spoke.com — Profile of a highly educated Commercial Real Estate Agent and Consultant in Texas. Specializes in environmental and industrial properties such as gas stations, brownfields, and more. Former Texas Commission on Environmental employee with credentials (degree,certificate) in Geography-Resource and Environmental Studies and Water Resources Policy.
Jan 1, 2009 View in Crawl 4
samtrevinoJan 29, 2009Submitter
Hello Mr. Craig Berkeley,I have been advocating requiring an accredited degree as a license requirement since before I was a licensed real estate agent in Texas. I suspect you will encounter opposition from the Realtor organizations due to potential loss of revenue from membership dues. There are approximately 9,591 Realtors registered with the Austin Board of Realtors (ABOR at Abor.com). At $597.00 for new members and $372.00 for existing members that is a lot of money not including MLS dues at about $266.50 every six months or $533 annually. Thus lets assume 9,000 Realtors with half possessing an MLS subscription, thus 9,000 x $372 = $3,348,000 for dues and 4,500 x $533 = $2,398,500 for MLS subscription or combined just over $5 million in membership dues, and that is just Austin, Texas area. The dues include membership fees for the Texas Association of Realtors (TAR) and the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Now how many of those Realtors do you suppose are educated to the bachelor level? The Realtor organizations would lose millions of dollars if licensed agents were required to possess a degree, and thus would likely fight against such requirement. In Texas lawyers, Registered Professional Land Surveyors (RPLS), Professional Engineers, and doctors are required to have accredited degrees. With the exception of the RPLS all require a minimum of a bachelors degree or post graduate professional degree. Even private investigators in Texas are heading this direction by indicating a requirement for a degree in criminal justice or three years with specialized experience. It will be an uphill battle, but it should be fought and I recommend getting others together to help. FYI: I am not a Realtor, but a licensed real estate agent practicing commercial real estate in Texas.
samtrevinoJan 29, 2009Submitter
For the private investigator information visit:<a class="user" href="http://www.tali.org/licensing_requirements.htm">http://www.tali.org/licensing_requirements.htm</a>Sorry edit time ran out.Also on a side note I think real estate brokers should be required to possess a post graduate degree in business or related field. For example, an MBA, Finance, Geography, Real Estate, etc.I think I will draft a blog about requiring a degree to obtain a real estate license in Texas.