RealTown's BlogTalk

Monica,

I agree with you wholeheartedly.  It all boils down to the Golden Rule which I advocate all my life including my real estate practice.  Some of real estate agents only think of the buck at the end of the transactions and that is the reason our reputation is tarnished.  Regarding the CE requirements, I go along with that too.  It took me four years of college and passing a board exam to be a CPA and it only take 45 hours of classroom training to be a real estate agent.  They just raised the requirement to 75 hours effective July 1.  Even a hairdresser needs 1000 hours of class room training.  Is cutting hair more important than selling or buying house which is the largest investment of a lifetime?  They should raise the bar to keep out the weeds.

Rosalinda Morgan, CBR, SRES, CPA

Licensed Associate Broker

Century 21 - Laffey Associates

East Norwich, NY 11732

Century  

I can not say this enough. If only more in our profession would adopt this philosophy in doing business.  Let's continue to have our voices be heard.

Monica McNamara

Coldwell Banker
Ocean City Maryland
877-480-7653

http://www.realtown.com/MonicaMcNamara/blog

Wow Monica!   This is great!  I agree with you completely.  In fact I blogged about this very topic on my blog at http://georgetownrealestateexpert.com/blog/?p=21 just two days ago! 

Russ

Russ,

Great post. We have to elevate the perception (hence the reality) of our profession.  Thank you for your re-enforcing comments.

Monica,

Realtor professionalism is on many people's minds.

Take heart!  NAR President Dick Gaylord has just appointed a Special Committee to work on this very subject.  It will be chaired by a man who may be the most professional Realtor on the planet - past NAR President Richard Mendenhall from Missouri.

So, stay tuned for more information....

Judy Moses

I heard this morning at a Joe Stumpf conference that it is estimated that 60% of agents are or have dropped out of the business.  So maybe this problem is going to right itself to some extent. 

I don't think that percentage is nearly as high in the Austin/Central Texas area.  Our market prices have held up better than the crisis areas like CA and FL.  Even so, I'm hoping that some of the "hobbyists" have found better things to do here....

Russ, 

Real estate agents come and go. I have seen many cycles over the years. They come in when the market is hot and they leave when it's not. I believe if you stay consistent, and adhere to your values, in the long haul, you will do just fine.

Judy,  Thank you for the info.  I need to stay up on this committee.  I feel very strongly about  this topic.  Thank you for sharing this with me.

Monica McNamara