Garton-Good Creates Fee-for-service Real Estate Organization Nationally known educator and author Julie Garton-Good has announced the formation of a new real estate organization - the National Association of Real Estate Consultants - and is inviting some of the nation's top industry instructors to Orlando to encourage them to participate as trainers. NAREC will offer a certification course, the Consumer-certified Real Estate Consultant designation. At the heart of the organization is the idea that real estate companies ultimately are going to have to begin offering fee-for-service menus to their clients and customers. Garton-Good said she was creating the organization in response to hundreds of consumer conversations and surveys she's collected over the past several years. "Their insight and decisiveness left me awestruck," she said. The survey show that, "Consumers don't mind paying for real estate information and assistance; but they detest paying percentage commissions." Surveys also show: "Consumers care only about results, not service." "A majority of consumers want to be a team player with the real estate professional, but they also want to perform some of the tasks they can in the selling and buying process and be financially rewarded for doing this." "Our antiquated listing/selling model does not provide consumers with the unbiased information they need when they need it. They are reticent to take advice form even the most sage, respected agent, believing it's 'just another ploy to make a sale.'" "Consumers expressed loud and clear, 'We need unbiased information, flexibility and empowerment when it comes to making a variety of real estate decisions and we will gravitate to the most cost-effective, accessible source to get it." Said Garton-Good, "this became the catalyst in my drive to unbundle the real estate agent into a fee-for-services real estaet consultant and the template for the Consumer-Certified Real Estate Consultant designation." Garton-Good said she preferred that only winners of the Distinguished Real Estate Education (DREI) designation be allowed to teach the new course. She said she wanted to find 50 DREIs to begin the first round of training. Those 50 ultimately would teach licensees. "The C-CREC is the first designation to evolve from the consumer, to the real estate educator, and THEN to the professional (not the other way around as usually occurs - one reason that most consumers can't identify the alphabet soup behind the agent's name.)" The Garton-Good meeting is set for Orlando, Sept. 30 through Oct. 1. The meeting is not only for DREI / potential instructors, it's open to anyone. For more information contact: NAREC at 1-888-469-6892. | 
