It is no surprise that plans requiring estate agents to hold professional qualifications in future have gone down well with the National Association of Estate Agents.
Sam Dumitrui, head of projects at think tank the Adam Smith Institute, made the claim.
He said: “Incumbents usually support closed shops.”
He was answering a question posed by CityAM: “Will requiring estate agents to hold professional qualifications improve the property market?”
Dumitrui’s reply was a firm ‘no’.
He said that in the US, some States require licences of manicurists and florists. All that happens is that it pushes wages up by 15% – making staff expensive.
If there were fewer estate agents, there would be less competition and this would hike fees charged to the public.
Nor, he argued, is there much evidence that licensing improves standards: “Restricting competition never delivers higher standards,” he said.
In the ‘yes’ corner is Becky Fatemi, of London agents Rokstone.
She said that rogue agents are small in number but give the industry a bad name.
“It is wrong that someone with no professional qualifications can currently set up an estate agency practice in the UK. You can be a Deliveroo driver one day and an estate agent the next.”
She said that a professional qualification will encourage talented new people to enter the industry.
It is inevitably going to be an argument that rumbles on – in much the same way, we suspect, that the Government’s proposal will rumble on through various committees, consultations, and undoubtedly more housing ministers, before getting anywhere near the statute books.
http://www.cityam.com/283744/debate-requiring-estate-agents-hold-professional
Question: Which is worse? A qualified ‘rogue’ or an unqualified ‘rogue’.
A rogue will always be the same and being able to pass exams doesn’t make you less likely to be one !
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Also I think a lot of our prisons are full of ‘qualified’ individuals.
It’s almost as silky as saying “only employ a member of staff with a degree” without it they are not trustworthy.
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A basic level of understanding of contract and tort, compliance, building structure etc is not too much to ask I would suggest. Others have made the point well, if you are corrupt or worse, you always will be and at least there is a hurdle to get over to filter some.
Any way, don’t worry peeps, after Brexit we will have total control of all laws and business methodology and there will be an election and 4 more Housing Ministers….and we will have a repeat of the farce that was the hasty introduction of the Estate Agent Act which missed out so much and gets tightened nearly 30 years later
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Apparently the qualification being suggested is not a professional level qualification so agents who sit it won’t be professionally qualified.
A minimum standards entry test for membership of Propertymark isn’t a professional qualification. Any attempt to claim it so will be met with mocking derision.
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I can only guess where the thumbs down for this comment came from but they are most definitely not an estate agent.
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I am getting increasingly frustrated in comments such as “You can be a Deliveroo driver one day and an estate agent the next.” is anyone else???
Yes, there is no legal restriction, but to “be an estate agent” you have to be able to assess a properties value, take a property to the market, introduce and find ‘suitable’ buyers/tenants, prepare offers, negotiate terms, chase legal process, issue statutory information etc…
Until you have learned these skills you are a trainee, in the same way that a trainee plumber/decorator/mechanic has to learn skills or a black cab driver has to learn the knowledge.
ARLA/NAEA – time you start talking about what is important when working with/choosing a property professional – being a member of your organisations is not enough!!!
For the experienced/time served agents, these qualifications will be a walk in the park, but the negative press before they are introduced will not help anyone in our industry – except the low fee, low skill agencies.
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They may as well say you could be a window cleaner one day and then work in a solicitors office the next. But god forbid that anyone could make that comparison, although it is completely true
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Also a food delivery person gets paid end of the shift no matter what.
If you own your own estate agency it can be 6/7 months until your first money coming in. Chances are if you are no good you are out of business by then.
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You are really selling this change in career to me, becoming a Deliveroo driver seems appealing. I get paid for my time/work, i presume other delivery drivers wont try and steal my delivery and i also presume if once ordered a buyer changes their mind they still have to pay for the delivery?
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Being a Deliveroo employee one day and and then becoming an Estate Agent, on the next, is the genius of advancement and ambition.
Now you will have the added safety net of being an Estate Agent, one day, and a Deliveroo driver the next.
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Warning, sweeping generalisation below:
People don’t go in any job as a rouge, crook or with bad intentions.
People who steal, defraud and are generally bad eggs are made so by desperate measures, opportunities presenting themselves and the wrong circumstances.
You can’t regulate this, and every industry suffers from the fact that directors are human beings, not robots.
Instead of trying to appease the public attitude of mistrust towards estate agents, the government should work together with agents to highlight the work they do and shift perceptions.
(Though this would involve talking with agents).
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The National Association of Estate Agents?
Is their rebranding not completed yet?
The National Association of Do Nothing!
For decades it has been a lifeless Members Club. Today, in a thriving social media tech savvy business arena the NAEA continues to excel at being pointless.
I got tired attending lunches, coffee & cake meetings masquerading as NAEA Meetings 25 plus years ago.
There have been a bewildering number of opportunities over the years for NAEA to really step up and be the voice of our industry however they faithfully demonstrate their ability to work for themselves and not for our industry.
NAEA’s New Slogan should be “Proud to be Pointless!”
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I admit, I like the idea of ‘qualified’ estate and letting agents. Our industry is seen as one that you can enter at will, with no knowledge, barely any training and be classed as an estate agent. I did it myself when I first started, I was 20 and had been working in pubs for 3 years so I was good with customers and people skills but I knew nothing about property. I listened, watched, learned and did 4 weeks of training courses in my first three months, and I don’t believe I called myself and estate agent until after that, I just used to say I worked at Your Move.
