MIAMI BEACH-Twenty-eight-year-old Chad Carroll, luxury sales director for Douglas Elliman here, has already been around the block. With the firm for 18 months now, he's also served time with another multifamily firm and a commercial shop as well. In addition, out of school (he graduated from Long Island's Hofstra University in 2007 with a marketing and business management degree), he spent time in the aerospace industry.

All of that experience, of course, informs his current profession. But when it comes to specific training, other than actually learning by feel in the trenches, Carroll relies on professional certifications. An active member of the Realtor Association on Miami Beach, part of the National Association of Realtors, Carroll has a string of professional designations, including professional buyer representative and professional seller representative.

He says he discovered the training sessions as a matter of necessity. “It started for me in 2008,” he recalls . “The market was terrible, all the property was distressed and I was trying to figure out how to make money. I realized I needed to learn about short sales and foreclosures because that's what everyone wanted. No one was buying luxury homes then.”