These are not credentials collected for a resume. They are evidence of a career spent at the center of where real estate and technology were heading before most people saw it coming.
I have spent 25 years building this company and building my expertise inside this industry. The certifications and recognitions on this page are not things I pursued to look impressive on a website. They are the natural result of being deeply involved in the programs, organizations, and industry movements that shaped how real estate virtual assistance works today.
Each one has a story behind it. I am going to tell you those stories because I think they matter more than just seeing a logo on a page.
Realtor.com Certification
The First to Receive the Realtor.com Certification.
In 2000, Realtor.com, which is the official site of the National Association of Realtors, developed a certification program for real estate professionals who wanted to demonstrate their expertise in the Realtor.com platform and its tools.
I was not just one of the first people to go through the program. I helped create it.
I worked directly with the Realtor.com team during the development of the certification curriculum. I reviewed the content, tested the program materials, provided feedback from the perspective of someone who was actually working inside real estate businesses every day, and helped shape what the final certification looked like.
When the program launched, I was the first person in the country to receive the certification.
What it means for the agents I work with is straightforward: when it comes to understanding the tools that Realtor.com built for real estate agents. I was not learning from the sidelines. I was at the table when those tools were being created, evaluated and certified. That is the level of expertise I bring to every conversation about real estate technology.
STAR POWER
Recommended Supplier Status 2004 to 2009. And Much More Than That.
StarPower was one of the most respected real estate coaching and education organizations in the country. Howard Brinton founded the organization and built it into the premier gathering place for top-producing real estate agents who wanted to operate at a higher level.
I earned the STAR POWER Recommended Supplier designation and held it from 2004 through 2009. But the relationship I had with StarPower went far deeper than a supplier certification.
Howard Brinton personally invited me to speak at the StarPower Stars Conference in Palm Beach, Florida in December 2005. That invitation was historic: I was the first real estate virtual assistant ever invited to speak at a StarPower conference. Howard recognized that what I was building at Kim Hughes and Company was something the agents in his network needed to understand and take seriously.
I went back. In 2008, Howard invited me to speak again at his final conference in Denver, Colorado. The session was a breakout on working with a real estate virtual assistant, and the response from the agents in that room confirmed what Howard and I both already believed: the industry was changing and agents who built real support systems around their business were going to win.
My involvement with StarPower was not limited to speaking from a stage. I worked behind the scenes during conferences helping plan and execute the event experience. I participated in breakout sessions with top producers from across the country. I operated as a vendor at conferences, working directly with agents to show them what real estate virtual assistance actually looked like in practice. I was inside the organization at every level.
Howard Brinton built StarPower around the belief that top producers operate differently. He invited me in because he believed the way I was building support systems for agents was a model worth sharing. That is still the most honest endorsement I have ever received.
Howard Brinton passed away in 2013. His legacy in the real estate industry is significant. The conversations I had with him about where real estate was going, what agents needed, and what the future of support services looked like shaped how I think about this work. I am grateful for every moment I spent inside the StarPower world.
CyberStars Director of Operations
Four Years as Allen F. Hainge's Director of Operations for the CyberStars Organization.
Allen F. Hainge was a pioneer in real estate technology education. He founded CyberStars, an organization dedicated to teaching real estate agents how to leverage internet tools and technology to build stronger businesses at a time when most agents did not even have a website.
In 2003, I was invited to the Allen F. Hainge CyberStar Summit. I was the first real estate virtual assistant ever invited to attend. That invitation alone was a recognition of the position I had built in the industry.
At that Summit, Allen asked me to become the Director of Operations for the CyberStars organization. I served in that role from 2004 through 2008.
What Being Director of Operations Actually Meant
Allen Hainge was teaching agents that technology was going to change everything about how they worked. He asked me to help run the organization that was doing that teaching. That is not something I take lightly.
Why Any of This Matters for You
These credentials and recognitions are not things I put on this page to impress you. I put them here because they explain something important about who I am and how I work.
I have been at the intersection of real estate and technology since before most people in this industry were paying attention to it. I helped build the certification program for one of the most visited real estate websites in the country. I spent years inside two of the most respected real estate education organizations building the programs and events that taught top agents how to operate at a higher level.
When I sit down with an agent and tell them what their business needs, I am drawing on 25 years of being inside this industry at every level. Not just as a service provider. As a builder, a teacher, a speaker, an operator, and a credentialed expert in the tools that real estate professionals use every day.
That is the difference between someone who learned about real estate and someone who helped shape how the industry works. I am the latter.
Ready to Work With Someone Who Has Been Inside This Industry at Every Level?
Schedule a free 20-minute discovery call and let us talk about your business and what 25 years of real estate expertise can do for it.