After franchisees spent five years building Coldwell Banker residential franchises in Latin America, the businesses there are ready to expand into commercial real estate, and they’re getting help from Jacksonville Coldwell Banker agents.

Eleven Coldwell Banker executives from Colombia, Panama and Brazil recently spent three days at a first-of-its-kind training program at the Coldwell Banker Commercial Benchmark Realty headquarters in Jacksonville.

Helping Latin America develop its commercial brokerage will ultimately benefit Florida by sparking business transactions, said Larry Bernaski, a regional manager of international business development at the public-private partnership devoted to statewide economic development, Enterprise Florida Inc. Already Latin America is one of Jacksonville’s biggest trade partners, particularly Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina.

“I think it’s great that a real estate firm would look at different ways to expand their business,” Bernaski said.

The decision by the owners of the Sears Tower to rename it the Willis Tower after leasing only 140,000 square feet to Willis Group Holdings Ltd. was the talk of the Chicago commercial real estate community last week. Some executives thought it might be a good move, considering the building’s well-publicized occupancy problems, but others believed it was a mistake and that abandoning such a famous name may have devalued the property.

RESTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In today’s economy, every dollar back in your pocket helps. That is why taxpayers who paid college tuition or interest on student loans for themselves or their children should ensure they are taking advantage of tax savings, says Sallie Mae, the nation’s leading saving- and paying-for-college company.

According to the College Board, 8.5 million taxpayers recently benefited from federal education tax credits and deductions, saving approximately $6.5 billion. Sallie Mae recommends taxpayers in college, taking a course, or paying interest on a student loan investigate whether they are eligible to claim one of the following credits or deductions

In the State of Georgia, unlike many other states, home inspectors are not licensed. Real estate appraisers, on the other hand, are either registered, licensed and/or certified. Each real estate appraiser must complete a 2,000 hour apprenticeship program under the direct supervision of a certified appraiser. The individual who practices home inspection in the State of Georgia has hopefully taken a home inspection course, which is approximately 40-hours in length. A portion of the 40-hour in-class home inspection course may allow the instructor and his/her students to actually do a complete home inspection in the field. The on-site home inspection provides for a personal interactive environment between the students and the instructor during the home inspection process and helps to motivate each student to query the instructor and ask questions that probably could not have been answered while in-class. I think we would all agree, that a student who has an opportunity to actually visit the subject property and inspect both the home and the site will have a great advantage and will do a more thorough job when he or she gets into the home inspection business. There is no substitute for on-the-site training! On-line or correspondence courses are of little or no help to those who want to be real estate ppraisers and/or home inspectors.

2009-03-11 19:27:16 - ProSchools, a national provider of mortgage

education, has received approval in South Carolina for three additional continuing education courses.
ProSchools, a leader in mortgage education, has developed new mortgage courses, designed to meet continuing education requirements for South Carolina mortgage brokers and loan originators.

New courses approved include ‘Mortgage Lending Ethics: How to Live with Yourself,’ ‘FHA Loans Explained,’ and ‘ABCs of Mortgage Lending.’

South Carolina law requires all originators and brokers to complete eight hours of continuing education

annually, prior to license renewal.

All of the State of Illinois Continuing Education renewal requirements for salespeople are now available online.  Salesperson licenses which were issued prior to 2007 require 12 hours of CE.  Six hours of mandatory Core A and Core B classes and six hours of course work may be elective classes of the students choosing.  Save money with Accelerated Discount Learning Centers, Inc.  All 12 hours of CE are available for $55.