CRS Designation Promotion

C-R-S. For about 4 percent of REALTORS® in the United States, those three letters represent one of the most important accomplishments in their real estate career — earning the Certified Residential Specialist Designation. For many top-producing agents, the CRS Designation has offered the proven path to success and represents their commitment, achievement and broad experience in the industry.

While the Designation is well-known and highly respected among many real estate professionals, everyday buyers and sellers tend to be less familiar with it. How do CRSs bridge that knowledge gap? The Residential Specialist spoke with several CRSs to find out how they create greater awareness of the Designation among clients and agents, what materials they use to support their endeavors, and how those efforts have paid off.

Therese Massey, CRS, with Adashun Jones, Inc. in Fond du Lac, Wis., includes “CRS” on all her advertising and brochures, and in her listings, she includes the phrase “Listed by a CRS.” She also devotes a full page on her Web site (www.theresemassey. com) to explain what the CRS Designation is and provide background information about the Council. She plans to begin featuring the Council-produced Your Home newsletter for clients (available at www.crs.com/Resources/169) on the site as well. “You have to make yourself stand out in the marketplace. There are different ways to do that. Having a good Web site and stressing my education are important to me,” Massey says.

Since the site’s launch about nine years ago, Massey has updated it several times, but she makes sure to keep the CRS information in place. “I keep it because I’m partial to the Designation. I’ve worked so hard to get it. It indicates you are a professional and are dedicated to your education. I was encouraged early in my career to get it, and I encourage other agents to get it as well,” Massey says.

Dolf Beil, CRS, with Keller Williams in White Plains, N.Y., earned his Designation in 2004, but it wasn’t until he was featured in the Council’s publication, The Residential Specialist, in 2007 that he realized he could use the magazine itself as practical reference in his listing presentations. “I wanted to position myself as having the best Designation out there,” he explains. “In a listing presentation, you have to sell yourself in a very short time. But how do you say you are professional without sounding overbearing? One way you can say it is with the magazine, which shows the caliber of the Designation,” Beil says.

During the 30-minute client presentation, Beil spends a few minutes talking about his professional credentials. He shows the latest issue of The Residential Specialist as he explains the rigorous entrance requirements it takes to become a CRS and compares the training program to an Ivy League education. “I tell them CRS is the premier Designation in the industry. There are numerous other designations around, but CRS is the best one. I tell them it’s like Harvard. You can get your education at a lot of schools, but there’s only one Harvard,” Beil says.

He admits that it’s hard to discern what immediate impact the CRS conversation has on potential clients’ listing decisions, but it does give them one more thing to think about. “CRS contributes to my image,” Beil says. “It’s not the only thing. But it, along with everything else I tell them, gives them a positive impression.”

Eric Kodner, CRS, is in a unique situation. He operates one office in northern Wisconsin, Madeline Island Realty in La Pointe, which serves the vacation and second-home market. And he has a second office in Minnetonka, Minn., Wayzata Real Estate, which serves the primary residential market. He belongs to both the Minnesota and Wisconsin CRS chapters, and he has two blogs on Active Rain, one for each market niche.

Kodner often touts his CRS Designation and chapter activities in the monthly electronic newsletter he produces for each office, and he cross-promotes them on his Active Rain blogs. For example, after he attended the 2007 CRS Sell-a-bration® in Las Vegas, Kodner was so excited about his experience that he wrote an article about it for the newsletter. “Most of it was anecdotal. I think I wrote about one or two memorable experiences, including meeting an agent from Puerto Rico who was so excited about being at Sell-abration®,” Kodner explains.“A lot of agents don’t like to talk about their networking and conference activities. Instead, they only talk about past sales,” he says.

“But I sell vacation property on Lake Superior, so I have a small niche of buyers that I target. I tell my clients that I explore different strategies to expand our reach. I’m not just selling my listings to local buyers. Conventions allow me to broaden that reach. The interaction [with other agents at these conferences] allows me to share leads and listings,” he adds.

The response from clients has been “gratifying,” Kodner says. “I expect clients to see the newsletter, but clients have written back to me and said things like, ‘It’s great to see that you’re doing something that other agents aren’t doing,’” Kodner says.

Travis Waller, CRS, with RE/MAX Advantage Plus in Teaneck, N.J., doesn’t spend a dime on traditional advertising and rarely hands out business cards. “I just refer people to my Twitter and Facebook pages,” Waller says. Social media has changed the marketing landscape for Waller, who earned his CRS Designation in May 2008. His Twitter and Facebook addresses include the CRS letters, so both clients and agents can easily find his profiles on these sites (www.Twitter.com/TravisWallerCRS and www.Facebook.com/TravisWallerCRS). “If you do a search for CRS [on Facebook or Twitter], my name will pop up,” Waller says.

He includes these addresses on every piece of correspondence and e-mail he sends. “Repetition is the key. I stamp the CRS Designation on everything I do, to the point that clients ask me what the letters stand for,” Waller says. That provides him with a perfect opportunity to explain what the Designation is all about.

On Twitter, Waller posts information about everything from upcoming CRS courses and real estate-related magazine articles to property listings and market reports. He recently started sharing the Council’s Your Home newsletter using a Twitter client called Hootsuite. Waller uploads a PDF of the current issue to Hootsuite, which generates a link that Waller inserts into a Twitter message. Waller says he shares the monthly Your Home twice every Monday. Why so often? “Not everyone is on Twitter as often as I am, so I make sure the information is out there for them,” Waller says. People on social media sites want to see what you know, he adds, and Waller is happy to oblige.

Waller says his prelisting package is larger than other agents’ because of the CRS materials he includes, such as an introduction letter that explains what the Designation is and why it’s important to choose a REALTOR® who has earned it; a list of questions clients should ask a REALTOR®; recommendations from past clients; his contact information; and how to connect with him on Facebook and Twitter. Many of the materials he uses are downloaded from the CRS Web site, Waller says (see sidebar).

Massey also includes CRS information in her listing package, which also features her résumé, Web site information, a list of past clients and seller’s tips. “I like to give them something tangible. Information about CRS is included in that package, and clients can go through it and read it later. It’s just one more step to make me stand out,” she says.

With a little ingenuity, CRSs are helping their clients understand the value of the CRS Designation. While it may never become as well known as the initials CPA or a Ph.D., agents can do a lot to help the CRS Designation gain credibility with the people who matter most — their clients.

The Council offers a host of resources to help its Designees promote themselves along with CRS and the Designation, including postcards, flyers, business cards, CRS-branded products and much more. (Login may be required.)