About how long is it to gain your CCIM designation and at what cost roughly?
[deleted]
[{"id": "fauv8ar", "text": "I\u2019m in the process of doing mine and it will cost approximately $8,800 in total cost not factoring travel cost for some courses. Honestly, you can learn almost everything that there teaching you online. However, the designation helps with credibility, especially for investors.", "replies": [{"id": "favfzoy", "text": "As an investor, I've never noticed the letters after someone's name making any difference how well that person knew their job.  If anything, I love dealing with new brokers and their optimism within a deal.", "replies": [{"id": "favv0mm", "text": "I understand where you\u2019re coming from, but as an investor if you\u2019re looking for lenders to lend on your deal - I found that it will make a huge difference.", "replies": [{"id": "faw8z0i", "text": "A nice balance sheet and that particular deal being a homerun ...helps with that !!", "replies": [{"id": "faw9867", "text": "I agree", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fbe2oxt", "text": "I finished my designation April 2019. I was able to take all my coursework online and completed everything within \\~7 months from start to finish (I got through it faster than the majority of people I met, \\~2 years seemed average), taking all courses back to back through the online guided, or self guided options. This helped keep costs down to around $7,000 all in, including dues and travel for the exam. I believe they have now modified the requirements so that at least some of the coursework needs to be done in person, which would likely add time and cost. In hindsight, I saw that taking the courses in person is much better for building your network and getting the most out of the designation, and would recommend scheduling the courses in your local market/CCIM chapter area, if possible. My local chapter typically hosts a happy hour or dinner when there is a course in town, which gives exposure to existing chapter members.\n\nHaving a background in finance made the subject matter straightforward for me (time value of money, valuation, cash flow analysis, debt/equity financing, modeling, etc), as it builds off of those base concepts, but personally I didn't feel I gained any large increase in knowledge in any one area, though it was good exposure to different perspectives of CRE decision making. When I discussed it with others during the exam, I felt that in general, people without experience in CRE finance had a much larger learning curve and gained a lot more overall knowledge from the courses.", "replies": [{"id": "fbz7q6j", "text": "Would you say these classes would be for someone without a basis in finance, or that one should have a general understanding of basic finance concepts (time value of money, etc) prior to signing up?", "replies": [{"id": "fcl20xo", "text": "If you take the courses in person or through the guided online option, you have plenty of support from instructors and other students to learn what you need, without having any previous background in finance. I think the coursework is most beneficial in this circumstance, though the exams will be more challenging, especially the final. \n\nThe self guided course option might be tough without any baseline finance.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]