An auto-detection for flash installation has been added into the course. You will be directed to the flash plug-in if required. Installation is fast and simple and you only need to do it once.

Course Description
These days there is a great deal of confusion understanding Agency and how the obligations it imposes are to be fulfilled. The Agency Practice course will undertake a discussion directed to the day-to-day concerns respecting Agency and its implementation. It will also address and analyze some of the different forms that are being used by REALTORS^® and how they comply with the requirements of Agency Law and the RECO Code of Ethics. You will be given the tools with which to avoid problems in the future.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the session you will be able to:

Describe how to avoid agency problems with consumers;
Apply the steps that you are to take in order to comply with RECO's Code of Ethics as the Code impacts Agency;
List the brochures and forms available to assist you;
Approach discussions about Agency with the public with a greater understanding.

Architectural Styles
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
As a real estate professional, it is important to know about the types of properties you are working with and how the appearance of homes has evolved over the last several centuries. There are some simple techniques that you can use to identify common architectural styles and features used in your area. This course will help round out your knowledge of homes and understand what constitutes the main elements of a given style. Your clients will appreciate your information and interest.

Architectural Styles is rich in illustrations and photos in order to present the course material in a clear, easy to understand manner.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the session you will be able to

Recognize some of the most common architectural styles and features of homes
Explain in your own words the styles of buildings and names of their components

Buyer Representation
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
his course is designed to assist real estate professionals in understanding buyer representation. It deals with the history of buyer representation, the creation of buyer representation and the required disclosures and paper work involved. The main thrust will be the protection of buyer clients through the proper use of clauses, conditions, advice and a thorough knowledge of the fiduciary duties owed to them.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the course you will be able to:

Explain in your own words, the duties owed to a buyer client versus a customer
Recognize situations that may create implied representation and unintended multiple representation
Identify the proper forms and clauses to be used in order to protect your client and yourself
Identify danger areas when dealing with buyers
Explain the wording of forms used in the buyer representation process

"CLOSING" is Everything!
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
CMHC's REALTOR^®'s Financing Workshop and Reference Manual is designed to address current issues that could impact your Real Estate transaction. Be one step ahead of your clients.

Learning objectives
By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Learn how to market the "fixer upper";
Learn the "Ins and Outs" of insured lending on rental properties;
Enhance your ability to pre-qualify purchasers and to close sales;
Speed up your insured mortgage approval in the electronic environment.
Increase your knowledge of Mortgage Portability and the advantages of Second Mortgage Insurance

Code of Ethics Under REBBA
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
This course is designed and developed exclusively by OREA's Continuing Education Department. The objective of this course is to inform, educate and provide for high standards of compliance and business ethics within the real estate profession. This seminar will focus exclusively on the section contained in the Code.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the session you will be able to:

Have an understanding of the major changes to the practice of real estate;
Apply the legal, moral and ethical principles applicable to the real estate profession;
Understand how to apply the Code in the day to day procedures;
See how the Code has impacted the Standard Forms;
Describe your duties, obligations and responsibilities to clients, customers and other registrants.

Condominiums: What Every Good Salesperson Should Know
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
Over the past 10 to 15 years, condominium apartments and town homes have grown considerably in importance in terms of the amount of business they now represent for many Ontario real estate salespeople. There are a number of important legal, financial, lifestyle, marketing and valuation differences between a condominium and a regular single family home. These differences can have an important impact on the salesperson dealing with clients who want to buy, sell, or lease a condominium.

Learning Objectives
This course addresses and deals with some of the more common questions, situations and problems that arise when dealing with a condominium buyer or seller.

Describe some of the key factors that impact the physical appeal of a condominium and how they affect value.
Identify the costs associated with ownership of a condominium and how they can affect value.
List some of the key issues that need to be addressed in an Agreement of Purchase and Sale when it comes to a condominium.
Describe some of the matters and events that only arise when buying a brand new condominium.
Identify what is involved in determining the financial condition of a condominium.
Recognize and describe some of the techniques used in valuing a condominium unit.
Describe how regulations and rules of a condominium can impact the life of a client.
Identify the possible restrictions on marketing and leasing a condominium unit.
Describe how to recognize whether a particular condominium building has been a good investment.
Determine some of the issues to be resolved before listing a condominium.
Demonstrate what must be done in order to protect the client buyer/seller.

Grow Houses
1 CEU Credit

Course Description
This course introduces you to the concepts of Grow Houses. It will help you understand the legislation in place to protect yourself and your clients. You will receive guidance in recognizing situations that are governed by the legislation and recommendations on how to deal with them. The course will also provide examples to illustrate the information provided.

Learning Objectives
The following are the primary learning objectives of Grow Houses. By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Recount the ramifications of selling or leasing a property that has been used as a grow house
Recognize the characteristics of a grow house
Avoid liability by knowing what to disclose to the public about grow houses

Insurance Concerns for Buyers
2 CEU Credits

Course Description
Ontario homeowners and homebuyers have been devastated by current conditions in the insurance industry. Insurers are refusing to continue to insure homes as they have always been insured before. In some cases, insurance costs are dramatically higher than expected, and in others, insurance is available only after considerable upgrading to the home. All of this creates an economic hardship for homeowners at a time when they are most stretched financially.

