Back in the olden days around 1972, I had a real estate sales license, paid $15 each for a city license as an auctioneer and appraiser, and there was no USPAP. Life was good. No problems. Never had a problem as a matter of fact. Left every client smiling. Then a new breed of agent entered the field and the Board of Realtors decided it would be more democratic if all licensees were Realtors with an all Realtor Board. Much more democratic. Then all hell broke loose. By the 1990’s I held six state licenses all by board exam; broker in VA & NC, appraiser in VA & NC; auctioneer in VA & NC. Now I have nothing but problems. Spend four times as much time on CE as I do working and have no idea what the hell is going on in any of these fields.
I was in a Realtor’s office the other day and the wall was papered with real estate licenses. I counted up to 75 in the office, which has about 7 active agents. Basically what they were doing was licensing people so they can pay them for listings. I remember about 25 years ago the manager from the Sherwin Williams Paint Store came into our Realtor’s office to talk with my dad. He said he could get at least two listings a week from contacts he made at the paint store and wanted to know how much we would pay for a listing commission. My dad told him that was against the law and we couldn’t pay him anything. He said: “Well John Doe (Principle of the firm with the 75 licenses mentioned above) had been paying him 2% for about 5 years.
A Realtor from Northern Virginia taught the 1st Realtor’s Institute class I ever attended . He had 350 agents working under him. What he was doing was giving licenses to the wives of military officers from the DC area so he could get the listings. I came home and told my dad and he said: “That is the beginning of the end of the real estate business.”
