Aliso Viejo, Calif. September 28th, 2005 - The Real Estate Professionals Society this week announced that it had approved a number of online courses as satisfying the requirements for several of its designations. These include courses for the Commercial, Mortgage, Appraisal and Home Inspection Real Estate Professional designations, which are offered online through their real estate education partner, RealtyU® via their distance learning web portal, http://www.RealtyUonline.com.

The Real Estate Professionals Society (REPS), a Society dedicated to increasing professionalism in the real estate industry, has recognized the changing business environment and has decided it make it easier for agents to obtain quality real estate designations. The Society awards various real estate designations in a number of related real estate disciplines upon successful completion of the associated real estate course meeting the standards established for each designation. At the present time these designations include:

• AREP - Accredited Real Estate Professional
• CREP - Commercial Real Estate Professional
• CMREP - Career Management Real Estate Professional
• EREP - e-Business Real Estate Professional
• RREP - Referral Real Estate Professional
• APREP - Appraisal Real Estate Professional
• HIREP - Home Inspection Real Estate Professional
• MREP - Mortgage Real Estate Professional

Once real estate agents have completed any of the approved courses they only need to visit the REPS website (www.REPSociety.com) to complete their membership application. Once successful course completion is confirmed the Society notifies the agent and he or she receives their designation, pin, certification and access to the members' only area of the REPS website and the monthly e-Newsletter. The greatest feature of the Real Estate Professionals Society is that irrespective the number of designations you hold you still only have to pay one annual membership fee.

According to Era Swanepoel, the Executive Director of REPS, "as the interest in distance learning continues to grow, we continue to look for additional, new courseware to improve the overall quality of our Society. It is our goal to help foster an increase in professional standards throughout the real estate industry."