The real estate industry has fallen victim to its own success. As home prices skyrocketed over the past few years an unprecedented number of soon-to-be agents saw a seeming goldmine in the prospect of selling homes for a living. Emboldened by the sure success they thought was theirs for the taking, new licensees deluged the industry.
Consequently, the total number of licensed real estate agents surged more than 70% during the last five years, from 1.5 million licensees in 2000 to 2.6 million licensees in 2005. This massive influx of over 1,000,000 new agents strapped brokers and real estate offices across the nation, catalyzing a reduction in overall quality training. Given this fact, it’s no wonder that approximately 50% of all new licensees leave the industry before their first anniversary, according to RealtyU® Group, the largest career development company and network of real estate schools in the country.
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) also reports several startling facts:
- 85% of new agents entering the real estate industry have no sales background.
- The other 15% have limited sales experience and minimal real estate experience.
Those statistics ring with the clarion call of failure of the industry as a whole to properly prepare new agents to conduct their business with professional expertise, authoritative counsel, and superior customer service, let alone providing them with the tools and confidence to turn a profit! There is no question that the minimum training now provided in most states is wholly inadequate to empower and effectively educate an agent to participate in, let alone manage, one of the most complicated sales processes in the country.
According to the Swanepoel TRENDS Report 2006, this recent rise in home values and subsequent rush toward record-breaking new licensees has inadvertently created a counterproductive paradigm whereby substantive, disciplined, meaningful education has fallen by the wayside. These factors have created a growing vacuum of fundamental industry knowledge and basic sales skills vital to the individual success of rookie agents.
As the real estate market, however, slows down from a strong four-year boom, and the competition for listings increases, many agents and brokers will have to refocus on increased productivity and lower agent turnover. That means many brokers must provide additional quality education, skills-based training and productivity enhancing guidance to help their agent pool gain the necessary practical knowledge and tools they need.
Gaining a specific skill set while attaining a real estate designation also continues its huge popularity amongst agents. According to a 2005 survey of NAR members, about 38% of the agents surveyed had at least one designation. NAR owns about 14 of the 60 industry designations with their most popular being the Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) and the Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR®) designation. Of the non-NAR designations the top two most popular is the Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES®) designation, managed by the Senior Advantage Real Estate Council and the Accredited Seller Representative (ASR®) managed by the Seller Agency Council.
Coaching and mentoring have also surged in recent times as a method to improve productivity. Today both these two concepts have become much more formalized, with large companies offering these services on a more robust and comprehensive scale. Costs for coaching services range from approximately $300 to over $3,000 per month with companies such as Buffini and Company and the Mike Ferry Organization being the most well known. Mentoring, on the other hand, ranges in costs from $30 to $100 per month with iSucceed and Cyberstars being two of the widely acclaimed.
While online training may never supplant the classroom experience, a growing number of brokers and agents are gravitating towards this approach as they find new generations entering the industry more pre-disposed to technology, and seeking instant gratification. Today distance learning providers such as Thomson/CompuTaught and RealtyU Online offer courses in just about every facet of the real estate industry including continuing education, licensing, appraisal, home inspection and designations.
Education will play an increasingly larger role in the future of real estate professionals as is listed by the Swanepoel TRENDS Report as one of the top 5 trends to watch. The 114-page Swanepoel TRENDS Report, written by thirteen time author Stefan Swanepoel can be purchased online at www.realestatetrendsreport.com. |
