I completely agree that a college degree should be required to practice real estate. It is too easy to get your license and this creates a "earn as you learn" reality. This reality means that only a minority of real estate agents and loan officers are truly capable of doing their jobs. It is commonplace for lawsuits to be filed against real estate agents and their brokerage houses. I believe that more and more loan officers and brokers will face lawsuits for "errors and omissions" with respect to the financial products that they place clients in. So much advice regarding a client’s financial life is bandied about with very little research and disclosure regarding the details of loan products and their suitability for the clients long term needs.
We have a responsibility to know what we are selling out there. More stringent education requirements would make for better loan and real estate agents. This would result in a public that has more respect for the jobs that we do and what we charge our clients for those services.

I concur with much of the sentiment regarding increased requirements to be a real estate agent – BS or BA degree in real estate required (with increased educational requirements for the existing horde while phasing in the degree requirement). Any minimum limit of transactions should have some flexibility such as minimum number or minimum sales dollars. PS – before critiquing the english other agents use one should assure their own blog is grammatically correct.

At the pace this market is headed, I doubt that many agents will last in the industry for too long anyways. It’s very competative out there. I believe if you’re going to be in this business then it better show. Having a system in place that tracks minimum sales or buyer transactions would be great. Education is a plus offering the most benefits but it wouldn’t get ride of the current licensed agents that don’t practice. I have friends that have their license hung in some major company and don’t do a single transaction ever. Broker’s should also be hit with some kind of regulation regarding this issue. Out of 6 homes sold this year, the seller was a licensed real estate agent! Eventually something needs to be done somewhere. I’ve been a licenced Realtor

It really is a joke. I hope the market goes down quite a bit and send the numbskulls back to Home Depot. NAR should require BA Degrees to keep to try and raise the IQ level of real estate agents.

The offers I get is not worth toilet paper. It is embarassing. By the time I counter, i have re-written the whole contract. So, basically you dont need to know a thing when you get your license. PATHETIC!!!!!

70% of the new realtors is not worth ****. Sorry to be so blunt.

What is even more PATHETIC the the New Agencies popping up like “I will Sell Your Home for $1,000 Realty Company”.

Dear Gail in CA – Your loyalty to the Republic of Texas is admirable. I’m a Texas with fierce state pride as well…from Austin actually where the number of agents in the board has reached 9800! Everyone wants in our business because of the tremendous potential it offers. Few however are willing to pay the price, evidenced by the super high turn over rate. After spending over a decade selling in Austin, I now travel the country speaking to and training agents with Floyd Wickman. Here’s one thing I know for sure…as the market continues to change, we’re getting closer to the day when Realtors in mass go back to their "real jobs". And if they don’t…boy do I have a lot of work ahead of me!

PS. Who are "those" people on the border you were referring to?!

It should be more difficult to qualify for the license exam. Meaning more stringent educational requirements and a confirmed ability to write and speak English fluently. I also feel that there should be a minimum number of transactions required to maintain your license as an active agent. Fifty percent of the members of my MLS have sold one or LESS homes this year! If the minimum was as low as 6 think of how many agents would have to go away.

I have been practicing R.E. here for 4 years. Prior to that I was a Top Producer in Texas. To become licensed in Texas, you have to take 8-30 hour courses all broken into everything from Etics, to legal. If you have been to college, the board may give credit for certain classes, which then will allow you to take a few less courses. After you have received your license, you have to do continuing education, every year for the 1st 3 years,you take 1-30 hour course, then afterwards, your required to do what is called MCE and that is a 15 hour course every 3 years then on.
Now with that being said, by the time you get a license and start praticing you are very ready to work, and know what your doing to a certain extent. Most big companies require you to go through an additional training which is about 3 months long.
California is a state all about being fair. Everything and everyone, has to be saved. So life is suppose to be easy in California. I have encountered the most unethical people here. Ethics is not known here, because it is not taught, plus we are to close to the border, and well we all know that those people have no ethics. Lets face it, this state is desperate for people to want to live here, so the goverment makes it easy. So many people could really careless about anything, and what is going on is that people move into this state thinking that there is a lot of money to be made and get licensed,easily, sale homes and then move away. I am here because of the military, not by my choice. My choosen profession and career is R.E. And that is the way it is no matter where I live. I take pride in my etics, and my knowledge of Real Estate. I have never been in it to make a lot of money, just as most doctors choose their career because they are good at it. I am good at it, and take it seriously. So to those agents out there, if your in this just because of a dollar, shame on you. You need to think of the bigger picture, we don’t need you. Go away. California needs to stop making life so easy for things that require ethics, morals, and values. Licensing should require a lot more than it does. Take a look at Texas, california, you think its a state with a lot of Bubbas, well I got news for you. Our education requirements and standards are held to a much higher level than California and just becuase we have an accent, does not mean we do not know what it takes to do a job right. One more point, the law suits in Texas are much lower here than California, ask yourselves why. Once again we know what were doing. Get on board California, you need to wake up and stop thinking about the ole mighty dollar, look where your state is headed.

