Not every real estate agent is a REALTOR®, and the difference is more than a title. REALTOR® is a registered trademark of the National Association of REALTORS®, and it’s only used by members who’ve agreed to a formal Code of Ethics, something a state real estate license alone doesn’t require. For a region as spread out as the Highland Lakes, working with someone bound to that standard, and who actually covers the whole region instead of one corner of it, is worth understanding before you pick an agent.
I’m Robbie English, Broker and REALTOR® for Uncommon Highland Lakes Realty, working across all ten Highland Lakes towns: Marble Falls, Horseshoe Bay, Kingsland, Granite Shoals, Cottonwood Shores, Burnet, Sunrise Beach Village, Meadowlakes, Highland Haven, and Sherwood Shores.
What the REALTOR® Designation Actually Means
The National Association of REALTORS® Code of Ethics runs seventeen articles covering duties to clients, to the public, and to other REALTORS®. It’s not a one-time signature: every member has to complete 2.5 hours of ethics training on a recurring three-year cycle (the current cycle runs from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2027), plus fair housing and anti-bias training on the same schedule. A complaint against a REALTOR® for violating the Code can be heard by a professional standards committee and result in real discipline, up to losing the designation. That’s a layer of accountability a real estate license by itself doesn’t carry.
Credentials Beyond the Base Designation
Being a REALTOR® is the floor, not the ceiling. Beyond that base membership, I’ve earned the following advanced certifications and designations through the National Association of REALTORS® and its affiliated institutes:
- Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR)
- At Home With Diversity Certified (AHWD)
- Certified Residential Brokerage Manager (CRB)
- Commitment to Excellence Endorsement (C2EX)
- E-PRO Certified
- Graduate, REALTOR® Institute (GRI)
- Military Relocation Professional (MRP)
- New Home Construction Certified (NHC)
- Pricing Strategy Advisor Certified (PSA)
- Real Estate Negotiation Expert (RENE)
- REALTORS® Property Resource Certified (RPR)
- Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource (SFR)
- Seller Representative Specialist (SRS)
- Texas Buyer Specialist Certified (TBS)
- Texas Listing Specialist Certified (TLS)
- Texas Affordable Housing Specialist (TAHS)
Several of those (ABR, MRP, PSA, SRS, TBS, and TLS) I’m also certified to teach as a national instructor, which means I don’t just hold the designation, I train other agents on the material behind it. See my full bio for the current, verified list of active designations.
Why That Matters Across Ten Towns
A designation like PSA (Pricing Strategy Advisor) or RENE (Real Estate Negotiation Expert) is only as useful as the market data behind it. Applying pricing strategy training to a market I only half-know would be a hollow credential. Working all ten Highland Lakes towns instead of one means the training actually has current, region-wide data to work with: comps on Lake LBJ, comps on Lake Marble Falls, and comps for inland towns like Burnet, all current at the same time.
About Robbie English
I’ve spent more than 40 years in real estate, and since 2016 I’ve traveled the country as a national real estate instructor, teaching agents and brokers on contracts, negotiation, ethics, and pricing strategy, several of them the same courses tied to the designations above.
If the REALTOR® designation and the standards behind it matter to you as much as they matter to me, let’s talk about your Highland Lakes purchase or sale. Call or text 830-953-5571, or reach out to my team.
