GRI Means Benefits to Consumers
The
letters "GRI" that are sometimes seen following a Realtor's name are
often a mystery to home buyers and sellers. It stands for "Graduate,
REALTOR® Institute" and is a designation awarded exclusively to
Realtors. The GRI program in Virginia is the second oldest of the
Institutes currently operated by state Realtor associations around the
country. To date, Virginia has graduated nearly 10% of all GRI’s
nationwide, and there are over 3,600 Realtors with the GRI designation
in the Commonwealth.
"The
GRI designation, as well as other professional Realtor designations,
provides distinct benefits to the home buying and selling public,"
explains Robert Authier, chief executive officer of the Virginia
Association of Realtors, "because of the commitment to professionalism
required by these higher levels of education. It's to the consumer's
advantage to look for designations such as the GRI when working with a
real estate professional."
The GRI designation requires completion of 90 classroom hours of real
estate instruction with emphasis on topics such as agency and ethics,
legal liabilities, tax and investment strategies, environmental issues,
marketing, construction and land use. They’ve learned the fundamentals
of brokerage and other areas of real estate specialization.