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How Many Licensees Did Illinois Lose in its Transition?

by Chicago Agent

Numbers vary on how many agents Illinois has lost in its post-transition period.

The single biggest question surrounding Illinois’ new licensing requirements was how the transition process would impact the number of agents working in the state.

Initially, that was a difficult question to answer, especially with all the last-minute submissions IDFPR received before the old requirements expired. We just got new data from the IAR’s Jon Broadbooks, though, and a number is beginning to emerge, at least regarding IAR membership, on how many agents successfully made the transition.

Here’s what Jon sent us:

  • On May 31, 2012, there were 39,396 members in IAR, down from 43,063 members on May 31, 2011 and 45,312 members on May 31, 2010.
  • The economy, Broadbooks said, was a “critical factor” in those declines, and, “That makes it very hard to sift out where the fall-off from transition and that of the economy begins and ends. A clearer picture may emerge as IDFPR completes its work on transition.”
  • Broadbooks also said that the IDFPR still has roughly 6,000 applications that it is processing right now. “We won’t truly know until IDFPR closes out all the applications,” he said.
  • Meanwhile, IAR membership has been growing. On May 1, after the transition, the association had 38,434 members, but as of last week, they had 38,682, a rate of around 10 new members a week.
  • There are still 2,758 sales-broker members unaccounted for, and Broadbooks attributes that to IDFPR processing (the number was 7,433 on May 1).
  • Once all the licensees are sorted out, IAR expects to lose 5 percent or so of its membership.

IDFPR will not have all the transitionary numbers filed until July 1, so we won’t know for certain what Illinois’ licensee landscape looks like until that point. Once we have that data, though, we’ll let you know!

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Comments

  • Ken says:

    Will this weed out the bad agents? Most full time agents look forward to that. But, are they really weeding out bad agents? Those that take this business seriously, and consider themselves knowledgeable and professional, are few in number. I believe the old saying, “20% of the agents make 80% of the money”. Unfortunately, I also believe only 20% of that top 20% are professional. That means 80% are not, and probably never will be. When all is said and done, they’re still going to be there though.

    I’ve had several explanations as to why everyone should be a broker. The most common was, “so not to confuse the public”. ????? The belief of most agents is it’s just revenue raising Illinois style. Sadly, that’s what I believe. It’s certainly not promoting professionalism.

  • Lyn Sims says:

    This is disappointing to say the least. I was hoping that the continued ed would weed out those part timers that were not truly serious but according to these numbers that is not the case. I might have to agree with Ken above that possibly this was not done for the public’s benefit (higher education levels) but for revenue generation.

    Our local board has not published any numbers that I can find as of yet to verify this.

  • pat says:

    Unfortunately it appears many are using it for resume padding. And wasn’t Illinois one of the few states that had an increase in Realtors in this recession. What does that say about our requirements here. Maybe we need to tighten up even more.

  • Ben says:

    Unfortunatly, every seven years or so the powers to be, State Regulators, devise a income stream to cover the lack or loss of new license applications, but never ever addresses the problems of the people in the street trying to make a living! While most of the so called “Professionals” who say they are full time,( that 20% of the 20% = 5% is probabley accurate!) are actually Part Time, meaning they have another source of income! Working out of ones back seat with all the modern eletronics of the 21st century allows us that. The State could care less what you consider full time or part time! Again, it’s a revenue stream to their bottom line! As long everybody meets the requirements and pays their fees! Game On!

    Me, I retired after 26 years, in 2010 and closed my business.
    Good Luck to you all! hope the business is as good to you as it was to me! All I can say is, keep the faith and your other job until it breaks in 2014-2015! it will break! Ben

  • Ben says:

    Just a short story about a friend of mine who retired in Florida 10 years ago! She just purchased a new convertable with the insurance proceeds after her late her husband passed away!
    She was speeding up I-4 expressway enjoying her new car when she was pulled over by the State Police! The officer walked up to her and asked for her Real Estate License! She was dumbfounded and asked if he may have made a mistake asking for her real estate license, she said officer did you mean drivers license? He said, no mam,I said real estate license, not everybody in Forida has a drivers license.
    Enjoy your day, Ben

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