From today's Yahoo news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080109/ts_csm/arealtors

No surprise there. The office I used to be affiliated with before opening my own brokerage went from 39 agents at the end of 2005 to just 14 at the end of 2007. And more than half of those are working other jobs to make ends meet.

I don't think it's a bad thing, personally. I've been in this business quite a while and in the past four years or so I've seen a bunch of gold rushers coming into real estate with stars in their eyes thinking all they had to do was get a license and some business cards and they'd be making a quarter of a million a year in no time. Instead, most of them went broke and in the process gave the pros a black eye with their inexperience and stupidity. If I had a nickel for every mad seller I've spoken to who watched their listing expire because of some newbie know nothing....

Never mind. The point is, those who know how to make it in this business will continue to prosper and those who don't will fail. It's easy to get into but tough to succeed at. But I know several agents (myself included) who had their best year ever last year while all around agents who weren't willing and able to do more than just sit around on floor time hoping the phone would ring went under.

If I only made what the "average" agent makes, I'd pack up camp and leave too!

I don't think we have anything to worry about - those of us here (for the most part) seem to know the value and benefits of hard work, diversification of business and good ol' hustle! Plus we all like money enough that we will adapt to make sure we get our share.

I think it's true for any kind of sales job. In my previous one (selling yellow page advertising) the company would send off new people for training every couple weeks. Some never even made it through training...some dropped out quickly. After six months with the company, I was the only one left from my training group.

After three years, I was practically the only one left out of my office's total sales force from when I started. From that experience, I learned not to worry too much about other people trying to do the same job as I did. They might siphon off a few sales, but customers who get the same rep every year (and who learns to trust them) and become reliable repeat customers...well the rep who can do that proves their mettle.

Thinning the ranks, as Ellen says, is not necessarily a bad thing.

Don't let the door knob hitchya, where the good Lord splitchya...

Not y'all... Ms. Prissy Agent...

Hate to see ya go.

Thanks Ellen for the news article. It can be frustrating in the great market times to see everyone with stars in their eyes and the desire for quick money getting a real estate license. Unfortunately not only we, as seasoned real estate professionals, but the clients who really need experience and honest service that have to deal with these newbies who don't realize the hard work and dedication that is necessary to do a good job in this industry. And, yes, these down times at least help to get rid of some of those agents who are not doing the job they should be doing. It's also confirmation for those of us who know that in any business, diversification, flexibility, education, and old fashioned hard work does pay off. When my husband started doing BPOs about 12 years ago, I questioned why he was spending time on something that only brought in about $100/month. Now this BPO business provides the income to pay all our bills and allow us to stay in the real estate business during the down times. It's also given us more information on our market, so we can give better service to our real estate clients.

Well many of the people that used these newer agents are the very ones that are paying for it now!

I just can't wait till the market pick sup and all the Realtors who are stealing my BPO work go back to selling houses.

That's good. More business for me. My previous company I worked with closed it doors forever. Several Loan officers, and agents leaving the biz. One escrow company has closed its doors forever as well. Most escrow companies around here have cut down on staff big time. Customer service has been horrible. It's not just the agents.

Bingo! /endofdiscussion/

I can't wait till everything picks back up so I can stop getting all these calls from lazy agents wanting to know how I get REO listings! With ths lowing market and high foreclosure rates, everyone is trying to get into something overnight that took us agents years of hard work to master.

Thank NAR for having a story about agents specializing in REOs on the daily email the other day.

I don't think the blame can be placed on new agents. It needs to be shared with the industry in general. When I acquired my California license in 2004 I was bombarded with offers from many brokers offering the "good life." They were recruiting frantically. The idea was ... the more agents the more $$$/the better. Some brokers invested in training new agents but most did not. I was fortunate to be accepted into a coaching program that REMax offered at the time and consequently received good training on the fundamentals of selling real estate. However, I never left my full time civil service job. Thank God! As I was constantly told that to be really successful I would have to. It was never my plan to be full time. My pursuit of real estate was strictly to build a part time career for post retirement. I will be retiring this year and I plan to continue in real estate part time. I have a nice data base and some happy customers that I have acquired over the last four years.

I have been able to obtain some investment properties following the concepts in "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor." Real estate is just like/very similiar to stocks. You have to be diversified. You really need to have diversified skills, assets and resources. It is important to persue other areas of real estate, for example- commercial, investment, international markets, etc and not just focus on the quick buck trend of the moment.

When the current slow down/ recession is over. We will see a different kind of real estate business. Don't expect it to be the same, progress will only come as things change for the better. Only those that can change with change will prosper. This is for old and new agents.

Amen to this! My first broker was an opportunist who did not care about training agents to provide good and competent service to clients. He was just interested in how many warm bodies he could bring through the door. When they quit, he'd just recruit more. And for the ones who stayed, he was careful to make sure they did not learn enough to work independently.

He thought they'd leave his brokerage and go elsewhere if they knew too much, so he kept them dependent on "mentors" who did the real work that they were never permitted to learn how to do. He also told them a lot of lies about other real estate companies and said that they would never get the same kind of "help" at any of them that they were getting at his office.

Well after less than a couple months of this I had had it. I wanted to learn how the real estate business works and I was making no progress due to his attitude. I almost quit real estate but decided to do more research on my own about how things worked at other companies. This led me to the brokerage where I still am today.

I feel a twinge of sadness when I see other agents at my office who have taken on retail jobs due to the downturn in business. The fact that I know about BPOs and they don't is the only thing that keeps me from having to do the same.

The point is you don't get to be an "old" agent unless you can change with change. Virtually all of the agents leaving are not "old" agents, they are newer agents who got in the business when a blind wombat with a lisp could make a living selling houses.

It's not a matter of laying blame, it's a matter of having too many people who were not serious enough and professional enough, but just in it for what they thought was going to be easy money. 80% of new agents quit in a GOOD YEAR. How many newbies do you think are going to last in a year like this one?