Real estate sellers hanging in despite economic upheaval

Neal Carmichael has had a rough ride since becoming a real estate agent nine months ago.

“It’s been a difficult, difficult time. I mean, just because the economy has been so challenging,” he said. “With hindsight being a perfect science, I would have loved to have gotten in three years ago.”

The real estate market in Victoria dipped and dived along with the global economy, but in June surprised people with a dramatic increase over the same month in 2008. Through it all, the number of people lining up to become real estate agents has held relatively steady.

The Real Estate Council of B.C. shows the number of licensees in B.C. is only slightly off from an all-time high of 20,391 last August to 19,342 as of last week.

In Greater Victoria, the number of realtors peaked at 1,368 this time last year. This year, 1,290 are trying to earn a living selling real estate, said Victoria Real Estate Board president Chris Markham.

“Actually we’re very surprised to see that membership has hung in. We had a bad four or five months, so some of our membership was thinking we may be down as low as 900,” he said.

The industry needs new people to take over as realtors reach retirement age, he added.

There is no bad time to become an agent, said Elton Ash, western regional executive vice-president for Re/Max. Despite starting his career in 1981, during the worst recession in Canada since the depression, he quickly found his niche.

“Your success is really determined by your own personal initiative, dedication and desire to succeed,” he said.

He noted that in his class of 45 students, he was one of two who hadn’t left the field within two years.

Despite a rough start, Carmichael insists he made the right choice in switching careers – going from an airport manager in Nunavut to an agent in B.C.’s capital with Royal Lepage.

And he’s noticed a market turnaround of late. “I’ve gone from spending weeks and weeks and hardly finding anybody to do anything, to now I almost have to unlist my cell phone number so that I can get some sleep. It’s great that way, it’s good -- that’s what I wanted it to be like.”

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