Originally published Saturday, September 6, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Comments (0)
E-mail article
Print view
National slump drives agents to seek new careers
With home sales down throughout most of the nation, real-estate agents are feeling the pinch of smaller commission checks and less business.
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Charlene Zeman spent more than a decade in the housing business, including the past three years selling homes.
But the housing slowdown — the worst nationally in a generation — sent her, like thousands of other agents, looking for a new career.
"I had to have a more steady income," Zeman said. "I had to know when the next paycheck was coming. And they were getting fewer and farther between."
With home sales down throughout most of the nation, real-estate agents are feeling the pinch of smaller commission checks and less business.
No wonder many agents are switching to a new line of work.
The National Association of Realtors, the Washington, D.C.-based trade association, dropped by more than 100,000 members from the end of 2006 to this March.
Even in places like Texas, which has escaped the worst of the housing depression, the number of licensed sales agents and brokers is down about 3,000 from last summer.
And the number of new sales agent applications is off about 30 percent from a year ago.
"The falloff would be expected as the market slows down," said James Gaines, an economist with Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center.
But he said it's impossible to draw a direct correlation between the slowdown in home sales and the decline in agents.
"And since they often pay a two-year fee, the license numbers don't vary as quickly from year to year," Gaines said.
Zeman didn't need a university study to tell her it was time to get out of the home sales business.
![]()
"I was in it when it was great, in it when it was good and in it when it wasn't so good," said Zeman, who is now working in sales for telecommunications giant AT&T.
"I love it," she said. "It's been very successful. I've been in the top 10 since I got here in February."
Christian Walker spent almost two years in Dallas residential sales before deciding to change direction.
"At the time, I sensed that the Dallas market was going to contract some and that this, combined with the saturation of agents, made it a good time to consider other options," said Walker, who has gone back to school while working at a Fort Worth, Texas, architectural firm.
He's just started working full time on a master's degree in architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Walker said he "saw an opportunity to put the experience and awareness of customer needs that I had acquired to move into a related field, architecture."
"Endless showings and open houses also gave me a perspective about customer needs and expectations that I feel will be invaluable for an architect."
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
E-mail article
Print view Share:
Digg
Newsvine
Owe more than your home is worth? You can still refinance, but it's complicated
"Jewel-box" houses are built smaller, smarter
Five good tips for mortgage shoppers
Nation's Housing: New appraisal rules under fire

2009 fireworks time lapse
With strict parking rules enforced at this year's July 4th celebration on Wallingford Ave North, less cars and more spectators filled the streets.
Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech
shopping

events for Monday, Jul. 6th
- IKEA Summer Sale
- Posh on Main Semiannual Sale
- Karan Dannenberg Clothier Progressive...
- Impulse + Totokaelo Spring Inventory...
editors' picks
More shopping guides- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
- Relative: Police say woman with McNair bought gun
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
- Former NFL MVP McNair killed
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
- Mariners Blog | What the Seattle Mariners learned on their road trip
- Confessions of an Idol Addict | "American Idols" on tour: Live coverage from opening date
- Seattle Mariners at Boston Red Sox: 07/05 game thread
248 - Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
199 - Hatred for the NBA runs deep, but don't take it out on the players
139 - Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
132 - Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
112 - Property taxes: Appeals shoot up is King, Snohomish Counties
111 - Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
68 - What Mariners learned on this road trip
63 - Bicyclist fatally hit by SUV outside Bremerton
53 - FBI denounces rumors: Palin not investigated
52
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
- Researchers stunned by inmates' success raising endangered frogs
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- 250 gather in field near Twisp for fairy congress
- New laws help tenants evicted due to foreclosure
- The People's Pharmacy | Estrogen mimicker found in sunscreen
- Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision



