I have a degree from college in Real Estate, so I may be a bit biased in my opinions. It is too easy to become a real estate agent, take a class over two weeks and go take a test and POOFthe Real estate Commission waves its magic wand and you are a real estate agent able to handle multi-million dollar homes. This seems crazy to me that we let someone who has no experience whatsoever to handle the largest and most important financial transaction of someones life. Literally you could go from working at McDonalds then three weeks later be handling a huge home listing.
You may be lovin' it but I don't.
My first listing I had no idea what I was doing and I learned as I went but is that fair to our clients?
I am currently working with a NJ college on developing a real estate BA Degree and I would hope that someday we could make it mandatory in NJ. We all know plenty of agents who we have done deals with were we had to walk them through everything and basically did their job for them. They still get paid and get another notch on their belt for our hard work. In the 80s a huge number of fly by night moving companies cropped up and then we had an economic downturn and they all went out of business. This helped the industry because it created a professional class of movers who had sound business practices and KNEW what they were doing. We have the same thing happening in our industry right now, all the part time and hobby Realtors are dropping by the wayside and that is a good thing.
New Jersey is just now instituting continuing education for real estate agents! I did a deal with an agent who was in her eighties and she had not been back for education or updates in longer than I am alive. She knew how to get a listing and how to sell it but was she educated enough to follow all the rules? No, she did not know about all the forms that we have to use.
Our industry is looked down upon and we are the butt of almost as many jokes as lawyers so it is high time we cleaned things up and improved our image and our education standards. While we are at it what about raising the fees to get a license or renew one so that only those who are true professionals will get one?
Some colleges offering Real Estate Degrees are listed.
So what do you think?
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