Earn More With Designations - But Why?

In the article A Designated Hit - Realtors Who Earn Designations Earn More, RISMedia puts forth the statistics to indicate that Realtors with designations earn about double the income of those that do not. The problem with statistics is that they many times vary a lot based on who you ask and what you ask.

In the NAR 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, Exhibit 7-7 is a chart titled Most Important Factor in Choosing a Real Estate Agent to Sell Home, By Level of Service Provided By the Agent. Only 1% of all sellers indicated that their most important item of consideration in choosing an agent was professional designations held. It was also 1% for all buyers in Exhibit 4-15.

Now, obviously that doesn't mean that designations had no importance, but it was the lowest ranked selection criteria except for "other." Really interesting was the fact that the number was 3% for MLS Only listers (with few if any additional services). Isn't there a conflict in there somewhere? Three times as many people wanted no/few services other than an MLS listing, but they wanted designations? I want you to know a lot, but don't use it in my case? This could be an interesting study for someone with nothing else to do.

Could there be a couple of logical reasons for those with designations making more money?

• With new agents in the mix, almost none have had time to get designations, and they are the lowest in commission generation.
• The most professional of us are also interested in being better at our jobs. So, those who are successful take more courses to help them to be better.
• Basically, we're already good, and earning good money, but we want to be better.

I think designations are great, and I have a few. I also have one or two I've let lapse because I don't think the ability to place the letters after my name is worth the annual cost. I am just a bit skeptical about the order of things. Rather than the designations getting you the business, I tend to believe that you are getting the business and want to be better at what you do. I'd like to see these questions in the survey amended to include only agents with 5 to 10 years of current licensed activity, removing the new agents.