Letter: Real estate career can be expensive

Dear Editor,

I read with interest your Real Estate special section in the October 1995 edition. I would like to append the information provided in the article about real estate on page 5B.

Before one can apply for such a license, be it sales or broker, one must be able to prove they have successfully completed the education requirements (a certificate of completion). The Colorado Real Estate commission is very clear on this in that incomplete applications will be destroyed and exam scores nullified. Exams do cost $77 (hopefully one passes it the first time), and there is a $125 sales ($154 broker) licensing fee.

As stated in the article, the education requirements can be obtained from various “quickie” schools designed specifically to help one take the test, or one can have a finance degree from a four-year university, etc.

Neither of these are free. The “quickie” schools cost about $500 for a sales and up to $1,000 for the brokers courses.

After one gets a license from the Commission, there can be an additional $1,000 in professional fees required to join the local and national boards of Realtors.

Then, there is the MLS fee if one desires to have access to that service at about $30 per month. That comes to about $1,730 for sales and about $2,260 for a broker plus desk fees (commission splits) from $1,500 to $2,000 per month depending upon where one hangs their license.

Commissions are about 3 percent of sales price with a 66.6/33.3 split, (33.3 going to the broker). The split is negotable. Some are 70/30, 55/45, etc.

Now all one needs to do is to go out and sell, sell, sell! Hopefully, you have a broker that has a training program instead of “Here’s the desk, here’s the phone. Good luck, you’re on your own.”

Good job on the paper. Keep up the good work.

Ronald Sommer

(via e-mail)