CCIM designation benefits agents, clients, lenders

Chris Maples, vice president and branch manager of Follman Properties/ONCOR International in Springfield, recently received her certified commercial investment member, or CCIM, designation.

Four percent of all commercial real estate practitioners are CCIMs, according to the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute, which confers the designation. Maples is one of 10 Springfield real estate professionals to have achieved this status.

"There are a lot of CCIMs in Springfield, compared to the number of people that do and sell commercial in Springfield," Maples said.

Maples has been in commercial real estate for 14 years, starting in 1986 with the firm of Morris & Tarvestad Associates Inc., a development, property management, sales and leasing company.

Her initial experience was on the accounting side of property management, then she served as janitorial supervisor overseeing more than 60 employees, she said.

When Morris & Tarvestad split up in 1989, Maples went with Jim Morris, becoming vice president of Jim Morris & Associates. There she worked on development and management of a variety of projects, including medical facilities, the Galleria and South Oaks shopping centers, and the North Town Mall, until Morris retired and the firm closed in 1996.

That fall, Maples assumed her current position as vice president and branch manager with Follman Properties/ONCOR International.

Maples said she began pursuing the CCIM designation in 1998, and "my goal for 1999 was to get this done."

That meant completing a rigorous course of study. "You log about 200 classroom hours ... and, of course, none of them are in Springfield," Maples said with a laugh.

To achieve her 1999 goal, she attended a week-long course every other month in Atlanta, Ga.

Along with the graduate-level coursework, other CCIM requirements are documenting professional transactions and passing a day-long, comprehensive examination.

"The documentation of transactions is essentially "a rsum of past experience," Maples said. In her case, the resulting document was around 200 pages long.

There are many benefits to the client who utilizes a CCIM.

According to the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute, the CCIM designation gives the potential client assurance that the real estate agent is a specialist in commercial property investment, sales and leasing.

CCIMs are taught to look at a deal, whether a sale or lease, from all perspectives, Maples said. As a result, "you're more of an asset to whoever you're representing from the landlord or tenant perspective, and from a lender perspective."

There are also many benefits to the agent who holds the CCIM designation.

CCIMs are listed on the Institute's Web site,

www.ccim.com

which, along with an exclusive e-mail network, allows members to market client properties to thousands of prospective buyers, sellers and space users, according to the Institute.

Networking is another benefit.

"I just worked a deal with a CCIM who got their degree at the same time I did, and I'm getting ready to do another," Maples said.

There are two international CCIM conferences each year, and Maples said she plans to attend one in Chicago this June.

Another bonus for the agent is education.

Continuing education is required of all real estate professionals for state licensing, but the majority of agents and education programs are in residential real estate, Maples said.

Commercial agents often have no choice but to sit through residential courses to retain their licenses, but they don't get a lot out of the programs, she added. CCIM courses satisfy continuing education requirements for designation retention and for state licensing while conveying useful information to participants.

These education programs are available through state CCIM chapters. Missouri has two chapters, one based in St. Louis and one in Kansas City. It is the Kansas City chapter that serves southwest Missouri, Maples said.

More information on the designation, is available by contacting the CCIM Web site above, or call the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute at 312-321-4460.