Two years after the implementation of continuing education requirements in Massachusetts, real estate agents will have to get used to a new system that state officials hope they will find to be more flexible.

The Massachusetts Board of Registration of Real Estate Brokers and Salespeople recently took action to approve the continuing education subject matter curriculum for 2001 after an overhaul conducted by a workgroup made up of public officials, lawyers and Realtors.

All state-approved real estate schools must offer this curriculum no later than Jan. 1, 2001, and some schools are already beginning to offer the new courses.

Changes in the makeup of continuing education requirements were expected after the first few of years of the program, according to the chairwoman of the committee that worked on the revisions.

“Continuing education requirements began only two years ago, and we were putting together a curriculum for the first time back then,” said Anita Hill, a vice president and director of career development for Carlson GMAC Real Estate in Woburn. “It was more of a test. We wanted to see what would work and what wouldn’t work.” In the spring of this year, she explained, her committee met to discuss how the curriculum was being received by the real estate community.

“We found two major things,” she said. “First, agents thought the education was great, but wondered what they would take the next time, if they had to take the same courses over again. Also, we found the course content was so vague that it left a lot of the specifics up to the instructor. There were great inconsistencies.”

Under the former system, in the 24 months prior to an agent’s license renewal, he or she had to complete 12 credit hours of continuing education course credit. Eight of the 12 hours were part of a so-called core program covering four topics: agency, environmental laws and regulations, fair housing and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and real estate laws, regulations and practices. The remaining four credit hours could be obtained by attending any of a number of elective course offerings covering subjects such as Title 5, international real estate or lead paint.

Under the new curriculum, Hill said, real estate agents will have much more flexibility in what courses they can take, allowing them to explore new areas of real estate they may have an interest in while still accumulating the necessary credit hours. Instead of having to take four required courses and four electives, agents up for license renewal will now be able to select from any six classes in the approved 29-course curriculum. Every class under the new program provides two credit hours, so agents will still be completing 12 credit hours in order for their license to be renewed.

“I think this is wonderful,” said Diana O’Donoghue, associate counsel for the Waltham-based Massachusetts Association of Realtors, who also served on the committee. “We didn’t change the 12 hours, but before you had to take these certain courses and could only take four of your own choosing.”

Among the real estate agents that stand to benefit from the change in curriculum are commercial agents, O’Donoghue said. The core curriculum under the old program was aimed primarily at residential agents, she said, leaving only the elective courses as options for commercial agents to attend sessions that directly related to them: “Now, there can be a commercial focus. They can take all commercial classes if they want to.” Each new course is also listed as having a focus on or a mix of both areas so agents will be more informed when making their choices.

Among the new courses offered this year include education on architecture and historic homes, as well as antitrust issues.

‘More Interaction’
To address the issue of inconsistencies among courses offered by different instructors, Hill said more detailed outlines of what is required from each courses have been written and posted by the Board of Registration. Also, each course description, which is also available on the Internet, includes a list of suggested reference materials as well as links to other Web sites that can provide supplemental information. “We really wanted to make it interactive,” Hill said, adding that links to several case studies in real estate law were added.

“There are some course outlines that in the ’99 version had maybe seven bullet points, and in the 2001 version they’re seven pages long,” O’Donoghue said.

Though the course outlines are less vague than before, O’Donoghue said teachers would also benefit from the flexibility of the program. “Because the outlines contain more information, the instructors will have more to teach from,” she said. “The administration is allowing some discretion as what the instructors can focus on in their classes, depending on what type of audience they’re teaching to. Based on the level of the class, they can tailor it to focus more on some issues and less on others, as long as everything in the outline is covered.”

Licensees will not lose credit for any education already completed under the 1999 curriculum. If an agent has partially completed continuing education hours under the 1999 curriculum; they may finish the remaining hours under the 2001 curriculum. Licensees may complete either curriculum, if the school chooses to offer both, in order to satisfy the continuing education requirement between now and the end of the year.

“The reaction so far has been positive,” Hill said. “I think we achieved our goal of providing more interaction and participation between the instructor and the students through this curriculum.”

Because the real estate marketplace is constantly changing, Hill and O’Donoghue both expect the courses will change often as well, though they hope the six-class, 12-credit formula in place for next year remains viable for several more years.

“This is designed to continually change to keep up with changes in the industry,” Hill said. When it is next revised, she said they may choose to have a greater focus on technology issues that what is offered for 2001. “I’m hoping for more technology-based courses,” she said. “Right now the Board of Registration doesn’t have the staff to handle that.” Surveys revealed that instructors and agents alike would both like to see computer-based or distance-learning courses as well, Hill said.

The board expects to make revisions to its course offerings approximately every two years.