I am BiggerPockets Certified

[Account Closed]

  Okay, between the podcasts and the forums it's clear that it is not easy to find good help, particularly property managers and contractors.  We've all heard or read how instead of spending their time finding new deals or working on their businesses, many real estate investors are forced to deal with poor communications, unexpected expenses, no-shows, and worse.

  No doubt there are many good property managers and contractors out there, but the bad ones seem to get all the attention.  What we need is a system that recognizes the exceptional ones and also offers a pathway for improvement to the less-than-stellar ones.

So here's a thought: why not create a BiggerPockets certification program? Professional certifications already exist in hundreds of professions from finance to medicine to supply chain management, among others. Certifications assure an individual's qualification to perform a job or task and are typically issued by universities or agencies appointed to safeguard public interest. BP is neither, but occupies such a large swath of the REI space that to say, "I am BiggerPockets certified" would carry immense clout.

  It could work like this, a syllabus is created incorporating all the best practices of, say, a property manager so that when the course of study is completed the newly BP-certified property manager understands and employs all the best practices (mandating automatic rent payments and providing monthly e-mail updates, for example).  Certification could last  for a set period of time and there could be a social media aspect to it, including ratings and reviews.

  The benefit to the BP-certified individual is the clout certification brings and the ability to charge slightly higher fees, perhaps.  The real estate investor may endure these higher fees but will make up for it by spending less time and energy dealing with lower quality help.  In a sense, BP certification ensures everyone is on the same sheet of music.

  Naturally there are many details to work out but I see a real opportunity here.  Any thoughts?

Vincent

P.S. A Certified Property Manager qualification already exists, conferred by the Institute of Real Estate Management.  My proposal is specific to BiggerPockets community of like-minded folks.

[Bill Gulley]

I had a similar thread in the past, a certification process for investors, it's a huge undertaking.

Liability; specific or implied endorsements carry a liability issue for the endorser, not only legally, but in a social aspect. Certify some crook and see what happens.

Next, who gets a certification? Is the a test to assure competency? Is there some "deals done" "projects completed" aspect? Where do you draw that line? Can a newbie be certified?

Then, what about someone not being certified? Do they have recourse if they believe they were unfairly rejected, that carries implications of liable by omission. Again, where do you set the requirements and how do you process applicants, will these aspects be uniform and fair?

IMO, a certification from a social network isn't going to carry much water in reality, is it a professional association (?) no, it may be nothing more than a popularity contest based more on social interaction.

Then, you also have issues of keeping certifications current, professional designations require on going education. Things change, if you gave a certification two years ago and that person carries that certification today, they may well be doing financed lease purchases, or continue some other activity that is not compliant. So your certification becomes meaningless over time if there is no requirement to maintain current in a certain field.

Any professional certification requires a code of ethics, some expected conduct by members, really, have you read the forums?

I really doubt @Joshua Dorkin want's to get into the professional certification business, not only was there a lack of interest last time, but most on BP won't even buy a $25 text book to learn RE, I doubt they would be willing to buy into some educational process or certification process and you certainly can't do it for nothing.

Certification implies qualification, the accepted method to ratify any qualification is by testing.  If it's too hard, people won't obtain it, if it's too easy, it won't mean anything. If it's a popularity endorsement, I doubt that would carry any water at all.

I think that BP members pretty well police what can be policed, if you see those that seem to put out fluff, puffing, asking how to get around laws, asking how to avoid accepted practices, that should set off red flags as to how they think. I don't see contractors being "certified" beyond licensing, locally you may have Angie's List, try that.

Good thought, certifications that meant something would be a good thing, but implementing a good program, administration of it and having it accepted is a whole different world. :)