Professional Development
Professional development is the ongoing process of acquiring new skills, knowledge, and expertise to enhance career growth and effectiveness in real estate and related professions.
ResourceInvasive Plants of Alberta Guide
The Alberta Invasive Species Council updated their Invasive Plants of Alberta Guide. The new version of this guide includes provincial distribution maps, information on prevention initiatives, and indicates the species that are problematic in specific habitats. There are several invasive plant species that are particularly problematic in urban areas that homeowners and REALTORS® should be aware of. These can be a liability as landowners are responsible for controlling or eradicating prohibited noxious or noxious invasive plant species that persist on their property as per the Weed Control Act.
ResourceWelcome to the Lake
Lakes and water bodies are a limited resource in Alberta and the demand for lake properties is high. The impact of significant development around water bodies combined with a changing climate is negatively affecting the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of Alberta lakes. These factors also have an impact on real estate sales and property values.
ResourceHeritage Inspires YYC
Heritage districts and heritage places of interest can create niche markets for shopping, living, and eating in “differentiated” heritage environments that contribute to urban liveability and the attraction of talent. The Calgary Heritage Initiative’s Heritage Inspires YYC includes a tab for realtors and comprehensive FAQs that cover everything from place-making to urban planning policy and the steps needed to designate a heritage property. It features 36 community histories, 17 flyover videos of potential heritage districts, 50+ examples of new uses for old buildings, as well as success stories of revitalization and designation. Visitors to the website can learn about how heritage contributes to economic recovery, sustainability, and urban liveability.
ResourceGreen Building Education for Real Estate Professionals
In response to the significant uptake in green buildings and sustainability, the SAIT Green Building Technologies team developed a video series. This specialized and industry-relevant curriculum focuses on the increasing knowledge needs within Alberta in relation to high-performance and green residential buildings. Focus group sessions, surveys, and feedback from real estate professionals informed the curriculum development.
ResourceAlberta Land Access Guide
The purpose of this guide is to support new and landless farmers to choose a path toward accessing land. In researching and writing this guide, the driving question has been: how have new farmers secured land? There are several different options to consider from leasing and purchasing to community farms and incubator plots – each with its own set of pros and cons.
ResourceA Design Guide for Affordable Housing
The primary goal of this guide is to provide design recommendations – derived from evidence-based scientific literature – that may enhance mentalwellbeing. This guide hopes to be a benchmark to allow affordable housing stakeholders to consider the psychological impact of certain design elements. This is achieved by considering a balance between the cost efficiency of the design elements, and the benefit as supported by peer-reviewed psychological studies.
ResourceSubsidiarity in Action: Effective Biodiversity Conservation and Municipal Innovation
This report examines the important contribution that municipalities can make to biodiversity conservation in Alberta where amendments to the Municipal Government Act empower, and indeed require, Alberta’s municipalities to enhance their environmental protection efforts. An examination of these changes, assessed using the principles of subsidiarity, environmental governance, and biocultural diversity, reveals that municipalities, both large and small, urban and rural, can innovate with novel legal initiatives to improve their biodiversity related conservation actions. Concurrently, while municipal innovation is possible, improving local biodiversity conservation action also requires innovations in funding, citizen engagement, and regional environmental governance. Municipalities are already recognized contributors to biodiversity conservation and great strides have been made at the municipal level to increase habitat connectivity. Current municipal conservation efforts need to be augmented to harness new statutory powers, capitalize on local knowledge and initiative, and enhance citizen education and engagement.
ResourceLaws for Landlords and Tenants in Alberta
The Residential Tenancies Legal Information Program operates the Laws for Landlords and Tenants in Alberta website, which provides plain language information on housing law in Alberta. Staff also conduct presentations across the province on landlord and tenant rights, answer reference questions, and develop information booklets and sample agreements.
ResourceCanadian Rental Housing Index
The Index is a comprehensive database that compiles rental housing statistics for cities, regions, and provinces across Canada. See how much rent Canadians are paying in different parts of the country, compare affordability measures and find out where residents are overcrowded and severely overspending on housing.
ResourceEvict Radon
Canada contains many radon gas-generating regions and, because we have constructed population centres across all of them, radon is the primary cause of lung cancer in 10,000- 40,000 Canadians per decade. We have conducted detailed radon gas analysis of 11,000+ homes spread across Alberta and Saskatchewan, finding that 1 in 6 contain hazardous amounts of radon with newer homes in many regions (but not all) having much higher total radon. We have revealed an unknown “X factor” within environmental design practice across regions that is a major contributor to radon exposure, and our goal now is to understand this and develop solutions to protect the population. We aim to (i) identify modifiable behaviors and environmental design practices influencing chronic radon exposure in our changing world and (ii) define engineering and community intervention solutions applicable within the Canadian context to eliminate radon as a source of cancer in the future.
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Defining Professional Excellence through Research and Engagement
AREA wants to improve the Alberta real estate industry’s understanding of true professional excellence, defining it with statistically relevant, benchmark Alberta consumer research, as well as member and key stakeholder input. Using these publicly released research results, AREA will develop applicable and measurable Standards of Professional Excellence for the Industry.
ResourceCommunity Needs Assessment Study
As a support agency to the social profit sector FuseSocial’s role is to aid other agencies to not only recover from the effects of the 2016 wildfire but improve the quality of life in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. FuseSocial presents the results of this study and other survey series to key stakeholders and funders in order for them to understand the needs of the community and address them. We help other agencies to help the community.