All week I've been talking about rethinking real estate education — at the national level, the provincial level, and the brokerage level. Today I want to get specific about the mechanics of how great course materials actually get built, and then show you a real example of what that looks like in practice.

So what on earth is a course in a box?

It starts with a subject matter expert — someone from the industry with deep experience and the ability to write. That person proposes a course or book concept to one of the world's leading educational publishers.

If accepted, here is what happens next.

The material goes through acquisition editing to confirm it makes sense for the market. Then three industry professionals conduct a peer review. If the peer reviewers approve of the submission, the book goes to an acquisitions panel for a final decision. From there, the publisher adopts it and puts it through three full rounds of editing — developmental editing to ensure the ideas are sound and sequenced properly, copy editing to ensure it flows and that all intellectual property is properly credited, and a final typesetting pass to ensure it publishes correctly.

Then the learning design work begins.

Slides are written — not pretty branded slides, but clean, unbranded PowerPoints that sequence the delivery of information logically. Quizzes and exams are written to accompany the material.

What this creates is a complete instructional package. An experienced practitioner can walk into a room, relate the material to their own regional experience, add their own examples, field questions, and expand the conversation — without spending months writing and designing from scratch.

The publisher only gets paid when the course is adopted. They take on the front-end risk. If the material doesn't resonate, it lives or dies on the quality of what was created — not on the association's budget.

Contrast that with the custom course model most associations currently use.

Custom courses require authorship fees of $5,000 to $20,000. Then copywriting. Then, copyright clearance. Then design. Then slide development. Then implementation. Every one of those costs is a sunk cost if the material doesn't land with the people it was built for.

Publishers who do this work carry that risk because they are exceptionally good at what they do. They wake up every single day and do one thing: write books, edit material, and build courses. That is their entire job. They have built entire divisions dedicated to understanding the needs of the industries they serve.

In contrast, the job of a realtor is to serve clients. The job of a managing broker is to ensure compliance and develop their people. We do not need managing brokers to be brilliant writers or instructional designers. We need to make great materials available so they can focus on what they are actually there to do — ensuring the people in their care are operating at a high level of skill and professionalism.

This model takes the risk and complexity out of course building and puts it back where it belongs — with the people whose entire purpose is to get it right.

It is not a new idea. It is actually a very old one. It is just one we moved away from.

Now here is a real example of what this looks like.

 

My first book, published by Routledge, is a leadership textbook written specifically for real estate brokerages. Within it is an opportunity to build something the industry genuinely needs: a full-day PDP course built around how to achieve best-in-class results with clients.

The material is already there. The book covers the personality traits that successful sales agents share, how to connect with clients using love languages and the principles of influence, and how to read and understand the people in front of you well enough to communicate in a way they can actually hear. This is not guesswork — it is backed by decades of research from people in the field.

That course could be built around this book as the core resource. It could be operationalized quickly, painlessly, and at no cost. And for brokerages looking to build their own internal training programs, the rest of the book covers recruitment, onboarding, retention, trust, loyalty, training program design, and how to screen business partners and employees.

My second book, currently under contract with Taylor and Francis, is a customer experience management textbook written for entrepreneurs and small business owners. It is 16 chapters. Each chapter is written with accompanying slides and in-class discussions designed to provide 90 to 120 minutes of instructional material per chapter. Across 16 chapters, that is 32 hours of well-planned, peer-reviewed, professionally edited, and industry-relevant training material.

It is not out for sale yet. But it is coming.

Now here is the part most people don't know.

 

If you are an instructor, a managing broker, or an education director who is considering adopting a Routledge and Taylor and Francis textbook for a course, you can request a complimentary e-inspection copy directly from Taylor & Francis at no charge. An inspection copy is exactly what it sounds like — a complete digital copy of the book sent to you free of charge so you can evaluate whether it fits your course or program before committing to anything. There is no obligation. If you choose to adopt the book, accompanying instructor resources, including slides, discussion guides, and assessments, are also provided free of charge.

The barrier to getting started is genuinely that low.

 

I share this not to boast, but because this week has been about possibility. About what becomes available when an industry decides to take its own education seriously. About what already exists and is waiting to be used.

The tools are here. The materials are ready. The expertise exists.

I hope that as you've read this series, you've seen that more is possible — for yourselves, for your industry, and for the people you serve.

Thank you for reading. If you have questions, want to talk, or just want to think out loud about what any of this could look like for your organization, I am always available.

 

Liz Penner

MBA Candidate | Associate Broker | Author | Instructor

Taylor & Francis | BCIT | FVREB | Sutton