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With the red-hot real estate market showing the first signs of cooling, realtors are already trying to gauge the next big trend in the market. Could it be aging baby boomers? A lot of realtors sure think so. The hottest training course in the industry these days is for a designation called senior real estate specialist (SRES). And brokers are taking the two-day course in droves. For $350, agents learn about such things as how to help retiring couples pull the most equity out of their longtime homes and how to connect emotionally with empty-nesters -- couples in their 50s and 60s whose children have grown up and moved on.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the 99.5 million private homes in the U.S., 33.3 million -- 37% -- are owned by people 55 and older. The median age of all homeowners is now 46, and baby boomers ages 45 to 54, who are starting to think about retirement, own 19% of all homes in the U.S. Together, these two demographic groups now make up more than half the market. That's a tempting demographic for real estate agents. "Seniors will face very specific issues when selling their homes, and realtors have to know how to deal with them," says Jill Corliss, who helped create the course. "There's a real need for this."
SRES training offers realtors everything from a primer on tax treatment of real estate for homeowners who are retiring or have lost a spouse to how to ease the emotional loss of selling the places where they raised their children. "Everybody needs to make a living and is looking for new avenues of business, but working with seniors is a real feel-good thing," says Corliss.
BIGGER THAN THE NET?
And realtors can't seem to get enough of it. From 30 "pioneers" who earned the SRES designation in 1998, 3,000 agents have already taken the course this year, and another 3,000 are signed up. Although that's a fraction of the 750,000 realtors who belong to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the SRES training seminar is even hotter than courses on using the Internet to make sales. "I have to confess, as I see agents spending time and money trying to keep up with technology, a part of me wonders if they might be better served, and better paid, to devote time and money to developing their skills in the 50-plus market," says Frank Cook, publisher of the Real Estate Intelligence Report, which tracks the industry.
Starting next month, Remax will offer SRES training to all of its brokers via satellite, and Coldwell Banker is signing up its agents for training sessions in Sacramento and Palo Alto, Calif., this summer. The course is being offered in 20 major U.S. cities. Realtors can also obtain SRES instructional materials and an exam by mail.
SRES was the brainchild of a private company, the Senior Advantage Council, which Jill and Timothy Corliss operate from Murphys, Calif. Founded in 1997, it was originally intended to be a real estate marketing company, but the interest among realtors on how to market their services to retirees was so widespread that Jill Corliss became a certified instructor and started teaching a course on the subject a year later. The Corliss' are now talking to NAR about offering an SRES certification for members of the real estate industry's largest trade group.
Copyright 2000 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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