I agree with you that the State should put a much more stringent requirements for licensing, such as a 4 year college degree and not just an associate degree. It must be a degree in Real Estate. I am from Texas and my understanding from the last class I took that Texas is looking to implement this program.

Not only is it to easy to get a sales license, so is it to easy to get a broker license. I have had brokers work for me, that had low ethics and but very skill to boot. The bar needs to be raised about 3 times higher. This would both protect the industry and the consumer.

The problem as I see it stems from the top. The commissioner of Real Estate in California runs a business based on numbers and fees, his budget is based on applicant fees and renewal fees. Staffing ratios, percs, status all comes from the number of brokers and agents in the system. This week at the annual meeting meeting of our local board of Realtors, Assembyman Tim Lesley said their is a bill that will be voted on next week that makes it mandatory that Agents work in the industry a minimun of 2 years (attorney excluded) prior to recieving their brokers license. The comissioner is recommending that the governor opose this bill because it may cut down on the amont of people seeking a real estate lisense. I remain convinced that requiring additional education is necessary, but I don’t believe that goes far enough. I would like to see a Jouneyman/Apprentice system, where you can’t get a license until a broker or seasoned agent agrees to a one on one mentoring program, with limits on the amount of agents a journeyman could handle. The appraisers recently started a system like this and it seems to be working. The slowing market will take care of things for now but they will all jump back in when the market picks up again.

I really appreciate this Blog! As a Broker of about 50 agents in Houston with 20+ years of “Realtorship”, I see myself with global perspective of this industry & it’s direction. Being that we are members of NAR, I believe it is incumbent on NAR to PRESERVE our value as a profession. The reason why (We’ll sell your home for $1.00 Realty or come work for us for a $1.00 Realty) is growing, is because the number of UNPROFESSIONAL, UNEDUCATED, UNETHICAL & INEXPERIENCED people who are in this business is growing more rapidly than the very market it serves. Hence we end up proportionately with an ever-growing number of “professionals” who present little or no value to the consumer. This brings to the forefront of this discussion an age-old adage… With lack of value, money ALWAYS becomes the substitute.

The only way our industry gets political changes accomplished in this Nation, (because the plague being discussed here is Nationwide & not just isolated to California) is to fall back on our collective organization (NAR). NAR and its fellow state chapters have the organization & recourses to lobby for this correction in their respective states. Which, btw, is in the best interest of the consumer as well as the industry. Those who profit off the exploitation of the UNPROFESSIONAL, UNEDUCATED, UNETHICAL & INEXPERIENCED are not serving the public or the industry. The bottom line here is establishments like that SERVE THEMSELVES! That in and of itself is against the very ethics “we as Realtors” ascribe to! Theyâ

I am not a Realtor, Broker or an RE agent, but I have worked with approx. eight Realtors/RE agents as a buyer/seller. My experience has been that one, and only one, of the eight was a true professional.

Reading through some of these comments alone was frustrating. Several of the responses, written by those who feel only University grads should be licensed, had multiple spelling and/or grammatical errors. Being a college grad today does not mean what it once did.

The concept of restricting people from working at a particular vocation, by way of licensing, etc., is a European socialist concept that I completely disagree with. The marketplace itself will ultimately decide who can make a living selling homes and who is forced to do something else.

That being said, my main point is this: You folks are optional — you can never forget that. I’ve paid-out good money to contracted agents even though I had to do at least half the work myself in order to complete a sell/purchase. I resent that more than I can express. I’ve also purchased property w/o the use of an agent.

The MLS is no longer the protective barrier it used to be. You folks cannot hide behind it like you used to.

The only thing which will make you successful is hard, hard work along with the good reputation and customer loyalty which comes from a job well done.

Don’t waste time complaining about how easy it is to become an agent. Rather, focus on being the best RE agent/Realtor/Broker you can become.

I have a house to sell in a down market here in California. I’m considering whether or not to enlist an agent. My experience says the probability of finding a true, honest professional, worthy of the commission fee, is slim. Nevertheless, I’ll interview several of your colleagues and ultimately make a decision.

I’m a very busy guy, but I refuse to pay a large sum of money to someone who will not truly earn it. The commission on my current property will be approx. $30,000

Before I agree to pay out that much money, I will need to be convinced I’m receiving comparable value. That is your challenge, not sweet old Mrs. Smith who plays at selling real estate in the afternoons.

I just thought you all might benefit from the viewpoint of one of the clients you make your living from.

WOW! I am fascinated with what I am reading. I am in the process of starting real estate classes for licensing in the state of Florida. Based on what I have read the issue seems to be the same no matter what profession we are talking about. I have been an educator for the last 20 years and the same discussions come up in that field as well. Continued education is a must no matter what our profession is. Times are always changing and we must be open minded and willing to go along. Is there any literature one of you could recommend for me to read in order to better prepare myself for the world of real estate? I would appreciate any constructive feedback.