I think the public, or the savvy ones at least, would like to be given the options of a Sales Negotiator or a qualified Estate Agent. SN’s are the frontline ‘grunts’ if you pardon the term. They have the responsibility for building rapport, showing properties, negotiating the sales and keeping people happy throughout the transaction. Estate Agents would need to deal with the valuing, the legalities, regulations etc as well as the SN bits.
Each office would need to have an Estate Agent, and until you have passed the exam, you can only be a Sales negotiator/senior sales negotiator. Best of both worlds there.
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Management should be qualified. Makes business sense due to all the rules and regulations. As for staff, not convinced that anything other than the Property Ombudsman Code of Practice and regular training and daily supervision by their own company is sufficient.
Its that old chestnut of demonising the industry that is wrong. Considering the number of agents, the number of transactions v complaints its is minimal and no different to any other industry? Yes we have bad eggs, so do all other industries, many of whom are qualified. Dishonesty is down to attitude. Estate agency basics is not rocket science.
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“Each office would need to have an Estate Agent, and until you have passed the exam, you can only be a Sales negotiator/senior sales negotiator. Best of both worlds there.”
Now that is a change i would be onboard with. However, it makes far too much sense so will not be considered.
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Similar to the U.S. where the ‘broker of record’ takes responsibility for the numerous licenced realtors.
However, whilst qualifications might have a small beneficial effect on the quality of work done by agents, no amount of qualifications will do away with the odd crooked agent who comes out of the woodwork due to opportunity or circumstance.
The newspapers like to demonise agents and the headline writers love a ‘Rogue Agent’, as do the witless politicians and civil servants who dream up these schemes. Just as there have always been bent coppers, there have always been bent agents and there always will be. If the front pages of the Daily Mail or Express were regularly filled with rogue agent stories and many people were losing vast quantities of money then their might be a cause for action. That cause does not exist at present.
The NAEA or whatever it is called these days will of course welcome the introduction. It will give them more income.
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As you know this has been already introduced for lettings in Scotland and I’m all for it.
Those who protest against it have tended to be the old fogy’s who think a bit of paper is no match for their years of experience. Probably right, but I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and I viewed it as a positive step to try and ‘professionalise’ the industry.
However the lesson I think needs to be learned from Scotland is to ensure any exam process is rigorous. As I understand it one of the Government approved courses here has a successful pass rate of 99%. There is no way that 99% of people should be passing an exam at the first attempt. This indicates to me it is too blooming easy, thus defeating the aims of the regulations by allowing any numpty to get that bit of paper.
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I don’t think this is going to stop rouge agents. I know from buyers of agents working in corporate companies who still get cash in hand from buyers to secure a property. Or pursuading vendors to take chunks of cash because their buyer can pay the high price they want but can’t get the mortgage, so it’s not just sleezy little one man band types who are rouge and no qualification is going tot fix that. Most successful agents will be further out of pocket for training and exams and then still be in the same boat as consumers don’t really care, that’s why online is so popular #fakeexpert
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Having a degree in history won’t help you as a chemist but it does demonstrate e commitment to learning. Most rogues are chancers who seize on peoples trust. Chancers maybe qualified but will more likely turn to something easier. If i look at the FS industry and initially FPC cleared out a lot of the rogues but now we have CeMap which is easy and more of the rogues albeit a different generation have reappeared.
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When the Manicurists and florists get licensed, surely their cost don’t go up by 15% ?
I can get no end of Local Authorities to explain the simple theory that they just have to pay large amounts for a bit of paper allowing them to continue in business – the flowers shouldn’t cost the customer anymore ! ( sic )
After all, what do Florists know about running a business that local central government don’t !!!
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Who will be the government’s chosen authority?
I for one will not be paying for anymore of my staff to achieve qualification which may then become worthless if a new body is formed, and those already in play are not recognised.
Before I started my own estate agency I was a builder and I still own and run a profitable building company. I’ve dealt with many estate agents, both qualified and unqualified in that capacity and there is often no difference at all.
One glaringly obvious difference though, is that so called qualified members of what is not much more than a club seem to give themselves a higher value and they often believe that their conceited opinion must be taken as fact, even though they often spout utter drivel.
Give me someone who is ambitious, needs the sale fee, knows the area and local market, belongs to redress schemes, is fully insured and comes across as HONEST and I’m happy.
Knowledge is something you can learn but then improve on through experience before passing it on. If a director of a business has passed qualifications, then why is that person not qualified to train their own staff to that level?
Why? Because then the fee wouldn’t be payable for each individual!
At this rate, all the independents will either be claiming benefit or be forced into becoming Deliveroo drivers and the few giants with close political ties will be left to charge what they like.
Give the people what they want, not what you think they want because it benefits you.
Of course I expect many thumbs down for daring to express an opinion against those in their gilded thrones. That’s if your thumbs aren’t too tired from using your Aston Martin flappy-paddles on the commute to nirvana.
BTW unqualified does not mean rogue, unless the definition has changed?
I could point you towards a few rogues with qualifications coming out of their ears, don’t ask where they got them!
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Most of the public’s mistaken perceptions of estate agents isn’t even born from their own experience. When I challenge people they shut up because they’ve never had a bad experience. They’ve read it somewhere. Most highly stressful situations are caused by selfish and unreasonable buyers and/or sellers. The poor agent is stuck in the middle and often doesn’t get the appreciation they should. I agree that the NAEA is completely inert.
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Funny how government meddles in the affairs of business and to what level someone should be deemed qualified to offer a service that they already have years of successful experience in.
I will follow closely the next cabinet reshuffle when the housing minister becomes the health minister and the minister for schools becomes the chancellor, no new training needed, your only running the country!
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