Learn the power of pricing with NAR’s Pricing Strategy Advisor Certification
For real estate agents vying for leads, any competitive differentiator is an advantageous one. For those looking to be a cut above the rest, the National Association of REALTORS®’ Pricing Strategy Advisor (PSA) certification can help. Designed to help enhance skills in pricing properties, creating CMAs, working with appraisers and more, agents armed with this designation can more strongly clear up clients’ misunderstandings when it comes to pricing and home values.
Michael Straley, regional leader of eXp Realty in Fredericksburg, Va., and team lead of the Go Straley Group, knows all about the importance of NAR’s PSA course, Pricing Strategies: Mastering the CMA. Having earned the ABR®, SFR®, PSA and CRS designations (among others), Straley has been instructing on the importance of pricing principles for two years now.
So what do agents learn in the course?
“Pricing is very analytical because you’re dealing with markets, so it includes economics. You’re also dealing with analytics, which is mathematics. You’re dealing with a unique commodity, which creates an inefficient market by nature. When you bring these elements together and try to create a pricing scenario, it’s not cut and dry,” says Straley.
Over the course of six modules, Straley makes sense of this complicated subject by building a foundation so that REALTORS® can construct their own system of being able to calculate real property pricing…and learn how to explain it all to customers.
The six modules cover the principles of pricing, choosing comparables, preparing the CMA, presenting the CMA, learning about appraisals, and honing your pricing strategies. Straley even offers tips on how to approach sellers and how wordsmithing can often ease blows.
“Sellers get a little irritated by the word ‘comparable,’ so we say, ‘This property is the most similar substitute for your property,'” he says. “If you’re dealing with an emotional seller, you want to be able to present things so that they’re well-received, collaborative and effective. You have one time to be new to the market, so if you burn your one time by being overpriced, the only way you can get that back is to wait a year or so.”
Learning how to work with appraisers is another crucially important course component. The PSA class teaches agents what appraisers do and how their process unfolds. It’s important for agents to gather as much data as possible, says Straley, and present it to the appraiser. All of this data will make a huge difference, and is “a game changer in the relationship between appraisers and agents.”
The PSA certification can help from a marketing standpoint, too.
“With the PSA certification, you have that competence sitting beneath your confidence, so when challenged, you have all the answers,” says Straley.
This information could be the make-or-break factor that helps agents win listings and impress sellers, which is “an irreplaceable differentiator,” says Straley.
“Some people who are new to the industry don’t realize how complex it is to sit at a table with somebody who owns a unique property and put your stamp of approval on a price and be able to back it up,” he says. “Some people might leave the class exhausted, but they’re excited at the same time.
“It’s a value proposition that lasts forever.”
For more information, please visit pricingstrategyadvisor.org.
For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.
