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Realtors seeking to serve the public in buying and selling condominium properties are all licensed to do so, but many have not studied to become certified as specialists in that field. For example, just as you would hire a specialist finishing carpenter rather than a house-framing carpenter to build a spiral staircase, so too should the public consider the real estate specialization of Realtors they hire. In real estate I know little about rural properties and the productivity of soils or well-water flow testing, so I can't serve clients well to buy or sell acreages, and I don't take on such business. But equally I would hope that rural Realtors and house-specializing Realtors would study about condominiums before trading in them.
In order to become a real estate associate (formerly called "Agent"), a person takes a three-phase three-week program prepared by the Alberta Real Estate Association, sponsored by bodies such as the Calgary Real Estate Board ("CREB"), and Mount Royal College. That program contains only one day of instruction in condominium law and condo real estate issues. Just as a carpenter won't know how to build spiral staircases after a single day of training, I can assure you that one day is inadequate to learn what is necessary to help people safely buy and to sell condominium homes.
When I teach the condominium section of the Real Estate Associates Program I stress that those who become licensed as associates, likely joining our local Board as Realtors, should quickly upgrade their condominium education before handling such properties. Here in Calgary the next level of education is available, as CREB sponsors a three-day course yielding the designation of Certified Condominium Specialist ("CCS"). It's a good course, and with a few years of experience added, perhaps guided by a mentoring Realtor, a CCS Realtor will likely be able to serve buying and selling clients and avoid most lawsuits.
A further level of education is available through the local chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute, which offers its Condominium Management program, spanning three levels over a period of months. While targeted to those who will become property managers, this course is finally of long enough duration, and involves a range of industry-active instructors, that participants will come out truly understanding condominiums and the legalities that underlie this type of housing. Every Realtor who aspires to serve the 30% of Calgary's housing market that are condo homes of one style or another should also take this course.
Some have called for our regulatory body, the Real Estate Council of Alberta, to impose a mandatory-education course for Associates in condominium law and real estate, but it seems unlikely to happen. The problem is that many Associates work in rural Alberta where condominium apartments and townhouses simply don't exist. There's no more need for them to learn about inner-city condos than there is for me to learn about rural-property well-water flow rates. So further education will rely on the initiative of Realtors themselves and public demand that any Realtor dealing with condominium properties have at least the CCS designation, probably the CCI's three-level Condominium Management program behind them, plus some years of experience.
Condominium real estate is a complex field. On top of all the contract-law issues and negotiation of trading in houses and land it has a separate Act governing it, a set of Regulations under that Act, followed by every condominium's own Bylaws, house rules and then all the structural, financial and political issues that can accompany a development of dozens or even hundreds homes and a budget of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. ‘Like a spiral staircase, indeed.
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