Realtors really do suck. their only redeeming quality is that they don’t qualify for unemployment when they don’t sell houses.

I go out to a bar with my pals and what do I see? The last realtor I decided not to hire I later found dancing tables topless. I think that was her true calling.

1) Less than 2 years of college, then you need to take 2 semesters specifically about real estate law, ethics etc…then pass a rigorous test.
2) 2 years of college…then you need to take 1 semester of classes about real estate law, ethics etc….then pass a rigorous test.
3) and so on

I was over in The Netherlands discussing real estate with a friend who is a Borker there and she was shocked at how easy it is here. In the Netherlands you have to get a “degree” towards real estate and learn about law, ethics, history, construction, architecture etc.

At a minimum I would be all for upping the requirements some.

A popular thing in my neck of the woods is people doing real estate extremely part time or just to be able to buy a home and safe some money.

Another thing that is very smart for contractors to do is get their license and then hire little helpers to help sell and they can save tons of money! or make tons more money, which ever way you view it.

Agreed 100%.

Pound away.

I hate to pound on brokers… but the broker level is where the problems begin… not necessarily new licensee’s.

An issue with paying wages is that also entails having a payroll system, withholding state and federal taxes, paying unemployment, etc. There’s a TON of work involved with having employees vs. independent contractors. I have a background in HR, so I could probably pull it off — at least well enough to cover myself and my employees from a legal perspective. But there are countless brokers out there with no clue about things like employment law, ADA guidelines, UI, etc. etc.

Personally, I’m not going to have new agents in my brokerage. Sure, everyone has to start sometime, and there are some brand new agents that are better than some established agents. I just don’t have the time of infrastructure in place to properly train and mentor a new agent. So I won’t do it. Oh, believe me, the thought of going to a real estate school and signing up dozens of agents, all paying in desk fees, transaction fees, whatever fees has some attraction. It’s practically free money (which is a significant part of the problem). But I’m not going to do it. I don’t want the headache, the liability or the hassle. And more importantly, it’s not fair to the new agent, or their clients.

I’ve already turned away far more agents than I’ve hired. And I’ll continue doing that. We’re being *very* selective in who we bring in. That doesn’t make me better than any other broker, just different than most.

I guess my biggest beef in all this is listening to many RE people ‘bitch’ about this problem (and I don’t mean you Jay). I’m on various leadership committee’s at the local and state level and I hear this ‘what are we going to do about X’ all the time. The truth of the matter is… yes we want to ensure that our industry attracts people to it that will serve the best interests of the client… but actually reaching some kind of accord to see it happen?? It won’t happen… we are too complacent in OUR OWN way of doing the business (whatever that may be).

Easy for me to say… but all this is on the brokers… especially those that hire multiple licensees under our current system. I see it as being a numbers game to many brokers, quantity over quality… danger in other words.

Brokers need to get their collective act together (again, easy for me to say as a lowly agent). Brokers are actually on the front lines of this problem and until there is movement and actual effort made there… forget any solutions beyond.