Portland Business Journal - By Robert Goldfield

Real estate broker Elizabeth Tilbury was still in the process of obtaining the professional designation CCIM when the effort started paying off.

A broker from California, who possessed the highly respected certification in real estate investment, telephoned Tilbury based on her status as a CCIM candidate. The broker's client was looking to buy an apartment complex of a particular size and value -- did Tilbury know of any matches in Portland? As a result of that inquiry, Tilbury, representing the seller, sold a 200-unit complex in Beaverton, earning a handsome commission.

Since that 1986 transaction, the CCIM designation -- Certified Commercial Investment Member -- has continued to pay dividends for Tilbury, who owns a four-agent brokerage called Tilbury Ferguson & Neuburg Inc. in Northwest Portland. Networking with other CCIMs continues, as the members trust the level of sophistication those initials represent.

The education changes how one thinks about and analyzes investment properties. It provides different ways for comparing deals and investments, and allows one to better understand what strategies work best for each client.

"It's kind of a creative way of stepping back and looking at what you're doing," she said.

The CCIM designation is "sort of the doctorate degree in commercial real estate," said Ronald Ross, president of the Oregon CCIM chapter.

Like any other "advanced degree," brokers obtaining CCIM designation benefit from advanced education and by gaining credentials that can move their careers along, he said.

Through a series of four intensive courses, which are based on a national curriculum, CCIM provides training in the concepts of financial analysis, market analysis, user-decision analysis and investment analysis for commercial real estate, Ross said. Given the combined costs of tuition (about $1,100 per class) class materials, travel expenses and time away from work, "a candidate could easily spend $10,000 getting the designation."

About 5 percent of commercial real estate professionals nationwide hold the designation, said Edward Bury, spokesman for the CCIM Institute, headquartered in Chicago.

Worldwide, there are approximately 8,700 CCIM members and 8,900 candidates trying to qualify, Bury said. That compares with 1992, when CCIM had 4,440 total members -- certified and those in training combined. The institute's Oregon chapter has about 330 members.

The Oregon chapter aims to promote the CCIM designation and support commercial real estate brokers in obtaining the designation, said Ross, a broker with Re/Max Equity Group Inc. in Bend.

The chapter holds monthly luncheons and marketing meetings in Portland and hosts an annual, statewide commercial real estate conference in Bend. The next conference occurs Oct. 3 and 4.

The chapter also is working to hold more of the five-day CCIM courses in Oregon, so candidates need not travel so much, Ross said. That's not easy, as it involves scheduling and flying in instructors who are approved by the CCIM Institute.

Traveling to attend courses out of state isn't all bad, said Sue Iggulden, who heads real estate management services for Colliers International in Portland. After all, that allows in-person networking with other candidates from around the country, which certainly results in referrals.

Iggulden, who obtained her CCIM designation in 2000, said she wanted the education and credentials because investors were becoming more sophisticated. She sensed the need to talk to investors at their own level, and to have enough expertise to help clients form their investment strategies and make decisions to execute their strategies.

"People aren't buying buildings because they want to own buildings," she said, "they're buying buildings because it's an investment vehicle."

So real estate brokers need to be able to advise clients on how every decision they make can affect the performance of those vehicles.

Investors' desire for brokers with such expertise widened with the advent of like-kind exchanges under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code, Iggulden said. When conducted properly, such exchanges allow investors to defer taxes on gains from the sale of property if the proceeds are reinvested in a similar kind of property.

Increasingly, Iggulden said, clients are requiring that the brokers they work with possess the CCIM designation.