I’m an Associate Broker in Virginia. So What?

It’s been just over eight years since I received my Commonwealth of Virginia real estate license.

So now I’m an Associate Broker (no longer available). No longer “just a Realtor” (and yes, brokers would look at me with disdain when I would say that I was not a broker)

Why the wait? No reason other than I never had a compelling reason to get my Virginia broker’s license.

That changed this year with the opening of Nest Realty Group in Charlottesville.

It’s a fact that the bar for entry into the real estate profession is laughably, perhaps criminally low. We wanted to change that. In Virginia (no longer available) the basic requirements to obtain a real estate license are 60 hours of education, don’t have a felony conviction and be at least 18 years of age. Pretty low. (Colorado, North Carolina are broker-only states, and each state has wildly different licensing requirements)

One of our core philosophies at Nest Realty Group (archived: 2011) is that we have high standards for our agents, so much so that we wrote this belief in Nest’s Core Philosophies – a Manifesto if you will (more to come about these beliefs over the course of 2010).

One way we ensure the above is that agents must achieve their brokers’ licenses by the end of their first year with Nest. Frankly, it’s not that much more of an achievement, but it’s something.

A lot of people talk about raising the bar within the real estate industry; I have for many years:

– Move Off The Blogs to Change NAR (archived: 2010)

– If A Realtor is Unethical in the Woods

– But, We’re ALL Ethical! (archived: 2011)

(and in fact, recently had the privilege of serving on a National Association of Realtors workgroup specifically tasked with increasing the level of professionalism of Realtors)

Why require Brokers’ licenses of our agents? Simple:

– In the licensing vernacular, it’s one step higher than a real estate licensee.

– It’s an accepted and acknowledged designation – by consumers.

– Experience is required. From the broker’s application form (no longer available):

Experience Verification Forms verifying that the applicant has been actively engaged as a real estate licensee for at least 40 hours per week during 36 of the 48 months immediately preceding the date of application.

The difference? At Nest we’re actually doing something about it.

Update 8 January 2009: Real estate education requirements by states (PDF)