An Education Revolution in Real Estate is Sorely Overdue

With the Federal election unfolding the concept of an education revolution has pricked my ears up. Recently the Marquette Turner Director's convened a "think tank" where we spent two days in lockdown considering how best to continue educating our team as well as what new initiatives could help in attracting high calibre individuals to our company and also the industry as a whole. Simon Turner, Christine Watson and myself are committed to a transformed industry where tertiary level training is compulsory and negotiation is formally taught and examined. Our vision is to see the real estate industry in Australia mature into the profession that it needs to be - much like Accounting, Medicine and Law.

The reality is that real estate agents are one of the highest paid consultants in any industry, yet the entry requirements are so low and the training reality is that very few people ever fail once enrolled in the course. The "pass everyone" mentality is continuing to see hundreds of people enter the industry - most really should not be there. I have listened to the education plans of both major parties and while they are both touting to increase spending on education there appears to be little focus on improving or completely restructuring the training requirements for real estate and other professions which are in desperate need of an overhaul. Marquette Turner is a fierce opponent of the "increase places" education revolution that seems to be the centrepiece of what we are hearing. Simply increasing the number of places does not improve systems that are clearly failing and in need of immediate attention.

It was only yesterday when I was told of a real estate agent in Newcastle offering a potential purchaser part of his commission if he were to buy a house from him. This sort of person should not be in the industry and is a perfect example of why a formal, tertiary level qualification is so desperately needed at Bachelor level as part of the process of cleaning up the real estate industry. More places in existing training programs where standards are low and almost everyone is guaranteed to pass is just not the answer. Let's hope our politicians are listening. Rest assured that Marquette Turner is working diligently towards creating such a revolution. Michael Marquette

Junk Mail: Electoral Rubbish

The upcoming Federal election is causing some vendor jitters in deciding when to sell. Vendors are troubled by the election date of November 24, which is a Saturday and real estate agents are doing all they can to avoid auctioning homes on that weekend. At Marquette Turner Estate Agents we have decided to delay all auctions to avoid the election weekend and we are running new sales campaigns well into December which is extremely rare. The election has resulted in a late "real estate Spring" with the usual Spring influx of new property being delayed until December or the new year.

The election wait has also allowed for me to personally consider what I might do on election day. With our Sydney Headquarters being in Crown Street, East Sydney we are positioned in the Federal seat of Wentworth which is currently held by Malcolm Turnbull for the Liberal Party. It just happens that Mr Turnbull is also the Federal Minister for the Environment so I would expect that he would be extremely active in ensuring that the environment is top priority in his electorate. We have nightly rubbish collections during the week and yet we don't have any recycling facilities for at the Marquette Turner Office. In fact all of our rubbish is collected, unsorted and taken away as if the environment was the last thing on Mr Turnbull's mind.

It is difficult to get political in any situation as both parties have positives and negatives however when such simple things are ignored by the Federal Minister for the Environment I cannot help but wonder what the best thing to do on election day will be? As a real estate agent and a Director of Marquette Turner Estate Agents I have always seen it as my responsibility to act in the best interests of the properties and clients I represent as well as the company I represent. It is of great concern that our Federal Minister for the Environment could miss something so simple which is only a couple of hundred metres from his office. If Wentworth falls to Labor then Mr Turnbull has only himself to blame - Marquette Turner is committed to a greener world and it is under our own initiative that we promote environmentally friendly ways to market, recycle and run our business.

Unnecessary Election Jitters

No one wants to have the distraction of an election on their auction day, so real estate agents and vendors have been playing a guessing game as to how to run their auction campaigns to the best effect

Whilst some have abandoned a spring campaign altogether, Michael Marquette of Marquette Turner points out that this favours vendors as there'll clearly be less stock on the market.

An election, in Australia, regardless of the result, will seriously have little if any effect on the Australian housing market, says fellow director Simon Turner.

There are so many other factors that are involved in creating market conditions that "sitting on ones hands" proves beneficial to no one.

Election round-up: the story so far...

The Howard camp had a difficult weekend with a rift developing between Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull and John Howard over signing the Kyoto protocol and coming under increasing pressure of a broken promise over interest rates.

Meanwhile the Greens and ALP are negotiating a preference-swap deal that leaves Family First out in the cold. But reports this morning point out this could mean that tough competition between the minor parties could mean the Coalition will remain in control of the upper house.

The biggest promise comes from Labor leader Kevin Rudd. He has promised a $1 billion package of grants and tax breaks designed to encourage investment in desalination and water recycling infrastructure.

Local and state governments will be able to apply grants of up to $100 million for desalination or waste water recycling projects, while businesses will be eligible for tax breaks worth up to 10% of the value of eligible projects.

Howard has committed a further $390 million for the Work Skills Voucher program. The program provides vouchers worth up to $3000 for people to take courses in areas such as ICT, accounting and administration. The new funding will make room for a further 110,000 people to claim the vouchers.

Jacqui Walker, smartcompany