New Brokers

Public confidence in the recovering market, and a desire of many for a new profession, has created an increase in persons seeking a career in real estate sales. The number of individuals passing the state exam in 2010 has met or exceeded 2009 in April, May, June and August. Year to date exam totals for August 2010 shows a 13% increase in the number of exams administered for the same period in 2009. The number of new brokers entering the field in 2010 has met or exceeded the totals for 2009 in all months except for January, February and July.

As the volume of sales decreased in 2008, more and more brokers went out on their own creating a large spike in new Sole Practitioner licenses being issued in January of 2009. With the recent changes in the licensing of Sole Practitioners (See previous blogs) the number of those acquiring the Sole Practitioner license again jumped from 14 to 67 in the last part of 2009.

While the current average of 66 new brokers currently entering the field per month doesn't match the 369 in June of 2005 it does show that the industry is turning around. The interesting sidelight of this is that the new entries are in many cases outproducing the "old timers." The new hires don't know what the "good old days" were like. While in the heyday of the market, selling was easy and those entering the field today are learning the basics and are capturing most of the sales volume.

For those with the ambition to have their own business that can be started with a minimal amount of money and be up to speed in 3 to 6 months, real estate sales is the profession to explore.