New Breed of Realtor, The

D Magazine, Oct 01, 2003 by McMullan, Dawn

PAT BYRNE WAS ANOTHER VICTIM OF THE tech bust. But two years into his new career as a real estate agent, he proudly announces: 'No one can lay you off when you're self-employed."

Not long ago, Byrne, 42, was a production supervisor for Ericsson, then a buyer for the Richardson-based telecommunications company. When the recession rocked his industry, he joined the hoards of newly jobless. But instead of wallowing in a stack of unemployment checks, Byrne decided to bolster his resume with an MBA and a real estate license. "I figure when the economy is good, people buy and sell bigger homes," he says. "When it's bad, they buy and sell smaller homes." Either way, real estate is a robust business, and someone's got to do all that selling. Might as well be Byrne.

Self-employment, the possibility of easy money, and a relatively quick licensing scheme present a seductive proposition for anyone on the corporate track who is headed down-if not falling off-the ladder. It's no surprise that the Pat Byrnes of the world are flocking to real estate.

While the nation's economy falters, real estate is one of the few thriving industries.

The National Association of Realtors estimates home sales will break records this year, with around 5.65 million sales in 2003-notably up from the previous record of 5.57 million sales in 2002-even as economists debate any meaningful end to the current recession.

In such stormy economic weather, the sunny clearing on the investor's horizon is home buying. The willingness to buy and sell houses during a recession is both rational and symbolic: record-low interest rates; mistrust of a vacillating stock market; and, post 9/11, an instinctive desire to stabilize through nesting.

Pair those powerful (and empowering) aspects with an unemployment rate hovering around 6 percent and what do you get? A new career for Pat Byrne and thousands like him.

But what does the influx of green agents mean for you, the home buyer or seller? After all, with so many new Realtors flooding the market, your chances of landing a naive or unpolished agent increase. But local, established agents have a different view of their new colleagues, saying that an influx of educated, corporate folks are a welcome ingredient in the real estate mix.

Part of the lure for newcomers is' how simple it is to become a licensed Realtor. You need seven 30-hour classes, and you can transfer up to 90 hours' worth of college courses. It took Byrne, who already had a bachelor's degree in economics and finance, a quick six weeks to get his license. So far, it has paid off. Byrne is making more than he did at Ericsson and was honored as Rookie of the Year in 2002 at Re/Max.

Byrne's contribution to the market isn't unusual. David Bush, a high-producing Coldwell Banker agent who specializes in East Dallas, praises his second-career colleagues. His new operations manager,

Dean Rose, quit the high-tech industry just before it bottomed Out. Bush, an agent since 1985, jokes that he's too old to learn every new trick. But he's successful and secure enough to have Rose show him how to enjoy some hightech perks, including listing homes on the Internet and tapping into various databases for complex market information. (According to a recent report by the New York Times, up to 70 percent of. home buyers use the Internet to search for their next house.)

Harvey McLean, president of Harvey McLean & Associates and a 25-year veteran of the Dallas real estate industry, says he's seen a higher level of professionalism at the recent recruitment luncheons he's attended at real estate schools.

"A lot of these students have had corporate jobs almost their entire lives," McLean says. "They may be 50 years old. I think it's really good to see more and more professionalism in the business."

This summer, McLean hired 57-year-old Bob Ely, who retired from the semiconductor industry in 2001. Ely grew bored with retirement and within months was looking for a second career. He thinks his sales and people skills will help him in real estate, although he admits he's only a week into his new profession, and a lot of people think it's just easy money.

Money, sure. But easy? Hardly. Realtors typically split 3 percent of a home's sales price with their agency; 6 percent if they close the deal as both listing and buyers' agent on a property. That's a commission of $7,500 to $15,000 for a $500,000 home. In the current buyer's market, Realtors sweat for every dollar. And now there are even more of them competing for the same clients.

NAR membership expects to top 1 million this year. At press time, it had 948,000 members, the highest number in the Association's history, up from 876,195 at the end of last year.

The same is true locally. The Greater Dallas Association of Realtors gained nearly a thousand members between May of last year and this one, topping out at 7,324. The increase from 2001 to 2002 was comparable, and before that it simply hadn't seen that kind of growth.

Incoming older agents like Ely notwithstanding, another interesting factor in this new breed of agents is age. The average age of established agents in Dallas is just a few years shy of a discounted all-you-can-eat buffet at Golden Corral. So for a few new, young agents who bailed early on corporate America, the client base is a bonanza (no steak buffet restaurant pun intended).