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Options for Offering this Training

Your association has a variety of options for offering this training; NAR would like this training to be as flexible to offer as possible. You may want to consider some of these most common options.

Options Regarding Potential Attendees

REALTOR® Member-only Training — Some REALTOR® associations prefer to offer this training only to REALTOR®, dues-paying members, as a benefit of membership. Limiting attendance to members also makes it easier to explain that simply going through this training does not mean that the candidate will receive the REALTOR® association’s endorsement.
REALTOR® Member and REALTOR®-friendly Candidates — some associations prefer to open up the candidate field to those who are friendly to real estate issues, believing this enhances their chances of placing a candidate in office who is friendly to REALTORS® and aligns with us on real estate issues. Many associations charge a higher fee for non-members to attend, to demonstrate the benefit of membership.

Options for Extending Invitations

When determining how many attendees to invite, one approach is to cast a wide net to see how many people are interested and who attends the training. Based on the outcome of the session, your association can determine the strongest candidates and choose to back the ones who rise to the top, show promise, and align most closely with the association on real estate issues.

The other school of thought is to identify candidates in advance, hand-pick them for the training, and back the candidates based on what you already know about their support of real estate related issues. This training session would, of course, have fewer attendees because the candidates have been determined first and go through training second.

Options for Hosting

Association as Sole Host: This option makes sense for a state association or a rather large, local association with a large pool of members to choose from. These associations generally have several meetings during the year in which to offer this training.

Two or More Associations Host: Local associations may choose to pool their resources and memberships to offer a co-hosted training. This maximizes their resources, often enabling both associations to make their training dollars go further.

Association and Other Like-Minded Organizations Host: Some associations like to partner with a local chamber of commerce and other like-minded organizations, such as a local builders association. This not only stretches training budgets but also builds partnerships with like-minded organizations and helps craft a consistent message across memberships — especially when crafting campaign messages to back a candidate.

Options for Instruction

This training offers two options for facilitation.

NAR-Provided Facilitator — NAR stands ready to assist an association(s) interested in using NAR-provided facilitators. These facilitators, who are professional political campaign consultants, have offered this curriculum hundreds of times across the country for REALTOR® associations and other related professionals. Contact NAR to discuss whether your association meets the criteria.
Local Facilitator — A REALTOR® association may use the NAR Candidate Training Academy material and provide its own facilitator. If your association decides to provide its own facilitator, contact NAR for materials and other valuable guidance.