A real estate professional can explore luxury-focused education through The Institute before deciding whether a performance-based designation is the right next step. The highest-priced tenth of residential sales in the defined local market area is the top 10% of local sales. That measure can help you judge whether your completed sales fit a luxury market standard.
This page helps agents compare training, membership, credentials, and professional resources. Completing a course can build skills, but it does not by itself meet the separate sales threshold for CLHMS. Your choice may shape how you serve clients and plan your career.
Start by identifying whether your priority is new skills, a professional network, or recognition for completed sales.
Key Takeaways
- Training and a performance-based designation are separate goals.
- Luxury Online is a self-paced course with a six-month completion window.
- Membership offers access to market information, learning, and networking tools.
- CLHMS requires both Institute training and qualifying closed sales.
- Other luxury credentials may suit different business or education goals.
What Does the Luxury Home Marketing Institute Offer?
The Institute pairs luxury real estate training with membership, resources, and opportunities to pursue professional designations. Its courses focus on the skills agents use with affluent clients and higher-priced properties. Training first can give you useful practice before you decide whether to pursue a credential.
Luxury Online is an eight-hour, self-paced course with 15 online modules and six months to finish. The lessons cover affluent-client needs, listing marketing, buyer outreach, and clear transactions. Registrants receive one year of Institute membership when they complete the course.
Completing training does not award CLHMS; the designation also requires qualifying sales and a separate application.
The Institute presents CLHMS, GUILD, and GUILD ELITE as professional credentials. Each name points to a different recognition path, so review the details that match your goals. The Institute is not tied to one real estate brand.
Training and Membership
Membership is open worldwide to licensed real estate agents, NAHB members, and ICREA-affiliated sales agents who complete the Luxury Home Marketing Training course and pay current annual dues. You can explore luxury real estate with colleagues across brands, not just agents from one franchise.
Affluent buyers may care about architecture, interiors, and how people live in exceptional homes. For visual context, browse luxury homes and design, which explores residences rather than Institute training.
The course is designed for practical work: marketing a higher-priced listing, reaching likely buyers, and serving clients through transparent transactions. Check that your professional eligibility and preferred learning format fit the course before registering.
What Does Training and Membership Cost?
Luxury Online costs $545, annual Institute dues are $295 in 2026, and applying for CLHMS has no fee. Keep the charges distinct: course registration includes the initial membership period, while annual dues apply separately after that period.
Annual dues are nonrefundable and nontransferable. The renewal date falls on the last day of the anniversary month when you completed designation training or a previous renewal. Accounts more than 30 days overdue may face a $50 reinstatement charge, late fees, or both.
Course Formats and Listed Prices
Luxury Online registration is $545. The following Century 21 options list the same price, with a displayed special price of $495 for each. Those prices describe the listed training options, not the separate annual dues.
| Course | Format | Duration | Listed price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury Online | Self-paced online | 8 hours | $545 |
| Century 21 standard live training | Live instructor | 2 days | $545; special $495 |
| Century 21 standard on-demand | Online | 8 hours | $545; special $495 |
| Century 21 advanced | Online | 4 hours | $545; special $495 |
The Century 21 standard live and on-demand classes do not require luxury sales for the membership education requirement. Its advanced online class does require luxury sales. The Institute typically includes the initial membership period, usually one year, in training cost; some franchise relationships provide two years.
Missing more than 30 minutes of training means you do not receive membership. The CLHMS application itself has no charge, while annual dues are $295 in 2026.
Membership Renewals and Cancellations
Training cancellation refunds depend on how far ahead you give notice. The event date sets the refund and credit available:
- At least 14 calendar days before: full refund, less a $15 credit-card surcharge.
- From 13 to three calendar days before: 50% refund, with the remaining 50% held as credit.
- Fewer than three calendar days before, or a no-show: no refund, with 50% of the registration fee held as credit.
Keep the event date and any cancellation notice together, since the refund amount depends on when notice arrives.
How Do You Qualify for the CLHMS Designation?
CLHMS is awarded only after an agent completes the training and documents three qualifying closed sales that meet the local top-10% threshold. The timing matters: all three sales must close within the 24 months before you apply.
Each qualifying sale must be a closed single-family residential transaction in the top 10% of the local market area. An individual townhome or condo unit can count. Multifamily properties, unimproved land, lots, multiple lots, and commercial properties do not qualify.
The Transaction Standard
You may count a sale when you acted as the seller’s agent, buyer’s agent, or co-agent. If you represented both sides, that transaction counts only once. The application also requires completed Institute training, supporting documents for review, and active membership in good standing.
The Institute reviews your records before awarding the designation. Keep clear closing details for each property, including the sale date, property type, price, and your role. That makes it easier to show that each sale meets the rule.
