SO YOU WANT TO BE A
REAL ESTATE AGENT?
BY ZACH KYLE While talking about the redhot housing market, several friends commented to me that real estate agents must be making a killing. Prices are up, while the job is basically the same. Homes practically sell themselves. How hard could it be? My answer: very, very hard, in part because there’s already upwards of 6,000 licensed and active agents and brokers in the Treasure Valley. Another 70 graduate each month from Idaho Real Estate School alone, the largest of several schools in the Treasure Valley. About 15,000 listed homes were 28
sold in Ada and Canyon counties last year. Not everybody is getting rich. I talked with Mike Gamblin, owner of Mike Gamblin Real Estate and a teacher at Idaho Real Estate School, about the challenges and opportunities facing new agents. I left the conversation thinking plenty of his students will be successful. After all, as Gamblin pointed out, plenty of agents started during the depths of the recession and are still going strong. But it’s going to be tough. First, some good news. Earning the license itself seems doable.
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Prospective agents must take and pass a total of 90 hours of classes through one of a handful of local schools, all teaching the same state-approved curriculum about the technical and legal aspects of the job. Students who take the courses seriously, have high school degrees and can pass background checks ought to score the 70 percent required on the state test to earn their license. The next step—ginning up business, without a backlog of referrals or repeat customers, in a crowded market—strikes me as much harder.
