[tathougies]

> I could literally take a crack at selling a house after a week of training and probably do alright.

My father was an agent, so I'm obviously biased. However, thinking that 'selling a home' is all there is to being an agent is incredibly naive. It is a professional certification, where you have to be knowledgeable about the laws of the state you operate in, because they control your business.

Compared to the regulatory environment of real estate, software is a dream. You pay the realtor for having passed a test saying that he/she is capable of representing you in accordance with the law.

Also, you probably would not be able to sell a home. Sales is a skill unto itself. Only non-salespeople think it's easy. Having seen what my dad would have to do, I noped out of sales real quick. Engineering is way easier.

> I have never had someone who has not done programming before, watch me typing into a terminal and say it looks easy

I should introduce you to my mother.

[matthewowen]

It's two weeks of classes and a test.

85% of realtors drop out of the industry within 18 months. My impression is that this is because "becoming a realtor" is very easy.

A counterpoint might be that it's because being a _good_ realtor is hard, and I believe that that is true to some extent. But that means you aren't _really_ paying someone "for having passed a test saying that he/she is capable of representing you in accordance with the law", because the licensing burden is really small. For instance, it's much smaller than the licensing burden you need to start cutting peoples hair.

[dustindiamond]

You still need a broker to work under, you then need to pay desk fees, real estate board membership fee, MLS fee, and then actually advertise.

[matthewowen]

But the barriers to entry for these things are also small. It's money for the fees, and given that these people are 100% commission finding a broker is not a big challenge.

Do you honestly disagree that the barrier to entry to being a practicing real estate agent is low? Doesn't mean it isn't hard to be a _successful_ one, but the basic barrier to entry just doesn't seem that high.

[dustindiamond]

I thing the barrier to entry is not that low, otherwise we would have a ton of HN folks getting their license to make leadgen sites and collect 25% referral fees (from the 3%) for having to really not deal with the customer.

[iends]

Nobody outs their niches. If something is super easy nobody is going to confirm that for you.

[ericmcer]

Barrier to entry is what makes some jobs pay more than others. I think programming is easier than working in fast food, but you could literally take almost anyone with an elementary school education and turn them into a productive fast food worker in a matter of days.

I might not be good at real estate, but I bet in a weeks time I could do a passable job filling out necessary documents and doing open houses.

There is no reality where someone who has no programming experience is anything other than a huge liability if you give them a week of training and then assign a feature to them and tell them to start coding, testing, and making pull requests for it.