Bathtub with no water

[NYCresident2014]

Originally Posted by I love boots.

I agree so much with you here. Why do so many make the argument that it is OK for an agent to not know what they're doing? If it's really on the buyer why pay an agent?

I want to address what happened here. I've heard of this happening again and again. Why do so many agents think that a home warranty will fix things that are wrong with the house before you put in the offer? Let me get this straight. I buy and renovate fixers, so all I really need to do is buy the fixer and a home warranty? No, that would be stupid, but it's the same flawed idea no matter how big or small the repair.

It's because being a real estate agent has almost no barrier to entry- anyone with $300 and a few weekends to kill can be one. There are going to be great realtors who happen to be highly educated and very professional, and there are going to be realtors who know next to nothing other than how to pass the licensing exam.

It's what you get in an industry that requires no college degree, no advanced education, and no experience.

[I love boots.]

Originally Posted by NYCresident2014

It's because being a real estate agent has almost no barrier to entry- anyone with $300 and a few weekends to kill can be one. There are going to be great realtors who happen to be highly educated and very professional, and there are going to be realtors who know next to nothing other than how to pass the licensing exam.

It's what you get in an industry that requires no college degree, no advanced education, and no experience.

I only partly agree with you. You don't need a college degree to learn how to do this job well. I don't have one. It is a job you do learn by doing because no two deals are the same and the possibilities are endless for what can go wrong. The classes can only teach the legal stuff and the basics. The problem isn't in the few weeks of school and the test. There's two problems that I see. The first is that you can take the test as many times as you want until you pass it. If you didn't pay attention in the classes the exam is multiple choice so eventually you'll squeak through. I think that if you can't pay attention or it doesn't make enough sense to you for you to pass it the first time there should be a long wait(maybe years) and you have to retake the classes. I've heard other agents talk about how hard the test was here. I didn't think it was. Learn the material and you don't have a problem there.

The second problem is way too often things are dealt with with a fine and the agent just goes on. If you don't have enough common sense to understand what a home warranty is you will end up cheating people even if it isn't on purpose. I would be for the incompetent ones losing their license more often than they do.