New to market

The tall, narrow home is ideal for a freelance writer such as herself, she said, or an artist or a professional -- but not for a family with toddlers. Still, the agent kept bringing young families to 19 East Albion St., and Melanson, 66, got no offers. "I felt I was being used as a training tool for a young agent," said Melanson, who is marketing the house on Listforless.com,

Isoldmyhouse.com, and Craigslist.org. "It was an awful experience." These days, there is no shortage of new agents.

Buoyed by low interest rates, the housing market has been one of the few bright spots in a dull economy. As other industries shed jobs, people have been switching careers and going into real estate, a profession with minimal entry requirements and the allure of making fast money.

Over the last 12 months, the membership of the National Association of Realtors has grown to 950,000, from 860,000. For the year ended July 31, membership at the Massachusetts Association of Realtors rose to 17,451, from 15,789.

The MAR, recognizing a need to supplement professional education, is developing an optional 40-hour training course for new agents, to augment the 24 hours of classroom work that's required to take the state licensing test. But even the extra training is no guarantee a broker will be a good one.

"It's incumbent for the consumer to do his or her homework and interview an agent, the same way he or she would check out a dentist or a physician," said John Fridlington, executive vice president of the state association.

One question he recommends that a consumers always ask an agent is: "How long have you been licensed?"

Being on the business end of that question, however, can cause anxiety.

This year, Cathy Gosian left her job with an office-supplies company and went into real estate. She recalled one of her first meetings with real-estate customers.

"I was nervous," she said. "When I told them I had just started, they said, `Oh, really?' They didn't say, `Are you qualified?' But it was there in the tone."

As an agent with Grand Gables Realty Group in Scituate, Gosian has worked closely with the firm's president, David Drinkwater. So far, she has split commissions with him on two sales. One customer was Steve Davis, a medical software salesman who was undeterred by Gosian's lack of experience. In his eyes, he wasn't hiring an individual rookie, but a whole firm.

"It was a team effort," Davis said of Grand Gables' work to sell his house for about $750,000.

Gosian said she always wanted to sell real estate, but feared making the jump from salary to commission. After her husband got a raise, she decided to make the switch. As she sees it, her lack of real estate experience shouldn't be an issue.

"I don't believe people buy a house because you did a good job of pitching it," Gosian said, "but because you gave them the information they needed to buy the house that was right for them."

Traditionally, sellers choose an agent on the reference of a neighbor. Or they interview several brokers and pick the one who recommends the highest asking price or charges the lowest commission.

There are other ways, though. For $500, a one-man operation in Cambridge called Real Estate Cafe, an Internet consulting service, will draw up an agent's report card. It tells a seller how many properties an agent has sold recently, how long the properties stayed on the market, what the selling prices were in relation to the asking prices, and how the agent's performance compares to that of his or her peers, said founder Bill Wendel.

He recently did a report card on an agent a Cambridge couple was thinking about hiring. It showed that the agent had sold only four properties in his career, three of them condos, and nothing in the couple's roughly $1 million price range. They decided to hire a more experienced agent.

Some people, though, think there's a downside to experience.

When Andover broker Lillian Montalto hires an agent for her boutique firm, Lillian Montalto Signature Properties, she almost always hires a rookie. Seven of her eight agents are people she sold houses to and later persuaded to change careers. It's easier to instill good habits in a newbie with good people skills, she said, than to break an experienced agent of bad habits.

"Many real estate agents just shuffle paper," Montalto said. "The average number of transactions they make is pathetic. I've found that the best thing to do is to take people out of corporate America who are ready for a change, then train them myself."

One recen thire was Joe Krol, 33, who spent a decade as a headhunter for software engineers. When Montalto made a job offer in 1999, his business was booming, and he took a pass. Last spring, with software hiring sluggish, he changed his mind.

Getting a real estate sales license was no problem. Krol enrolled for three days of training at a private school, then took the state's exam.

Schools typically charge $200 to $300. Examination and licensing fees cost about $200 more, said director Anne Collins of the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure.

(Salespeople must work under the direct supervision of a broker for a year before they can apply for a broker's license. Unlike a broker, a salesperson cannot complete a transaction or hold a client's funds.)

"Anybody can get a license," Montalto said. "You can get it in a weekend crash course. That's the sad part of it. I think that's why our profession doesn't get the respect it deserves."

After Krol got his license, he spent a month mostly shadowing Montalto. When Krol finally met a customer solo, he said he was upfront about his rookie status: "The way I presented myself was, `This is who I am, but there are many years of experience behind me. If I can't answer a question, someone else in the office can.' "

In the last few months, Krol has been involved in buying and selling a dozen properties, ranging from a $150,000 condo to an $850,000 house. "So far, so good," he said of his new career.

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.