• The Lifestyle Agent : those who are rooted in the idea of building relationships with consumers based on their current or future “ lifestyle ” - retiring baby boomers , active adults , etc . The agent promotes their lifestyle on the internet enabling consumers to find them and connect with them over time so that when they ’ re ready to act , consumers simply connect with the agent they ’ ve already identified with because of the “ lifestyle .”
• The Billboard Agent : those who market and advertise to create leads that can be converted to business . Most Billboards can ’ t start their career this way due to high costs , says Gardner , and it appears that most Billboards began as hunters or farmers .
Gardner also says there is another “ Style ” called the Generalist . These are those who usually do not have a well-defined strategy for developing business . They work and engage with any consumer they find . This is a default strategy adopted by many agents who have not found one of the others , he says . Gardner also associates his “ styles ” with the wellknown DISC personality assessment tests , matching his “ success styles ” with the personality profiles of DISC .
“ Some people are a combination of these styles ,” says St . Onge . “ But attendees should be able to find the one they can most identify with and go with that one .” The event will begin with a networking breakfast , followed by Gardner speaking for about an hour with the panel , followed by the breakout sessions and a re-group and then ending around 1:00pm . At time of publication , the location was not yet confirmed .
The idea of this new format was brought to the Knowledge Services Committee at the end of last year by John Wiley , Jones & Co . Realty , who now serves as this year ’ s committee chairperson . “ Many agents ask , ‘ how do I become successful in real estate ?’” he said . “ Our Top Guns event is designed to help Realtors ® find out what their style is so they can build their businesses on that .”
IMPORTANT UPDATE
FREC CHANGES LICENSE RENEWAL
REQUIREMENTS
A s of October 1 , 2017 , those looking to renew their real estate license will be required to take an additional 3-hour Ethics and Business Practices course . This course is in addition to the 14-hour requirement that is already in place . Moving forward , three of the required hours are mandated to include the Ethics and Business Practices course . The course is required to be approved by the Florida Real Estate Commission ( FREC ).
Licensees who must renew within the first cycle of next year , ending March 31 , 2018 , will be impacted by this new change first . The requirement is ongoing and is applicable to all license renewals after the October date . When this new change takes affect , it will not impact the post-education requirements , which apply to the renewal of an initial license . Once the affect takes place , the requirements will be as follows :
• 3-hour Core Law courses
• 3-hour Ethics and Business Practices course
• 8-hours of specialty courses
The National Association of REALTORS ® ( NAR ) Code of Ethics requirement every two years can be doubled up on as a CE course for license renewal . Meredith Caruso , a Florida Realtors ® manager of member legal communities , states that if the Code of Ethics course is completed during the license renewal cycle and approved by FREC , then this course should satisfy both NAR and new continuing education component requirements . Schools or providers are being urged to review the other rule changes while covering education component requirements .
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