About CDRE Hawaii

Judy Howard is the founder of CDRE Hawaii, and a Master CDRE. All Certified Divorce Real Estate Experts have training in bias, neutrality and communication; divorce finance; a divorce listing process that has proven to be much more effective than that generally followed by traditional realtors for divorce listings; and in their Code of Ethics,  which is significantly more restrictive than that of the National Association of Realtors. Traditional Realtors are very unlikely to have training in any of these areas.

The CDRE Code of Ethics prohibits CDREs from representing buyers in any transaction where they represent the sellers in a divorce listing, accepting referral fees for referring buyers to another agent, or representing either of the divorcing parties in a separate transaction before the listing closes. These restrictions are designed to ensure that CDREs place their selling clients’ interests first and foremost, and are not influenced by the opportunity to profit from a transaction that may be in conflict with the sellers’ best interests. Traditional realtors are not precluded from engaging in any of these practices.

Master CDREs also participate in close to 50 hours a year of continuing education, have access to a slack channel that provides tremendous support when novel issues arises, and also offer engaging and informative CLEs through the Raising The Bar program.

All family law attorneys have encountered situations in which one seller believes that the realtor is siding with the opposing party, or acting out of self interest, rather than diligently and fairly representing both sellers. CDREs have been trained to mitigate those concerns.

Most family attorneys have also been involved in cases in which only one party is on title, but the court requires that the interests of both parties be taken into account. Real Estate agents, and escrow companies, may only represent titled individuals. However, CDREs employ a series of steps to ensure that the non-titled party is consulted and kept informed during the sale process.

Many family law attorneys may have had clients who signed a listing agreement with an agent only to have that agent later take on a buyer for the property as a client. At that point, the client can no longer look to the listing agent for guidance and, since it is likely that the sellers are not cooperating well, may have no one to turn to except counsel. I know clients are not pleased to have to pay their attorneys for advice when they will also be paying the listing agent a commission! The CDRE Code of Ethics prevents such conflicts of interest.

While CDREs vary in their willingness to accept listings, I will only accept listings for which both parties are represented by counsel, and I have a Compass Agent available to assist me with pricing, showing, and inspections. Fortunately, I have excellent agents I work with across the state.

If CDRE Hawaii does not seem like a good fit for your clients, I highly recommend seeking out another CDRE to assist with the listing of property. Here’s a list of CDREs [https://www.ilumniinstitute.com/directory] I can recommend Pam Maeda in particular. Pam’s phone number is (808) 284-5545 and her email address is [email protected]