As for RTB, I agree to a point. Education is ALWAYS a good thing – however we really should define WHAT degrees would best suit real estate professionals as well as what “professionalism” actually means in our business (I can give examples of unprofessional AND professional behavior).

With a sociology and psychology education with a minor in the science of geology, I can say for certain those have helped tremendously in my real estate practice. With a number of years in the general business sector, that has also helped tremendously. Do agents need specific degrees, or would a liberal arts degree with a major in English suffice? Should agents go after an undergrad degree that focuses on real estate instead? I haven’t seen enough discussion on the particulars so feel free to fill me in with links to sources if you have ‘em!

To work full-time takes massive commitment and a heck of a lot of work. Those who don’t have a diversified income stream often have a supporting spouse or full time job that may be flexible enough for them to carry a small number of listings, where they may only represent the seller, not buyers. Buyers take a lot more time than sellers because of previewing houses and checking out which home may suit them based on their criteria. While listings take time to advertise and to discuss with the seller, the time spent simply isn’t the same as with buyers.

I’ve heard the argument many times that real estate sales should be along the lines of physician training (disagree), dentist training (disagree), accountant training (possibly on the CPA level) and/or lawyer training (possibly). However – can someone sell property without substantial training? Yes, if the transaction is simple enough to warrant only training done via the state requirements and whatever minimal training is done by the brokerage.

If there were scholarships available for further training, we may have a completely different economic class of folks getting into the game. If people budget wisely and don’t enter the business prior to being well-funded for the business, then we’d also have a completely different economic class of folks coming into the business.

I would say as well that the current climate could be different than 5 years ago based on the different issues facing a sale coming to closing. With short sales and foreclosures being 50% of my area’s local sales, and the time it takes to market, many were not aware of the variables inherent in such sales, with their income dipping substantially due to lower commission with short sales and with the time it takes to close them. If not prepared with knowledge about such sales, people may find themselves earning up to 50% less than years prior. Is it any wonder then that people turn to supplemental income? However if agents put an additional 4 – 5 hours a day doing targeted marketing, they may well make as much per month as they make at a full time job. Remember also though, full time work often includes benefits that are a bit difficult to give up for a Realtor’s family. Balancing act? Certainly. But much more needs to change within the economy and outside of the specific educational requirements people are advocating for agents to make a good living selling real estate and taking care of many, many clients. It’s easy for someone who doesn’t work in the field to make statements about raising the bar… let’s put people back to work IN the field and see how things shape up, eh?

I don’t disagree, but it seems to me that – given how FINANCIALLY SIGNIFICANT a home sale or purchase is to MOST people, I think the public deserves better…MUCH better.

Your suggestion is a good one given the current condition of the industry. I’m saying the current condition of the industry needs to change…in a huge way.

And thanks for your comment – we appreciate it!

Best,
Michael

This comment was originally posted on Real Estate Investing For Real | A BiggerPockets Investment Property Blog

2 – Individual brokerages make the most money off of their part-time agents. Full time agents doing 30-40 transactions a year might be on an 80%,85%, or 90% split. Part-timers may be on as low as a 50% split. Plus, part-timers require less financial overhead (desk space, tying up assistants’s time, etc.) Therefore, the very companies that dominate the industry find it against their financial interests to raise the bar.

Welcome to the blog team too!

This comment was originally posted on Real Estate Investing For Real | A BiggerPockets Investment Property Blog