By Jeff Girod, MMAR Past Chair

The Certified Mountain Area Specialist (CMAS) designation was designed years ago by MMAR to help our agents understand more about mountain area intricacies that make our market unique.  This certification is NAR recognized and MMAR owned.  The original intent of designers of CMAS was to offer it to other associations who could also benefit from the knowledge and it has always been open to Realtors from other associations who wanted to come to Evergreen to attend the classes.  However, a number of issues caused MMAR to delay offering the CMAS to a broader audience until now.

In 2017 the MMAR Board of Directors approved a new designation the CMAS-Affiliate.  This allows all current MMAR Affiliates to also obtain the designation.  Also in 2017, the Chairman’s Advisory Group, comprised of Employing Brokers from the MMAR service area recommended that CMAS finally fulfill it’s original intent and be offered to other Realtor Associations who conduct business in the foothills and mountain areas.  The idea was that Realtors are already doing business in those areas and it is better to work with someone who understands the mountain area issues than one who does not.

In March, 2018, 27 Realtors from the Estes Parker Board of Realtors became the first group to receive what is being called CMAS Zipped when we offered a two-day, eight class certification in Estes Park.  The MMAR task force has been charged with locating other associations in Colorado who would also like to participate in this program.

MMAR members benefit greatly by offering these classes.  Not only do we earn 100% of the income from the classes, we also earn residual income from the annual requirement classes to keep the certification.  With this extra money, the board plans to buy needed equipment for MMAR training, hire a second part-time employee, and place extra funds in reserve in case of a down market.  This will increase service levels to our Realtor and Affiliate members as well as continue to keep us financially strong.

One of the core tenants of MMAR is to help our members better serve the public through education.  CMAS will continue to help our members and our Realtor/Affiliate colleagues to do the same now and in the future.