As real estate professionals representing buyers and sellers, registrants should be aware of how insurance requirements can affect a transaction. This course is designed to provide practitioners with an understanding of insurance issues in today's marketplace and how they can affect the decisions made by buyers and sellers.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the course you will be able to:

Recognize why insurance companies are being cautious
Recognize those situations where insurance may be hard to obtain
Protect your buyer through the proper use of clauses and forms
Advise sellers on ways to help make their property insurable
Be aware of recommended solutions to insurance problems.

Introduction to Wireless 101
1 CEU Credit

Course Description
If you are thinking of getting a new cell phone and have considered trying to consolidate some of your existing devices such as your electronic organizer (PDA) or pager into one handheld device, then this course is for you! Introduction to Wireless is designed to provide you with an overview of the Canadian Wireless Industry and how today’s REALTOR^® can benefit from a wireless Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Learning Objectives
This program will help explain what the new breed of smart phones (wireless PDAs) are and what the models now available in Canada, offer. We will help you demystify the industry so that you understand what the terminology means, what these handheld devices are capable of, and what factors to think about if you are considering purchasing one.

Money Laundering
2 CEU Credits

Course Description
This course introduces you to the concepts of Money Laundering. It will help you understand the legislation in place to protect you and your clients. You will receive guidance in recognizing situations that are governed by the legislation and recommendations on how to deal with them.

Learning Objectives
Here are the main learning objectives of Money Laundering. By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Describe how the Money Laundering Act applies to you as a real estate professional
Recognize a suspicious transaction
Design a system that will ensure compliance with the Act
Identify the penalties for non-compliance and how to avoid them

Multiple Offers: Risks and Rewards
2 CEU Credits

Course Description
This course is designed to provide assistance to registrants involved in multiple offer situations. Both sides of a transaction will be examined. Whether a registrant is a seller representative or a buyer representative, certain obligations and guidelines exist that will affect their role and behaviour. Registrant’s professional lives are governed by laws, codes of ethics and local real estate board’s rules and regulations and all of them have a say in how registrants should conduct themselves in a multiple offer situation.

The purchase of real estate is typically the single biggest investment that people will make in their lifetimes. Naturally, a certain amount of stress is involved in the decision making process. Competing for a home against other buyers can magnify that stress level many times over. It is important that consumers make rational, informed decisions in such situations with the help of skilled, knowledgeable and ethical real estate professionals.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the course you will be able to:

Explain the multiple offer process to your sellers and buyers.
Recognize your obligations in a multiple offer situation under agency law and the codes of ethics.
Make your buyer’s offer more attractive in a multiple offer situation.
Identify conflicts in a multiple representation/multiple offer situation.
Understand ethics and MLS^® violations in multiple offer situations.

OREA Standard Forms
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
This course is designed to address issues surrounding the most commonly used forms and to shed light on particular clauses that tend to be the subject of frequently asked questions. No amount of study will make a practitioner an expert in every situation that can arise during a real estate career. Even the most knowledgeable broker or salesperson will look to outside professional advice to seek guidance and protection for clients, customers and themselves.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the course you will be able to:

Identify the types of forms available and understand their contents;
Recognize the proper application of standard forms to fulfill your agency obligations;
Protect your clients and yourself by the proper use of standard forms;
Identify REBBA's requirements when dealing with standard forms;
Explain the wording of selected clauses

Pricing to Sell
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
In this complex and competitive world, it is essential for the real estate salesperson to be able to accurately price a single family property and list it as close to market value as possible.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Describe and, using market data, deal with situations which result in homeowners' unrealistic value expectations.
Recognize some of the various physical, environmental, legal and locational issues that impact properties and understand how to measure their dollar impact on value.
Recognize the issues that lead to a property's best use and consequently achieve the highest sale price.
Identify the characteristics of a good comparable sale.
Understand the techniques used in selecting comparables when there is a lack of good market data.
Describe the various methods of estimating the dollar adjustments needed for physical, location and time differences between properties.
Identify and use the steps needed to value an apartment building using the Income Approach.
Identify and use the steps needed to value a single family vacant lot.

Real Estate Salespeople, Beware!
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
The real estate business is largely a word-of-mouth referral process. The successful salesperson is referred by his/her clients to other clients on a consistent, ongoing basis. Protecting your own reputation should thus be one of your primary goals in all dealings with your clients. This becomes your personal "brand" or work ethic that you live by every day. This is how you will become known to both your existing clients and potential new ones.

All it takes is one problem transaction, complaint, or lawsuit to hurt your reputation and cause you great financial and personal stress as you attempt to defend your position. This course warns you against approaches and practices that will hurt you as a real estate professional — even to the extent of getting you hauled before RECO's Discipline Committee or before the courts. It also gives you advice that will help you become respected, trusted, prosperous, and safe. Aren't these the words you'd like people to use when they talk about you?

