Ready to boost your career? Move forward with the GRI.
The GRI designation takes REALTORS® from professionals to consummate professionals. It can also help you make more money. How? By showing you the industry’s nuances—and helping you understand customers, business and technology.

The GRI curriculum ensures your expertise in a variety of areas:
Business Skills
Market Knowledge
Systems and Tools
Avoiding Setbacks, Fines and Lawsuits
Tennessee REALTORS® has made earning your GRI credits easier than ever before.
Have you already earned your GRI designation?
Are you ready to take the next step?
Master GRI
The Master GRI designation—offered in several states with the blessing of NAR—can solidify your standing as one of the best in our field.Earn Your Master GRI
To earn the GRI Designation…
The Graduate REALTOR® Institute (GRI) program gives students both shorter up-to-date courses and much greater flexibility with choices (through elective options) in how you structure your GRI studies to fit your personal, career, and business goals.
At least 60 total hours of GRI-Accredited courses are required for the GRI designation in Tennessee (including the six required one-day courses). The time to obtain the GRI designation shall be no more than five years to ensure that students are enrolled in a program that is relevant and respectful to trends in the marketplace and technology.
Students must complete all six of the following updated GRI courses in the classroom, each of which is 6 hours long:
This one-day course will focus on the most troubling ethical challenges and concerns that arise in everyday practice, both in the Code of Ethics, and the broader issue of professionalism in practice. In particular, the course will address the effective resolution of conflicts when they arise, and other topics such as confidentiality, inter-agent communication, procuring cause, mediation, and arbitration.
This one-day course will cover common legal pitfalls of all types that are encountered in real estate practice, the most frequent causes of lawsuits, the often misunderstood aspects of agency law, compensation issues in the light of federal and state laws, several Real Estate Commission rules and regulations, and other legal and risk reduction topics – including the penalties for violations of various state and federal laws.
This one-day course will equip students with the skills they need to serve buyers more productively and effectively in today’s market, such as: working with new buyers, counseling them effectively, handling and negotiating offers to purchase, helping buyers secure financing, and getting them through the home inspection, repairs, and settlement procedures.
This one-day course will equip students with the skills they need to serve sellers more productively and effectively in a more challenging environment: your listing/marketing presentation: researching, pricing, and marketing the seller’s property more successfully; communicating with them through the listing period; negotiating on their behalf; and getting them through the home inspection, repairs, and closing.
This one-day course will cover the ins and outs of all of Tennessee REALTORS® standard forms (in their current version) …the forms that are most often needed and used in residential transactions, as well as the most frequent forms – related pitfalls that REALTORS® encounter using them. The goal here is mastery of – and comfort with – the paperwork, as well as sufficient knowledge to explain various forms to customers and clients.
This one-day course will cover business development and networking strategies, with a special focus for most of the course on the smarter practices, communications, and business tools, Internet sites and services and technologies that can enhance participants’ professional products and services.
If you took any GRI courses before 2012 but didn’t complete your requirements for the designation, you will not lose a single hour of GRI credit! Use the following information to learn how your GRI courses that were taken prior to 2012 will be credited in the new program:
Students who took GRI 1: Professionalism in Real Estate will be given credit for:
- GRI 401: Doing Things the Right Way: Ethics & Professionalism (8 hrs.)
- GRI 402: Staying in Business and Out of Court (8 hrs.)
Students who took GRI 2: Smart Marketing will be given credit for:
- GRI 403: Working with Buyers More Effectively (8 hrs.)
- GRI 404: Working with Sellers More Effectively (8 hrs.)
Students who took GRI 3: Financing the Successful Transaction will be given credit for:
- 16 hrs. of GRI Elective Credit
Students who took GRI 4: From Offer to Contract to Closing will be given credit for:
- GRI 405: Mastering Forms and Contracts (8 hrs.)
- …and 8 hours of Elective Credit
Students who took GRI 5: Systems for Success will be given credit for:
- GRI 406: Tips, Tools, & technologies for your Business (8 hrs.)
Students who took GRI 6: Sticky Situations will be given credit for:
- 16 hrs. of Elective Credit
The above class requirements total 36 hours. To earn the remaining 24 hours of GRI Elective Credits, students may:
- Submit proof of fifteen (15) completed transactions – Transactions completed under a team require a letter from the Principal Broker affirming the applicant’s role in the contract’s closing.
