Real Estate News Flash:

“Quality education is the key to our growth and success,” says Dave Liniger, founder of RE/MAX, one the largest real estate companies in the U.S.  The importance of education are sentiments boldly echoed in the new 2008 edition of the Swanepoel Trends Report.

“When it takes more hours to become a cosmetologist than a real estate agent you know there is something seriously wrong with an industry,” says Stefan Swanepoel, author of the new 170-page real estate report.  “It is unbelievable to think that the standard required to become a licensed real estate agent is between 30-120 hours whereas it takes about 1,200 hours to learn how to cut hair and do nails,” he says.

According to Swanepoel, to create a higher quality real estate professional, ready to serve the new, more educated, more online, more real estate savvy, home buying consumer of 2010, real estate brokers and agents will need to change the way they think and work. “Real estate brokerage is clearly a self-help, self-imposed, independent contractor, industry and if you are the weakest link you have only yourself to blame,” Swanepoel says.

There are various methods and training by which agents can improve their knowledge and skills such as specialized designation courses, skills based online courses, coaching, mentoring or even by shadowing other successful agents in their office. It is estimated that out of the approximately 2.2 million licensed agents, including 1.2 million members of NAR, only about 400,000 agents have taken some form of further education such as a real estate designation or certification. “There are over 70 different specialty designation courses and most agents have taken none - let alone a dozen,” says Thomas Mitchell, SVP of RealtyU, the largest network of real estate schools in the country. Charlie Bross, President of RE Training Center agrees, and feels that agents have a tremendous opportunity at hand if they take the responsibility to improve themselves.

The low barriers of entry into the real estate industry fueled during the 2002 – 2005 housing boom resulted in a disproportionately large amount of newly licensed agents. However, the downturn that started in August 2005 caused the number of existing home transactions to decline from an annual rate of 7.2 million transactions to an estimated 5.5 million. Yet the number of licensed agents has not declined with the same ratio, thereby reducing agent productivity even further.

According to the NAR 2007 Member Profile Realtors^® who had earned at least one real estate designation had nearly double the annual income of Realtors^® with no designation. 

“Agents need to reposition themselves as trusted and knowledgeable real estate advisors,” Swanepoel says in his annual report. This will require the average agent to change his or her thinking from a sales driven, commission based, one-time client sales approach to that of a consultative, advisory and for-life relationship. The basis of any such change, in part or in total, is based on a substantial increase in the level of knowledge and skills.

To discover a large selection of education opportunities in real estate visit www.RealtyU.com