Tools, educational opportunities and an abundance of networking events are among the new benefits real estate professionals will enjoy through a new alliance between the North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors (NSBAR) and Northern Illinois Commercial Association of Realtors (NICAR).

The two real estate associations recently announced they’re teaming up to make a variety of services available to each others’ members, such as:

• Cross-promoting educational opportunities and networking events and making available discounts to members of each group.
• Helping raise awareness of both groups by promoting each other on their respective websites and allowing each other’s members access to online tools and resources.
• Making NICAR standard commercial contracts and forms available to NSBAR members.

NSBAR CEO Jeff Lasky tells Chicago Agent magazine that many of his association’s members work in both residential and commercial real estate. “We researched it and decided that the most efficient way to serve these members is to have a strategic alliance with NICAR,” he said in a telephone interview.

The primary goal of the alliance for NICAR is education, according to Bruce Heller, president of the NICAR Board of Directors. “Our goal from the beginning of our conversations about working together, was the added benefit of bringing a better understanding of the commercial real estate world to the members that we are serving jointly,” he said as a guest in a recent episode of “Raising the NSBAR,” a weekly video podcast produced by the association and hosted by Lasky.

Jim Schiefelbein, NSBAR director of marketing and communications, said the next goal is to explore the potential synergies that can be created through the partnership. “How do we hold crossover events and offer educational opportunities? There are a lot of educational opportunities that NICAR offers that NSBAR doesn’t, and there are a lot that NSBAR offers that NICAR doesn’t,” he said.

Heller said the ultimate goal is providing better representation to clients of members of both associations. He looks forward to a time, possibly later this year, when members of both groups can meet in person and “hold a joint program between NICAR and NSBAR and be able to meet and start the process of commercial education and mentoring,” he said.