Not everyone in the business agrees with this assessment. The National Association of Realtors, the industry's largest trade association and the entity responsible for setting the professional standards for many agents, has resisted calls to strengthen the requirements for licensure. It says that easy entry is a feature to be celebrated, not a bug — a prime example of free-market competition at work.
"We're the ones who are negotiating the buy, sell, all of these pieces," Weinstein said."It's just terrible to have such a low bar." It may be easy to get started, but making it in the business is another story. Last year, Realtors with less than two years of experience earned a median gross income of just $9,600, according to the NAR. Those with 16 years or more of experience collected a much-larger median gross income of $80,700, but fewer agents make it that far — roughly one-third of Realtors last year said they'd been active for five years or less.