I agree with you entirely, Carmen. If we don’t raise the bar, here, then we can’t possibly expect for the real estate market to improve any time soon.

The 1000 Watt guy along with what has happened to the Rain City Guide has me wondering if all the money spent on web based Real Estate products has been a waste of time.

Mike Ferry has actually done more to promote a strong client base than web sites have. No one in Real Estate wants Mike Ferry as an example of the industry, but he advocates getting out there in front of people. Isn’t that the business?

Don’t people pay Real Estate agents to know the products in the market place? Can you blow into town, sit down at a computer, and start doing business? Can you network your way into a local Real Estate market place?

After those questions, it’s a matter of the consumer. Does the consumer know what they are looking at? They can, and do, know the neighborhood they live in. They should be able to do deals based on where they live, and what they know. Isn’t that the niche discount brokers have?

Has the web 2.0 really contributed anything to the home buying process?

In the past few months I have gone through all the magic data bases of the web 2.0 transparency and there is a shocking lack of information. Even with the information that is presented with the charts, and graphs, it’s still a sales pitch of comparative shopping.

In today’s market place people are going to need help way beyond the sales hype. Web sites seem to be the sales pitch in a written form. Maybe it’s my perception based on my experiences with the Real Estate Industry, but I feel the consumer is paying the ultimate price for being mislead by the web 2.0 transparency.

There are new skills required in real today that many salespeople don’t have which explains why so many salespeople are not selling. They can’t master the web which requires skills that time and time again are found in agents with degrees.

These are the agents I’d want at my brokerage.

If this were 10 years ago, it wouldn’t make a difference. But today, I think it does.

You know, it’s not a coincidence that so many agents currently running savvy blogs, managing good social media sites, and closing deals are, like yourself, have academic backgrounds. The longer this market stays down and the more complex the web gets, the harder it will be for agents, especially new ones, who are either not tech savvy, not creative or educated to make a living.

Thanks for your comments.

While I have a 4-year degree, I don’t want to lock anyone out of real estate who doesn’t have one, because I don’t think it’s necessarily needed to do a competent and professional job.

But I appreciate the discussion.

One thing I need to note is about branding. Yes, it is difficult to have a cohesive brand when every agent is trying to differentuate themselves. But it would be foolish for agents not to do this because establishing a personal brand is key to success in this field. I think a brokerage would have a hard time attracting good and successful agents if they forbade this. They would have to go to an employee model and pay a salary to keep good people.

Thank you for taking this up on your blog and presenting a well rounded opinion on the topic.

If I can, I’d like to shed some light on my POV. I believe I made it clear that I do not think the “industry” should mandate a college degree. As you stated and as I am in agreement, all people with all sorts of skills sets and educational backgrounds should have access to this industry. My mother was a broker. My son is a Realtor. I am proud of both of them.

My take was strictly meant for me and what I would do if I started a brokerage in response to a question asked by a client who owns a large prestigious brokerage with 1500 agents.

Since I come from the advertising world (20 years on Madison Ave) or more accurately, the branding side of things, I always consider what I can do different from the common model.

As I drilled down through the common attributes that make up a typical brokerage and the common threads woven through the agent population, I felt that for my brokerage, outfitting it with agents who have 4-year degrees in communications, business, marketing and economics would cast different aura around us than the typical brokerage. I also considered other options such as only hiring little people or runway models or ex Marine Corp folks – things that I felt would stand out and get the community talking.

I leaned toward degrees because I felt providing a specialized team of academics to the public to handle such an important transaction was something different I can work with and market around.

Bear in mind, as the would be broker, I also must consider the mechanics of running a brokerage and the advantages I might obtain by hiring college educated agents with backgrounds in the areas that appear to be typically challenging for many agents such as technology, social media, advanced marketing techniques, and or the ability to comprehend and communicate clearly.

The one thing brokers contend with daily is the lack of brand unity within the culture. I realize this has a lot to do with agents being independent contractors and focused on building their own brands, which I admire and respect. But if I were sitting in the broker seat trying to build my own brand that wouldn’t work for me. I require a more disciplined sort with an academic understanding of brand building that I might better harness.

I don’t hold degreed people to be any more or less intelligent, moral or upstanding than those who aren’t. I simply see the advantages this category would bring me and my emerging new brokerage.

@David: I find your comments to be considerably unintelligible. Clearly you are trying to make a point albeit mired in incoherence.

What is an hanger on exactly? Is that someone who isn’t a Realtor? Do we, they not belong in real estate? How do you classify a hanger on? Is that anyone who earns a living selling something to an agent? If so and by that definition then Toyota, Dell, Apple, Supra, Blackberry, Microsoft, WordPress are hangers on too. I wonder where real estate would be without the help of anyone but a fellow Realtor, which in fact you appear to have issue with as well given your disparaging remarks about Ardell. I find that to be far more juvenile than your misunderstanding of yours truly.

There is nothing more damaging to real estate than one member of this profession disrespecting another publicly in social media. You really ought think before you hit publish

If you’ve accomplished anything here as well as on my own blog where you’ve gained access to large audience, it’s been the great job arguing my case. For that I thank you.

I’ll get right to it in a comparison between Marlow and Ardell. My question of these many years is who would give Ardell a deal. I’ve read her blogging and it makes no sense what so ever. It’s all sale hype, just sales hype.

Is this fair to the consumer, who has turned to the internet as a resource for what is now a quarter to half million dollar purchase? Is it fair to the consumer to say that all some one needs is to pay National Association of Realtor dues, take some classes, get some designations, and they are good to go?

Consumers have lost billions of dollars and the internet community wants business as usual. Isn’t it time we lift up the rock on these web 2.0 hucksters?

Look it, it’s all content, and controversy, let’s get rockin’.

And yes, there are thousands of agents who are not Realtors. They are not, by definition, “professionals”. Only Realtors, who have a prescribed course of education, a code or set of rules and regulations, and membership in a professional organization (the National Association of Realtors) can be described as real estate professionals.

Whatever Wikipedia says, a college degree is not required to be a “professional”. One can be a professional sports player without having a degree. One can be a professional pilot without having a college degree. One can be a professional soldier without a college degree. Hence, one can be a real estate professional, no degree needed.

There’s one correction that’s needed. When defining professional, it’s not just specialized education but formalized academic education where the person has obtained a college degree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional

By many standards we would classify Realtors as an emerging profession.

The other item that jumped out at me was the 44% number from NAR.

Not
all
agents
are
Realtors.

Think of the thousands of licensees that are non-Realtors. It would be interesting to see their highest level of education completed.

Regarding the mentoring others mention, the state licensing laws in WA State change this year to require broker/manager supervision of new agents.