Currently the cost of maintaining a real estate license in Nebraska is minimal. The costs include:
Omaha Area Board of Realtors® (OABR) dues $475/year
Nebraska Realtors Association $90/year
Great Plains Multiple Listing Service dues $30/month
Errors and Omissions Insurance $135/year
eKey for GE Supra lockboxes $15/month
The OABR and National Association of Realtors® (NAR) go to great lengths to keep these costs down so that membership is affordable. In my opinion, that this is entirely the wrong thing to do. Getting and keeping a real estate license shouldn't be easy. People depend on their Realtor® to assist them with one of the most financially and emotionally important decisions in their lives. The powers that be want to keep the capital investment needed to be a Realtor® so low that anyone can do it.
I propose raising the yearly licensing fee to $10,000 a year. This would weed out those that are not 100% committed to a career in real estate. It would discourage people from getting a real estate license to sell homes in their ‘spare time.' It would eliminate agents that don't have the money to properly market their client's homes.
Those left in the industry would be the ones that understand the seriousness of the business and the trust that people put in us. Agents willing to pay this price would be the agents that are committed to improving the industry and maintaining the highest levels of competency.
Gone would be the days of competing against incompetent agents that promise sellers a ridiculously high price just to get the home listed only to have the listing expire months later unsold with the seller disgruntled with all Realtors®. The competent would thrive and the incompetent would be forced out.
If agents are not willing to put their own money on the line to maintain their business then how can they ask clients to bet their money, in the form of their home's equity, on their agent's skills? If someone is not willing to make this large of an investment into the industry, then this is not the industry for them.
Troy Trumm, Trumm Team - Omaha, NE
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