Blanchard & Calhoun Real Estate Blog

Augusta bucks state trend of fewer agents

P.J. Furno didn’t let the slow housing market stop him from becoming a real estate agent.

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Jackie Ricciardi/Staff

Drew Williams looks at the backyard of a home with agent Lee Kitchen. The Augusta area has about as many agents as it did when the recession started.

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JACKIE RICCIARDI/STAFF

Real estate agent P.J. Furno of Keller Williams Realty decided to enter the real estate business two years ago in spite of the declining housing market. “I figured … why not get in now and make a name for myself now,” he said.

He entered the profession two years ago after graduating from Augusta State University. He sold his first house a few months later.

“I had not just one, but two, under contract to close in the first two months of getting my license. It actually took me by surprise because I wrote the contract after only showing them a few houses. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, is it really this easy to sell a house?’ ” Furno said.

Since then, business has been going well for the 24-year-old agent at Keller Williams Realty. Always drawn to real estate, Furno saw the down housing market as an opportunity.

“I started my real estate career at the lowest of the low. I got in it when everybody else was getting out. I figured everyone is leaving … why not get in now and make a name for myself now, so when the market turns around, I’m already a household name,” Furno said.

Currently, there are 1,200 to 1,300 licensed residential and commercial real estate agents in the Augusta area, said Lula V. Kanardy, the president of the Greater Augusta Association of Realtors. Going back to the beginning of the recession, the total number of agents for the area is down only slightly, she said.

“Agents are getting out, but more agents are coming in. We’re doing pretty good,” Kanardy said.

The number of real estate professionals in Georgia and South Carolina, however, is dwindling.

In South Carolina, there are 41,929 real estate licensees for fiscal year 2010 to 2011, according to the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation’s annual report. That is down from the 46,897 licensees of three years ago. As of Oct. 1, there were 89,702 real estate licensees in Georgia, said Bill Rogers, a commissioner with the Georgia Real Estate Commission and Appraisers Board. Of these agents, 76 percent are active and the other 24 percent are inactive.

“Our numbers have dropped off tremendously. In 2008, we had about 105,000 real estate licensees. In the last 18 months, we’ve lost 7,800 licensees. So overall, they’re decreasing,” Rogers said.

Year-to-date, Augusta’s agents have sold 3,650 homes, slightly less than the 3,689 homes sold from January to September in 2010, a year strengthened by the new homebuyer tax credit. But they are 124 homes ahead of the recessionary year of 2008, according to association data.

The real estate market was once more robust. There were 5,657 homes sold in 2007 and 6,379 sold in 2006.

This year has been Keller Williams’ best year since 2007, said Mark Jacobs, a broker associate with Keller Williams Realty and the president/owner of Mark Jacobs and Associates. Since then, business for his companies has increased by 45 percent, he said.

“We’ve had to adapt to the market. It was a little down last year, and I think part of that was figuring out where the market was,” Jacobs said. “We now know what the buyers and sellers are looking for in this market, and we’ve tailored our message to meet the needs of the current market.”

Business has also been better for Blanchard and Calhoun Real Estate Co. this year compared to last year, said Executive Vice President Tom Blanchard. The company isn’t doing as well as it was prior to the recession, which ended two years ago, and it has seen a slight decrease in the number of agents, he said.

“In my opinion, we’re doing a very good job in the real estate market as it is today. Obviously, the market is tougher than it’s ever been historically, but our company seems to be doing fairly well,” Blanchard said.

Jeff Keller, the owner of Century 21 Jeff Keller Realty, said the first-time homebuyer market has been good, but overall, business is slow.

“Our problem is that it’s harder for people to get qualified for loans, which makes it hard to sell the existing properties. Until they do something about the job situation and credit, it’s going to be down,” Keller said. “In the past, people bought because they wanted bigger, finer houses. The people buying today are buying for necessity in our market. We’ve had people have to leave the business because they couldn’t generate enough sales to justify staying in.”

Furno said that Keller Williams Realty’s agents have 10 closings lined up this month.

“We’re doing great. Basically, that comes from the amount of work we do and the amount of technology involved in our business,” Furno said.

Keller Williams Realty has multiple Web sites and tracks leads from Craigslist and Facebook.

“If you don’t change with the times, as far as technology is concerned, you’re going to get left behind. People want information now, and they want you to get back to them immediately. We get back to them in 15 minutes,” Furno said.