Monica's Musings

What Raising The Bar Doesn’t Mean #RTB

It doesn’t mean doing whatever it takes to get a deal done.

It doesn’t mean undermining the very fundamentals of our profession just to line your own personal bank account.

It doesn’t mean trying to sell real estate outside of your area of expertise.

It doesn’t mean delivering poor customer service, but promising the sun, the moon and the stars to unsuspecting buyers and sellers.

I’ve been on this soapbox for a while.

My very first blog post addressed this issue.

Fortunately, there has been a resurgence of conversation surrounding our real estate community’s absolute need for change within our industry. As it stands now, most states require a bare minimum pre-licensing class, take a State administered test, and you have a real estate license. Oh, by the way newly minted real estate agent, congratulations, you are now qualified to help home buyer’s and sellers make decisions regarding possibly the single largest investment in their lives.

What other business can you start with no inventory, no operating capital (besides minimal dues), and only a 40/60 hr (whatever your state requires) time commitment? You pass a test you’re now a bona fide real estate professional. Sounds pretty bad huh… I think it is.

Here’s some of the changes that I think need to occur:

First and foremost have higher admission standards. Require a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree to qualify for a license. You could take classes working towards your real estate license while attending college, or if you already have a degree, and now want to obtain your real estate license, we should then have in place higher pre-licensing requirements. Let’s mandate that those choosing to enter our career (and I call it a career) make a real commitment to learning and understanding the field they are entering. Also, for those that are already in the business, we need to increase the continuing education requirements in order to keep your license.

Getting a real estate license should not happen by default. In too many instances that is the case. In my market, for example, there are many licensees who have retired or left other jobs, re-located, and then decide they’ll “sell a little real estate” part time for a little extra cash. Isn’t that scary? When that individual brings me an offer on one of my listings, I cringe. Inevitably, they are at best, ill prepared, and have presented an improperly executed offer to purchase. I find myself doing their job, because they are clueless. This person is not best representing their customer or client, and furthermore, these kinds of stories continue to feed the public perception of our industry.

I’ll go on. Once you have met the educational requirements and earned a license, there now needs to be supervision of this person who has just been turned loose as an agent. State mandated programs, administrated by the Broker of Record would be appropriate. A Broker must have a pre-approved instructional program in place to educate this new licensee. There is so much more to selling real estate that is not covered in our current day pre-licensing courses.

Let’s talk specialization and different levels of qualifications. We must train in specific areas; i.e – foreclosures, short sales, commercial real estate, 2nd home ownership, investment properties, farm properties, condominiums, industrial properties, leaseholds, etc. etc. We don’t want a licensee who is not qualified, to be able to list, sell and/or lease any type of property they want. There should be a system in place to have mandatory educational requirements in order to work, and represent yourself as a “specialist” in a given area of expertise. Yes, I know there are GRI, CRS, CCIM and so on. But we are not required to have these designations to sell or lease properties within these different speciality markets.

Ok, enough, you get my point. With the ever changing economic climate, and the uncertainty of our housing market, we have to enact stronger guidelines. We need highly trained real estate professionals, who can offer sound advice and guidance to home buyers and sellers. We have to position and empower our National, State and Local Boards, as well as the Departments of Licensing Regulation in order to “Raise The Bar” in our industry.

We need to deliver truly AMAZING service in order to thrive and survive!