Prudential agent completes prestigious courses

Joyce Tyson, a real estate professional with Prudential Georgia Realty's Lake Chatuge office on Main Street in Hiawassee, has recently completed the course and exam work for two continuing education real estate designations. The first is a designation to better serve the needs of our aging population.

Of the more than 1 million agents who hold a real estate license in this country, Joyce Tyson has just earned a real estate designation held by only one in 10,000 agents. Known as the Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES) designation, it's offered by the Senior Advantage Real Estate Council (SAREC). Based in California, the SAREC helps Realtors do target marketing to this population group as well as providing agents with special reports geared toward seniors' concerns with buying and selling residential real estate.

Joyce earned the designation so she could be better informed about assisting older Americans with making wise decisions when it comes to selling a family home, buying rental property, or managing capital gains and other tax implications. According to the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, the number of people age 65 and older in Georgia is growing twice as fast as the growth rate estimated for younger individuals.

As of 2002, there were more than a half million seniors in the metro Atlanta area, a group large enough that it would be among the 25 largest cities in the U.S. and that number is steadily rising. In the North Georgia area, 26.6 percent of the population is over 65 in Towns County and, in Union County, that number is 22.6 percent.

Joyce's second designation is the Certified Skilled Negotiator (CSN). This designation is exclusive to Prudential Georgia Realty. Its requirements include a two-part course in which participants learn 13 ways to add more power to negotiating skills, the seven criteria sellers use to select a good negotiating listing agent, the five mistakes home buyers make in negotiating, how to present multiple offers, how to juggle counter offers, how to deal with unreasonable parties and numerous other negotiating techniques.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay area, Joyce has also lived in North Carolina and now the Hiawassee area. Prior to entering real estate in 2005, she worked in child welfare and holds Masters degrees in both Social Work and Psychology. Still an advocate for children's rights, Joyce volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children (CASA).

"I have moved from finding the best homes for children to finding the best homes for families and the best buyers for homes," says Joyce Tyson.

She concentrates on residential real estate in the North Georgia region. Professionally, Joyce is a member of the Northeast Georgia Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.

To reach her for more information on the local real estate market, please call Joyce Tyson at 706-896-9600 or visit www.JoyceTyson.PrudentialGeorgia.com to conduct a complete search of more than 100,000 available properties in metro Atlanta.

Prudential Georgia Realty (www.PrudentialGeorgia.com) is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, a full-service residential and commercial real estate network with offices throughout the United States and Canada. Ranked by Real Estate Magazine as one of the top 100 real estate companies in the United States, the company placed 36th for most 2006 transactions in the real estate trade magazine's 2007 Power Broker Report.

For the last four consecutive years, Prudential Georgia Realty has been honored with a Consumers' Choice Award as Best in Class for Executive Home Sales in metro Atlanta. The firm set another sales record in 2006 with nearly $3 billion in gross real estate sales and broke the 10,000 real estate transaction mark for the second time in its 43-year history. The company has 25 locations in metro Atlanta and North Georgia and 1,500+ Realtors ready to assist families with their real estate needs.