Prospective Real Estate Agents Line Up to Enter Market
Cesar Rivera is hoping for a better life as a real estate agent.
The former paint mixer is unemployed, so he is anxious to start a new full-time career. Rivera is now studying for the state’s real estate exam at Lumbleau Real Estate School in Van Nuys. He wants to take the Department of Real Estate sales agent exam in about two months and hopes to be part of the 50% of test-takers who pass. “Times are tough for real estate agents, but I think the market will get better,” Rivera said.
Thousands of DRE test-takers refuse to be dissuaded from getting into the real estate business, however. The DRE administers the exam for real estate salespeople five days a week at six locations throughout the state, including Downtown Los Angeles. Would-be agents pay $30 for the pleasure of taking a three-hour exam and waiting about two to four weeks for the results.
To qualify for the exam, a person must complete at least one college-level class in real estate principles. The agent also needs to take at least two other real estate classes either before or within 18 months after getting a sales license.
“So many people have gotten out of real estate. Maybe now the business will be more viable,” said Robert Michler, another real estate student at Lumbleau. Michler works in property management and owns a small apartment building. His goal is to take the real estate exam in a few months and gradually move into the business of selling apartment buildings. Michler said he plans to continue with his current work for a while, though. “It takes three to four months to get your first commission, so you need something to fall back on.”
Membership in the California Assn. of Realtors has plunged by more than 30% during the recent real estate recession, and the number of people taking California’s DRE exam has plunged by the same percentage during the past two years.
“The business is getting increasingly competitive,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, vice president of the 105,000-member association. “There is still a tremendous opportunity, however, to be successful.”
Meanwhile, the San Fernando Valley Assn. of Realtors reports that it currently has about 7,000 members, compared to more than 10,000 six years ago, said Millie J. Jones, public affairs director for the association. Despite the decline in the number of agents and the increasing concentration of the business among top performers, Jones said, it’s still a good tome for new agents. Membership in the association is improving, Jones reported. “We feel encouraged right now.”
Robert A. Miller is owner of Miller Schools in Granada Hills, another school that trains students for the state’s real estate exam. He reported that enrollment in his DRE exam prep classes is down significantly from five years ago. Miller continues to have real estate agent classes almost every weekend, though, and about 1,500 students completed 45 hours of live instruction last year.
“There will always be people who make a good income even during the toughest of times and people who don’t do well even when the economy is strong,” Miller said. “There’s less excitement from students now because real estate isn’t booming like it was in the late 1980s. But there are people out there who are doing quite well.”
Miller Schools offers a two-weekend program at a cost of $350 that instructs would-be test-takers in real estate principles to get ready for the exam. Miller said about 80% to 90% of his students pass the exam the first time they take it.
Van Nuys-based Lumbleau Real Estate Schools prepares DRE test-takers with 12 3 1/2-hour lectures in four locations at a cost of $295. A variety of people take the Lumbleau classes, said Steve Crisp, director of operations at the 57-year-old school. “Some people have just graduated high school. Others want a mid-life career change. As long as a person has the desire, real estate can still be a very good career.”
New agents also need guidance, Crisp said. “Our real estate classes just provide a foundation. New agents still need to find a broker who will give them guidance and training and help them develop a clientele,” he added.
“We don’t put someone on the street who just passed the exam. We put people through additional training,” said Tom Motter, regional director of Century 21 of the Pacific in Woodland Hills. “It takes about three months before any of our new agents are out on the street and working on their own. There is a lot of hand-holding at first.”
Century 21 offers would-be agents its own classes--along with the option of going to work for a Century 21 office. About 100 to 125 students a month go through the company’s two-week classes, Motter said. Some end up working for Century 21 full time; others transition into full-time work. Either way, Motter said, students are more serious about real estate as a career than they used to be when real estate was a stronger industry.
“Agents are becoming more responsible and professional. We see fewer people, but they’re of a higher caliber,” he said. “If you make a serious commitment to this business, it’s always a good time to start.”
“This is not a business like it was 30 years ago when you stuck up a sign and your listing sold,” said Buddy Bernard, owner of Buddy Bernard’s White House Properties in Encino and past president of the San Fernando Valley Assn. of Realtors. “Be ready to support yourself for six months with no income,” he advised new agents.
Selling real estate is a very tough business for people who are new, he said. “Knowing what I know today, I wouldn’t be starting out in real estate today,” Bernard said. “There is no conceivable way to keep up with the seasoned pros.”
Passing the DRE’s exams doesn’t really prove that someone is ready to work in real estate, conceded Randy Brendia, regional manager for the DRE in Downtown Los Angeles. The real estate sales agent’s exam measures knowledge, not ability to understand needs, communicate with clients or market, he said.
“When people go into real estate sales, they don’t realize that their weekends and evenings are not their own anymore.” And, he added, “driving would-be buyers around for two weeks in a car is full of disappointments and heartbreaks.”
