Our instructors

Sam Martin, PhD, DREI, MOT has completed his Ph.D. in Education (specialization in Educational Technology) at a distance from Walden University. Sam’s research includes ethics instruction and pedagogy. Sam is one of 500+/- Certified Uniform Standards of Professional Practice (USPAP) instructors worldwide. He holds the North Carolina Certified Residential Real Estate Appraisal, North Carolina Real Estate Broker, North Carolina Pre-license Educator and Post-license Educator, North Carolina CE Instructor, and Illinois Real Estate Prelicense Educator, and Illinois Real Estate CE Educator licenses. Sam has been teaching appraisal and real estate classes since 1988. He has taught for a variety of institutions, most recently: Superior Real Estate School, The Chicago Association of Realtors, and Realtor University (online).

Sam has written an advanced appraisal text book used in certification courses. He is a professor at Realtor University, and develops advanced valuation courses as part of a course design team for Realtor University.

Sam has the DREI designation: Distinguished Real Estate Instructor from the Real Estate Educators Association. There are fewer than 100 DREIs in the US.

Sam has taken advanced educational technology courses from the University of Calgary (at a distance), workshops from Sloan-C (the Sloan-Consortium, now known as the Online Learning Consortium), and the Illinois Online Network (ION), where he received the Master Online Teacher (MOT) certificate. Sam holds the CDEI designation from IDECC (www.idecc.org).

Sam, as his alter-ego Haviland Uriza, spoke on a panel concerning Land Valuation at the OpenMLS Metaverse Conference. This conference was virtual, and was held in Second Life™. He also appeared on a panel for the International Online Conference (IOC), addressing issues of online learners and instructors. Sam has presented at the Faculty Summer Institute (FSI) on the subject: Web 2.0: Integrating Facebook, Ning and a Learning Management System (2009).

The Real Estate Education Foundation (REEF) has awarded Sam the Academic Scholarship for the 2009-2010, 2010-2011, and 2014-2015 academic years. Sam has won four grants from the Association of Illinois Real Estate Educators (AIREE), and three Higher Education Scholarships from the Chicago Association of Realtors Education Foundation.

Sam has fought appraisal- and mortgage-fraud his entire professional life, and has performed investigations for the State of Illinois. He is a member of the Illinois Coalition of Appraisal Professionals (ICAP), and the Real Estate Educators Association (REEA). Sam is the Immediate Past President of the Association of Illinois Real Estate Educators (AIREE.org) which awarded him their prestigious Educator of the Year Award for 2014. Sam is on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Association of the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (IAECT).