RealTown's RealTalk

Many of the faithful may think Lou Frey is a bit over the top when he addresses your Holiness NAR.  However I have to agree.

Lou'a position:
"What should NAR's responsibility be to newbies. As best as I can determine it is to take their money and require an ethics course (a bunch of crap by the way).

Whoa Lou, now tell us what you really think.  I think we should take a POLL from the Professionals here at RT. Is Lou's position right on or WHAT?  If  you agree then respond with a simple YES if you disagree then respond with a simple NO. 

Ok here's my position, YES!!!  Absolutely.  But Lou you forget the real problem begins at the Real Estate School level!  Until you clean up that mess you will never get educated agents ready to venture into the wild.  The only objective of the Real Estate schools is to get the student past the STATE EXAM!  What we got is a whole bunch of committees and representatives that hold meetings discussing how they are representing their OWN INTEREST.

yes

I do feel that there should be mre hands on trainng for new agents.  I also agree the quality of instructor that teach the class leaves a lot to be desired.  What I find is instructors many times are the ones that tried to do real estate and did not nake the grade, now they go the the community and teach the course.

One read the book page by page and used news paper articles and read them in class, I worked with 3 of them, now no longer involved in real estate and not teaching.  By the way all of these instructors where licensed school teacher, but was not working in that field either.

Lou Frey posted:

What should NAR's responsibility be to newbies. As best as I can determine
it is to take their money and require an ethics course (a bunch of crap by
the way). Most state requires us to take 2 courses, law and basics. Nobody
requires a course in how to be a real estate agent, that is left up to the
Broker who teaches new agents how business in done in their office, it still
doesn't tell them how to be an agent. Some larger firms do this but most
don't.
I sat an open house the week I got my license and lo and behold, someone
wanted to make an offer. I didn't have any contracts or even knew how to
fill them out. I had to call the listing agent to come do it while the buyer
got very mad.
NAR should work with the states and mandate a "How to be an agent course" to
get a license. It should be at least a week or two and cover things like
forms, mortgages, appraisal, the process of buying or selling, liability
issues, safety, nigerian scams and god knows what else. It should be
mandatory before they can join the Association, not after they join.
Every time I do a new deal, I look at our state license web site and check
the other agents license date and think another newbie, now I have to train
the other agent as well as the client. I lost two deals this month because
the new agents had no clue as to how to do a proper valuation. One used a 2
year old appraisal as the basis for her depreciated valuation on the listing
and the list was still 10% to high. The other (I was the listing agent) used
a bunch of functionally obsolete sales to comp my listing which was
remodeled. She just used price per sq ft and had no clue how an appraiser
would apply adjustments.
Lou,

Training newbies should be the responsiblity of the broker. When I started
in 1981 I received a detailed training program. Today there aren't many
broker who do that like they should. As to tour "How to be an agent course"
to get a license. I live in a state where that is required before placing
your license and lived in one where it was required within the first year.
These classes are given by the same people who give pre-license. Many, if
not most, of these instructors haven't been practicing real estate in years.
They may be teaching a class for people in a variety of areas where the
practices and even contracts may be different. When I was in Oklahoma, I
heard about the instructor of one of the larger schools in Tulsa stating in
pre-license class that when you get multiple contracts, you cannot present
the second contract until the first on has been completely negotiated. That
is not the people to train the newbie. It is the broker or their appointed
trainer.

Linda Grissette, GRI, e-PRO Certified, Certified e-PRO Trainer, JIM * The
Best Seller GMAC Real Estate, St. Peters, MO * Mailto:Linda@Grissette.com
Check out my real estate products...with special pricing at
http://www.RealEstateMarketingHelp.com/Special.htm

I am not sure about tougher regulations but I do agree there should be more education requirements for new agents. Contract Law was just skimmed over at the real estate school I attended and when it came to filling out my first contract I was terrified of making mistakes or looking incompetent in front of my buyers.

Besides, look how many agents are getting in trouble for using white out on contracts...or leaving part of the contract blank.

