Currently in Colorado, approximately 380 Brokers hold the prestigious Master of Real Estate (MRE) designation. The MRE was created years ago for those who truly wanted to distinguish themselves in the industry, and to obtain the MRE designation, 96 hours of advanced courses were required. Those who have worked so hard to achieve the MRE know the challenges involved. However, in February of this year, the Colorado Association of REALTORS’ Education Development Committee was faced with a difficult decision – what to do with the MRE?
Why the dilemma? The National Association of REALTORS has announced that a new designation is in the works – and you’ll never guess what it’s called – the MRE! NAR’s version of the designation is rumored to require a Broker to not only take extensive additional advanced courses, but also to have an actual Master’s Desgree in real estate from a university. So, Colorado’s MRE designation would conflict with NAR’s MRE designation – you can see how confusing this gets.
The Education Development Committee elected to honor those in Colorado who have worked so hard to achieve the MRE, so rather than eliminate it completely, the MRE has simply been renamed to the Colorado MRE (or you may abbreviate CMRE). CAR has released the announcement as well, so those holding the Colorado MRE may start updating their marketing materials (eg. business cards, email signatures, etc).
And if you want to be a REAL overachiever, you could earn both the CMRE and NAR’s MRE! However, Colorado’s MRE program is closed, so if you missed it, it’s too late. No more courses are being offered.