Using the CLHMS Name and Logo
Training alone does not permit you to use the CLHMS designation or logo. Only active Institute members in good standing who have earned CLHMS may use them. The mark must clearly refer to the individual designee, not an entire team.
Write CLHMS in capital letters without periods after an individual’s name. A team may place it after a list of names only if every person listed earned the designation. The CLHMS name and logo rules also bar use in email addresses and internet domain names.
In the Institute member directory, make sure your profile identifies the individual who holds the designation. A See Full Profile link should lead to that person’s profile, not suggest that every team member has earned CLHMS. Ask a broker or compliance lead to review team bios before publication.
What Tools and Market Information Do Members Get?
Members have access to monthly market reporting, marketing tools, continuing education, and a professional network. These tools support different tasks, from tracking broad conditions to staying visible between client meetings.
Luxury Market Reports arrive monthly and cover more than 150 active luxury markets across the United States and Canada. Members can also access free continuing education through McKissock Learning. Use each resource for its intended purpose rather than treating a broad report as a local pricing opinion.
Market Reports and Marketing Tools
Four member resources can support your daily work:
- Monthly Luxury Market Reports covering more than 150 active markets.
- McKissock Learning courses for continuing education.
- ACESocial, with weekly automated social posts and customized landing pages.
- The Institute Network, an online community for luxury real estate professionals.
ACESocial can help maintain a regular marketing rhythm, while customized landing pages give interested clients a focused place to learn more. The Institute Network supports peer connections that can extend beyond your local office.
Member Networking and Related Learning
The Institute member directory lets you compare professional profiles and see how agents describe their work. A profile can help you find relevant experience or a possible contact, but it does not guarantee skill or results. Use See Full Profile to review the individual details, not as proof of a team-wide credential.
The Luxury Institute is a separate provider of client-relationship courses, not a membership benefit from The Institute. In 2026, its two online courses each cost $345 with the Self-Mastery System workbook included. The standalone workbook costs $75.
| Offering | Format | Workbook | 2026 price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mastery of HNW Client Relationships | Online | Included | $345 |
| Mastery of Client Relationships | Online | Included | $345 |
| Self-Mastery System workbook | Standalone workbook | The offering itself | $75 |
The Institute’s own article about CLHMS reports member benefits and events, including an average annual income claim of $291,597, without explaining its method. Read that CLHMS benefits article as the organization’s account, not independent research.
Pair a broad market report with current local comps before using it to advise a client.
Which Other Luxury Real Estate Credentials Should You Compare?
Compare Coldwell Banker Global Luxury’s transaction-based specialist path with RRC’s classroom learning and CRS credit, based on the credential you need. The best fit depends on whether you want sales recognition or structured study.
Coldwell Banker Global Luxury’s Luxury Property Specialist certification requires a course and three qualifying transactions within 24 months. The earliest sale must fall within three years of the latest certification course. Its top-10% test uses sales in the listing ZIP code.
Coldwell Banker Global Luxury
This certification follows a transaction-based path for affiliated agents. The sales test uses the top 10% of sales in the property’s listing ZIP code, rather than the defined local market area used for CLHMS.
The Global Luxury Learning Collective is available to affiliated agents with active Institute membership. Agents who recently completed the Global Luxury certification course receive a complimentary two-year membership and immediate access.
These requirements make affiliation and sale records key points to compare. If you work with a team, check which agents meet the course and transaction standards before describing someone as a luxury expert.
RRC Luxury Homes Certification
The Residential Real Estate Council delivers the Luxury Homes Certification listed by NAR. It provides eight credit hours toward the CRS Designation. This is a course-based credential path, not a designation based on a stated sales threshold.
RRC’s Succeeding in the Luxury Home Market is an eight-credit classroom course. It covers luxury-market research, pricing, marketing plans, and negotiation tactics. These lessons may suit agents seeking classroom practice and CRS credit.
Coldwell Banker’s course is specific to affiliated agents, while the RRC class offers course credit toward CRS. For broader career planning, this guide to additional income streams covers ways professionals can build income beyond one business source.
A credential describes a defined course or sales standard; it does not promise client results or prove every team member’s skill.
Match the credential to your goal, and confirm affiliation requirements before choosing a course.
Conclusion
The right next step depends on whether you need new marketing skills or recognition for completed luxury sales. Training can strengthen your work with clients, while a performance-based designation requires separate qualification. Choose the gap you want to address first.
If you want practice, explore a course. If you want to compare professionals, review a member profile and its individual credentials. You can also consider how another income source fits your real estate business and career plans.
Choose a course or credential path, then use the Institute’s training calendar or member directory to take the next step.
FAQ
Can an individual condo sale count toward CLHMS?
Can a buyer’s agent count a transaction toward CLHMS?
Can I use CLHMS after completing the training but before earning the designation?
What happens if I cancel training one week before the event?
How long do I have to finish Luxury Online?
Can CLHMS appear in an agent’s email address or website domain?
