Maybe real estate is so easy to enter because the work is difficult once they start. However, the class required to take the exam does not help people understand how to deal with real estate transactions, sales techniques, negotiations, how to show the house, and more.
A College Credit Class
When agents first look for offices, they are usually promised further education. However, they rarely accept it. Most classes are seminars and conventions where agents pay handsomely to get whatever money they take until the next commission. For new agents, there is usually not enough money in their savings to pay a $ 300 short sale class that offers a “certificate” that is nothing more than a printed “feeling” done “feeling paper. Why not make it a college credit class?
New agents were shown around the office, introduced to people, then led to their desks to find out for themselves. They really don’t know anything unless they have a mentor who takes them under their wing, but that rarely happens.
There are times when the real estate market gets good and at that point, flocks of people get their real estate license and get into the business. Any mid-sized office can hold meetings just for the new people because the new agents are always coming aboard. The part-time agents go home and are rarely even seen, other than at the occasional “mandatory” meeting.
Hobby Career
Many of the part-time agents that are new just want to make a little extra money. It sounds like a really nice hobby if it didn’t involve contracts ranging in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Besides that obvious fact, their hobby career has two other flaws: The first is that they almost never know what they’re doing because they don’t actually practice selling real estate. They only make transactions when they fall on their laps, like when a friend or family member wants to buy or sell. Second, they take business from agents who work full time in business, who have more experience and take the job seriously.
The Right Education
With a degree, homeowners will be sure that their agent has the right education to make their transactions safe and legal. Why are people only asked to take a few classes and one exam to handle the biggest financial affairs in someone else’s life? It seems like an associate’s degree would be fitting for a real estate agent and bachelors would be fitting for a broker–as a minimum.