- Complete a TREEF-approved company-based training program
- Earn at least 24 hours of credits through any combination of the following (can be taken online or in-person):
- CE-accredited sessions taken at Tennessee REALTORS® Tennessee Excel Summit (TNEx) and Annual Conventions, since January 1, 2012
- At Home with Diversity (AHWD)
- Accredited Buyer’s Representation (ABR®) Core Course
- ABR Elective: Generation Buy
- ABR Elective: Marketing Reboot
- ABR Elective: New Home Construction & Buyer Representation – Professional, Product, Process
- ABR Elective: Successful Relocation Representation
- Pricing Strategies: Mastering the CMA
- e-Pro® Day 1 & Day 2
- CRB: Seller Representations Specialist (SRS) Designation Course
- CRB: Marketing Strategies that Deliver Results
- CRS: Business Planning & Marketing
- CRS: Listings (201), Sales (202), or Referrals (210)
- Military Relation Professional (MRP) Certification Course
- NAR’s Green Designation Day 1 & Day 2
- NAR’s Code of Ethics Training
- Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource (SFR®)
- Seller Representative Specialist® (SRS®)
- Seniors Real Estate Specialist® (SRES®)
- WCR: Effective Negotiating for Real Estate Professionals
- Real Estate Collaborative Specialist-Divorce: RCS-D, 12-hour course (partnered with Vanderbilt University Law School) this professional designation is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Association of REALTORS®.
- Real Estate Negotiation Expert (RENE) certification
2023 Classroom Course Locations and Courses being offered
Memphis Area Assn. of REALTORS®, 6393 Poplar Avenue, Memphis 38119
- GRI 401 – April 12:
- GRI 402 – April 13:
- GRI 403 – April 14:
- GRI 404 – October 4 :
- GRI 405 – October 5:
- GRI 406 – October 6:
Middle Tennessee Association of REALTORS®, 311 Butler Dr. Murfreesboro, TN 37127
- TBD
Greater Nashville REALTORS®, 4540 Trousdale Dr., Nashville 37204
April:
- Bundle for all 3 classes (401 – 403):
- April 12 – GRI 401:
- April 13 – GRI 402:
- April 14 – GRI 403:
October:
- Bundle for all 3 classes (404 – 406):
- October 2 – GRI 404:
- October 3 – GRI 405:
- October 4 – GRI 406:
River Counties Assn. of REALTORS®, 2070 Candies Ln. NW, Cleveland TN 37312
- February 28 – GRI 404:
- April 20 – GRI 405:
- June 12 – GRI 406:
Knoxville Area. Assn. of REALTORS®, 609 Weisgarber Road, Knoxville 37919
- TBD
Williamson County Assn. of REALTORS®, 1646 Westgate Circle #104, Brentwood 37027
To register please call (615) 771-6845
- TBD
Greater Chattanooga REALTORS®, 2963 Amnicola Hwy., Chattanooga 37406
Please call (423) 698-8001 for details.
April:
- April 20 – GRI 402:
May:
- May 25 – GRI 403:
August:
- August 18 – GRI 404:
September:
- September – GRI 405:
October:
- October – GRI 406:
Clarksville Assn. of REALTORS®, 115 Center Pointe Dr., Clarksville
To register, please call (931) 552-3567
- TBD
Eastern Middle TN Assn. of REALTORS®, 2588 N. Mt. Juliet Rd, Mt. Juliet 37122
- February 10 – GRI 404:
- March 24 – GRI 405:
- April 7 – GRI 406:
- August 18 – GRI 401:
- September 15 – GRI 402:
- October 12 – GRI 403:
Lakeway Area Association of REALTORS®, PO Box 1815 Morristown, TN 37816
Instructor: Susan Barnette
No courses scheduled at this time.
Attendees can register by calling LAAR at 423-587-2266
Great Smoky Mountains Association of REALTORS®, 1109 Glennhill Ln. Servierville, TN 37862
- March 21 – GRI 401:
- March 22 – GRI 402:
- April 25 – GRI 403:
- April 26 – GRI 404:
- May 23 – GRI 405:
- May 24 – GRI 406:
An application fee of $35 will apply to the following. At least 60 hours of approved GRI courses are required for the designation. Course 401-406 covers 36 of those hours. You must have 24 hours of elective course credit. OR, if you have completed 15 real estate transactions, that will cover your elective credit. (Attaching an MLS printout of those transactions along with this application will serve as proof. Please use the provided file attachment on the form.) Required courses below must be completed within a five-year period. (These classes were 8 hours each prior to 2014.)
*For any classes and designations that were taken after June 2022, please attach proof of completion from CE Broker. For more information on CE Broker, please visit the TREC website.