Why Real Estate, Why Now?

The unusual (many think tragic) current residential real estate market has impacted our industry in many ways.
One of the most obvious to me has been the number of Real Estate Agents who are getting out of the business, letting their licenses lapse and moving on.  Agents spend a great deal of time and money to become licensed and to remain licensed.  There are fees for almost every aspect of the process.  There are required continuing education and marketing expenses, communication tool costs like a website, smart phone even down to postage for the neighborly newsletters some agents use to communicate with potential and past clients. The list goes on and on.
One can look on the loss of some agents as a natural selection process, only the strongest survive. Some might never have made it as full time professional REALTORS anyway.  Many of them dove into the pool when deals and money were plentiful and frankly, it was not terribly difficult to close a sale.
You might be amazed then that Brokers continue to successfully recruit folks new to the business.  Why would anyone want to become a REALTOR in this market? The answer to that is as varied as the folks who show up for pre license training.
The drive to "be your own boss" is a very American attitude.  The freedom to succeed or fail based on your own efforts appeals to a lot of folks, particularly in a world where company provided pensions and lifelong employment situations are becoming very scarce. If you can't find a job, becoming a licensed agent is a sure way to create your own job.
I spoke with a new agent regarding why in the world he would choose now to get into the game. Although he was never "in" real estate before, he had a great deal of sales background.  He left an unsatisfactory employment relationship in order to use his talents to benefit himself and his family.  He sited the plus side of the down market as giving him plenty of time to learn, develop his knowledge of real estate and to set the stage to be "out of the gate" long before his competition when the market improves.  I think he is dead on.  He joined up at the perfect time.  It will be very interesting to watch these new entrepreneurs grow.