The course is divided into 3 modules as follows:

Module 1 focuses on some of the key ethical behaviours and professional conduct that salespeople need to be aware of and deal with in their everyday business in order to avoid violating an obligation or regulation under the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act and its Code of Ethics.
Module 2 focuses on the Privacy Act and the 10 principles of privacy that were first introduced by the Canadian Standards Association in 1996. If you and your organization understand the applicability of these 10 principles, you should be able to deal successfully with any related privacy issue that you will face in the course of your business.
Module 3 focuses on the important principle of staying out of trouble through conscientious disclosure practices. It stresses Disclosure, Disclosure, Disclosure.

Recognizing Structural Deficiencies in Homes
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
As a real estate professional, you would prefer to know up front whether there is a major structural deficiency in a home. There are simple visual techniques that you can use to distinguish between a house that is structurally deficient and a house with character.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Learn many simple tricks for recognizing structural deficiencies in a single-family residential building.
Recognize visual clues that the house may be shifting;
Know the difference between a floor sag and a floor slope;
Recognize the difference between a serious foundation crack and a crack that has no structural significance.

Risk and Liability Reduction
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
The Risk and Liability Reduction course is designed to highlight areas where real estate professionals tend to neglect caution, vigilance and adherence to the Codes of Ethics. When this happens, these professionals can be left open to liability that can otherwise be avoided with a little knowledge and good practices.

The course will review those areas of risks and liability of which real estate professionals must be aware. It will remind you what rules you must follow. Understanding the risks and liabilities in residential real estate is the first step.

The course will then take you through situations that will help you recognize risk and liability and what to do to lessen it in your work. The approach is to look at the various processes (i.e., listing process, completing contracts) to see where common pitfalls exist and what to do to reduce the potential for error.

SPIS: Don't Leave the Office Without It!
2 CEU Credits

Course Description
The purchase of real estate is typically the single biggest investment that consumers make in their lifetime. Young couples and singles save for years for a down payment to invest in their future. What should be one of the happiest moments in a person's life is sometimes spoiled by the discovery of defects that were unknown or undisclosed at the time of purchase.

Codes of ethics, common law and provincial legislation all address the obligation of full disclosure when representing a buyer in a real estate transaction. This obligation, when fulfilled, protects not just the buyer but, as a consequence, salespeople and brokerages as well. When REALTORS^® are acting, and seen to be acting, in the best interests of the client, any claim of unethical or unlawful behaviour can be staunchly defended.

One way of ensuring that full disclosure about a property is made is by the use of a Seller Property Information Statement or SPIS along with any applicable schedule(s).

This course will look at the value of a SPIS not only for the protection of a buyer but also for the protection of a seller and a brokerage. If completed accurately and completely, a SPIS provides invaluable information and protection for all parties.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the course you will be able to:

Appreciate the value of a SPIS to a real estate transaction;
Understand the contents of the SPIS;
Recognize your obligations when dealing with a SPIS;
Identify the possible liability attached to a SPIS;
Protect your client through the proper use of a SPIS.

Title Insurance
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
How much do you know - or think you know - about title insurance? This course is designed to give you the knowledge and expertise you'll need to take advantage of this exciting and innovative form of insurance.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the session you will be able to:

Identify what to look for when choosing title insurance;
Provide real-life examples that explain what a title insurance policy covers;
Explain how title insurance can help transactions close on time;
List the benefits of titles insurance for buyers and REALTORS^®;
Name the title insurers that operate in Ontario.

Understanding the Internet for Real Estate Professionals
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
This course is designed to help you gain the Internet knowledge required to increase your overall productivity, and will introduce you to new ways of using the Internet as a prospecting tool.

Instead of just helping you understand the Internet, this course will allow you to:

Develop a web strategy that you will use throughout your entire real estate career
Eliminate the mystery of how to market yourself on the Internet
Stand out so potential consumers and customers ultimately realize you are an Internet professional
Convert your many e-mail leads into potential customers
Understand how search engines work and can be an effective tool to drive
traffic to your website
See new ways to dramatically increase your overall productivity

Understanding MPAC & Property Assessment in Ontario
3 CEU Credits

Course Description
This course will examine the roles and responsibilities of MPAC and the key parties involved in property assessment as well as define property assessment and the assessment cycle in Ontario. Realtors® can gain an understanding of the three approaches MPAC uses for determining current value assessments including the sales comparison approach, the cost approach and the income approach. In addition to learning about key sections of the Assessment Act important to Realtors®, you can find out how MPAC products can help in your day-to-day business.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the session you will be able to:

Understand property assessment and the assessment cycle in Ontario
Explain the role and responsibilities of key parties involved in property assessment in Ontario
Understand key terminology used in assessment and the Assessment Act
Learn about the three approaches to valuation and mass appraisal valuation
Understand MPAC's valuation processes
Learn about MPAC and Customer Service