The e-PRO 500, the first class of the National Association of REALTORS® Internet mastery course is graduating. What do they think about the course, and should you take it?

The e-PRO course takes about six-weeks to complete the 20 hour-plus curriculum, and it was no walk in the park, according to the graduates who are crossing the marathon finish line.

"I've taken several Internet continuing education courses in my time, but for some reason I really sweated over this one," said California Realtor Theresa Grant. "Maybe it was the level of the course content -- not too high, but very labor and time-intensive. Maybe it was the deadline to have it finished by a certain time to be eligible to retain the e-PRO 500 designation."

But the consensus is that the e-PROs will definitely separate the superagents from the agents when serving the Internet-empowered consumer. According to Michael Russer, e-PRO architect, the response from the first class, who served as beta-testers for the course and were subsequently anointed the e-PRO 500, had overwhelmingly positive reviews, despite a few snipes about the course length, some hokey graphics, some technical glitches, and a few remedial topics.

But hey, that's why they earned their stripes. The next group will benefit from their opinions as Websuite.com, the course builder, edits the course and fixes any continuing technical glitches accordingly. "The course will be updated every three months," explained Russer.

Russer acknowledges that there were some mixed reviews because of the experience level. "When I spoke to the educational committee of the N.A.R., about where it is and where it needs to be, we revisited the specifications. I gave them a bar chart of where the program is and none of the units are at 100%."

"It is a function of time," says Russer. "This was a massive project, and there were time constraints to get the program going. But on the good side, the program is under a constant state of evolution and it offers some very sophisticated information."

Russer says that the most favorable comments were about Unit 2 - the marketing module. "There are rules of engagement on the Internet, and it forced people to think who their target market was and create a protocol to interview them and do research for them offline," he says.

"I think this course is beneficial to anyone who wants the Internet to be a larger portion of their business plan, but it's not for beginners to the net at large," agrees Grant.

One Realtor said, "On the pro side, there was a unit with the legal aspects of doing business online. It was helpful and useful. Another benefit, some of the units assist in becoming more focused on developing a niche," she said. "I found the course to be very elementary for the most part, but I have been online since 1995. Some of the Units were painfully long and the method of delivery fairly slow unless you have high speed access. I found many of their test questions to be ambiguous. There are still formatting/technical bugs to be worked out, which I'm sure are being worked on right now.

"The biggest "value" for me is to say that I was in the Top 500 and can use it for press releases/promotion," she concluded.

Texas Realtor Elizabeth Newbury has held a license for several years, dabbling in sales for family, and has only recently become a full-time agent. "I think that it will be helpful to me as a new agent, only because some other designations require a certain amount of time spent as an agent or even a certain number of transactions before eligibility. The e-PRO is also the only Internet-savvy designation, so I feel having it will help me be more appealing to the Internet consumer.

"The biggest immediate benefit was in redefining my market plan and executing the plan to get the business I am seeking," explains Newbury. "Because of that, I am cutting back on some marketing that was costly and ineffective and going in a new, more cost-efficient direction with better returns. When my broker reviewed the plan with me, she was also able to identify areas of improvement to make it even more targeted."

Cons? "I was frustrated by the fact that there wasn't an easy way to study, since the course information couldn't be printed out in full, and the lesson summaries were a recap of what was covered without a lot of real information to study," said Newbury.

David Lauster, ABR,CIPS,CRS,GRI,e-PRO 500 says, "I feel the e-PRO course is an absolute "must-take" for the agent who wants to travel on the Internet highway. This course not only explains how the Internet works, it also teaches you how to understand and work with the Internet-empowered Consumer (IEC), who is becoming a dominant force in the marketplace."

Explains Lauster," No agent should assume he or she already knows this. The IEC is a different animal from what we're used to in real estate. Finally, the e-PRO course will give you the fundamentals you need to determine how you want to be positioned on the Internet, how to effectively use its many attributes and which parts of this process to tackle yourself and which ones to farm out to someone else."

Now that the beta-testing is over and the second group of e-PRO students has launched into cyberspace, and the early glitches have been fixed, there's no reason not to jump in. According to Russer, there are many advantages to becoming an e-PRO:

1. Learn how to use your website and email powerfully, effectively and profitably through comprehensive training of online marketing
2. Attract the best listings and represent the most desirable clients, including working effectively with the Internet-empowered consumer (IEC.)
3. Stand above your competition in knowledge and consumer perception - have a competitive advantage over anybody else online. This perception will be strengthened by a powerful online consumer awareness campaign, which will show the IEC the advantages of working with an e-PRO Realtor.
4. Learn how to leverage your most powerful asset – your people - skills into doing more businesses on line. It's about people, not technology.
5. Capture and close more business and have more rewarding relationships with clients.
6. Be on the cutting edge of your profession.
7. Be a member of an elite group of Internet-savvy agents.
8. Acquire this knowledge and certification at your own pace, in your own home or office – in an entirely self paced manner
9. Get free marketing tools upon graduation, designed to enhance and leverage the online consumers' awareness of working with you as an e-PRO Certified Realtor.
10. Stay on top without burning out via the community of e-PRO Realtors all helping each other in a highly innovative and collaborative fashion.

"If you are a techie agent, you might have a hard time adapting to the course content, because it is about people, not technology," says Russer. "The course is really about how to be successful online, and I do believe the course is doing that."