I took the initiative to practice filling out the contracts out with fellow agents and taking every available class on contracts that I could find. I have a great broker who has 20+ years of experience in real estate and he is a great source for any/all questions regarding transactions.

Eileen Landau asks the question

"Is this down cycle as bad as the early '80's, when interest rates soared to 18%"?
 

this down cycle is much different than the late 70s to early 80s down cycle.  I was selling real estate at that time, or at least making an attempt as a newbie licensee.  The simple fix at that time was just a matter of lowering the prime.  You see the average home in the late 70s and early 80s was about 50-80k.  Lowering the interst rate and working the supply side of the economical equation created more affordable monthly payments.  Property taxes were considerably low as will as HO Insurance.  However,THAT SAME HOME, that served the same purpose sold for more than a $100k by the turn of the Century (2000).  By 2005 SAME HOME was flippen for more than $300k.  What did we do after Enron and 911?  We lowered the interest rate to make these high priced average homes more affordable.  By 2003 the sub prime had kicked in with full force while FHA financing set on the side lines waiting for OPPORTUNITY.  Finally the buyers smelled the coffee around the end of 2005 and the market started it's slow decent into the abbess!  As the homes exchanged hands the Real Estate Tax Revenues Skyrockets almost 3 to 400%.  HO Insurance Premiums sored to match the new mortgage loans.  So what did the FED do about it?  They took a play out of the old late 70s early 80s play book, they LOWERED THE PRIME to give a kick to the Market. Now the prime is down at 1% and the problem isn't solved.  What went wrong. 

The economical dynamics of the early 80s do not apply to the economical dynamics of 2008!  The problem with this down market is there is no other alternative than LOWERING THE  VALUE of Real Estate.  Unfortunately the Wanna Be Real Estate Investors along with the current Property Owners don't want to hear that TUNE.  But what other alternative is there?  If the Government just bank rolls the debt what will the final price really be?  I think we have way to many issues on the table and we can't ignor all of them and we can't afford any of them.  The misery is so paramount now that the only solution is Government Intervention.  Isn't that why we elected Obama.  We didn't want the same old thing we've been getting for the past 8 years?  So....O'bama is going to come in and fix everything.  Remember his message of Hope and Change.  We are going to get it like it or not, and it's going to be very painful.  Now I know that most people don't want to believe that, but what other recoarse is there?  You don't think any of this "bail-out" money comes without a PRICE do you?  We are going to pay for every dime through higher taxes and higher prices.  The Oil Producers already know we will pay the price at the pump regardless of the price.  Why, because we are a transient society.  We have to drive a car to do our jobs.   It's the social way of a Global Economy that is moving in to solve all our problems.  Isn't that why the Europeans went to the Euro?  We can look forward to Craddle to Grave Economics all under the control of the Central Commitee of appointees.  Notice that every appoint of Obama's is the same old guys and gals.  I thought this guy was all abot Change and a New Tomorrow.  Maybe I don't get it.  Or maybe I do. 

Eileen Landau makes a most interesting point regarding the address congress gave our Auto makers.

"I found it interesting that Congress after listening/questioning the three auto CEO's, asked them to deliver a business plan on December 2, 2008, before any consideration would be given."

LIstening!!!!  Really.  You really think congress listens? And the best Congress could offer is a week to ten days for a plan?  You gotta be kidden me.  It took these automakers several decades to drive this baby into a non-producing operation.  What's makes anybody think the automakers can come back on Dec. 2nd and have a working plan that will turn this industry around.  Yea and I believe in the toothe fairy.  Maybe if they gave the automakers about 2 years to work up a plan but not a week to ten days.  This whole thing is a joke.  First we have the Government Buyout of the largest Re-Insurer in the world AIG.  Then they print $700 billion for the pay-back to the Financial Institutions excluding we Toxic Realtors and the boneheads we represented for the past 8 years.  Now they are going to buy the auto industry!!!  What will it be next, our health care? Dealing with Slick Willy for 8 years was bad enough now we got to put up with a street hustler.  This is nothing  but a Congressional hustle, it all boils down to who blinks first.  As for my business plan for 2009. My first and foremost objextive is my family and figuring a way to survive the blood letting.