According to today’s Charleston Post and Courier, Barbara Julius thought becoming a real estate agent would fit her busy lifestyle and still give her the income she sought.
But shortly after passing her exam last April, the mother of two realized selling houses in a slow South Carolina real estate market would be tougher than she thought.
With mortgage costs high and inventory even higher, prospective buyers were difficult to find, and thinking of new people she met as potential clients made her uncomfortable.
With no current listings and no home sales credited to her name, Julius, 58, said she probably won’t renew her license when it expires.
“I think if the market had been flush and I got swept away, I could have gotten beyond this point,” she said.
More real estate agents such as Julius are questioning their career path as slower home sales make it harder to earn a living.
Hundreds of would-be real estate moguls jumped into the business amid the housing boom, enticed by the idea of making hefty commissions after a few weeks of training.
But now, some are opting to get out, while some in the industry are calling for stricter licensing standards.
“You see a situation where it starts taking more effort and more energy to make a sale,” said David Wertan, a mortgage broker associate with Re/Max Professional Realty. “Not a lot of people are just willing to do that, and they start getting out of the business once they see that it’s not as easy as it was. It’s happening now in droves.”
In the past few years, the pool of seasoned agents has been flooded with newcomers, and not only in Charleston. Four years ago, 12,399 agents were licensed to sell real estate in South Carolina. Since then, their ranks have jumped 64 percent to 20,343 in 2006.
The result: Competition has heated up among the new and experienced agents who are looking to stay in the game. With far fewer people applying for South Carolina mortgage loans, it’s become more difficult to sell enough properties a year to earn a living.
Of the 3,856 agents who sold at least one home in 2006, fewer than a third of them sold more than eight properties. By conservative estimates, a full-time agent needs to make a minimum of eight mid-range deals a year to earn a living. In 2003, about 42 percent had at least eight sales.
Also, although the area’s housing prices haven’t yet tumbled, properties are taking a lot longer to sell, which slows the flow of commissions and puts more pressure on incomes.
The average number of days on market has slipped from a low of 52 days, set in November 2005, to 89 days in January. So not only are there fewer buyers, they are increasingly choosy.
Veteran real estate agent say that, although selling real estate looks like it would be easy, newcomers sometimes don’t understand how much time and effort it takes to earn listings and commissions.
But shortly after passing her exam last April, the mother of two realized selling houses in a slow South Carolina real estate market would be tougher than she thought.
With mortgage costs high and inventory even higher, prospective buyers were difficult to find, and thinking of new people she met as potential clients made her uncomfortable.
With no current listings and no home sales credited to her name, Julius, 58, said she probably won’t renew her license when it expires.
“I think if the market had been flush and I got swept away, I could have gotten beyond this point,” she said.
More real estate agents such as Julius are questioning their career path as slower home sales make it harder to earn a living.
Hundreds of would-be real estate moguls jumped into the business amid the housing boom, enticed by the idea of making hefty commissions after a few weeks of training.
But now, some are opting to get out, while some in the industry are calling for stricter licensing standards.
“You see a situation where it starts taking more effort and more energy to make a sale,” said David Wertan, a mortgage broker associate with Re/Max Professional Realty. “Not a lot of people are just willing to do that, and they start getting out of the business once they see that it’s not as easy as it was. It’s happening now in droves.”
In the past few years, the pool of seasoned agents has been flooded with newcomers, and not only in Charleston. Four years ago, 12,399 agents were licensed to sell real estate in South Carolina. Since then, their ranks have jumped 64 percent to 20,343 in 2006.
The result: Competition has heated up among the new and experienced agents who are looking to stay in the game. With far fewer people applying for South Carolina mortgage loans, it’s become more difficult to sell enough properties a year to earn a living.
Of the 3,856 agents who sold at least one home in 2006, fewer than a third of them sold more than eight properties. By conservative estimates, a full-time agent needs to make a minimum of eight mid-range deals a year to earn a living. In 2003, about 42 percent had at least eight sales.
Also, although the area’s housing prices haven’t yet tumbled, properties are taking a lot longer to sell, which slows the flow of commissions and puts more pressure on incomes.
The average number of days on market has slipped from a low of 52 days, set in November 2005, to 89 days in January. So not only are there fewer buyers, they are increasingly choosy.
Veteran real estate agent say that, although selling real estate looks like it would be easy, newcomers sometimes don’t understand how much time and effort it takes to earn listings and commissions.
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