[Excerpt]
Jock Finlayson, economist and chief policy officer for Business Council of B.C., says that people believe real estate, particularly sales, is a high-income profession that requires little training or education. Those jobs are likely on the rise because they are seen as easy money, especially when agents at the top of their game are earning millions of dollars.
"A lot of people are attracted to the industry because of the perception that there is a lot of money to be made, and of course there has been for those who are very successful, an extraordinary amount of money," he says.
"It's quite astonishing, the commission sales model in the real estate industry. It has seemingly been impervious to technological change and innovation that in so many other industries has driven out the extra costs around transactions.
