Anyone can get into real estate.

All you need is to take a state-approved 40-hour test prep course, then pass the test that you could have just prepped for with flashcards, and lay out your wallet to pay enough local and national membership dues to fund a mid-tier cult.

And BOOM.
You’re licensed.

To handle the largest financial transaction of someone’s life.

There are no apprenticeships, no residencies, no real supervised practice hours. And while the industry can point to an ethics board and continuing ed, most agents experience those as a quiz, a fee, and a forgettable slideshow.

Profession versus Professional

Doctors and attorneys take years and years before they’re allowed to make independent decisions. They need an undergraduate degree, must pass LSAT/MCAT tests, attend three to four years of graduate school, pass more board exams, and participate in internships, clerkships, and residencies. Bar associations or medical boards that actually discipline misconduct and attend ongoing, rigorous education.

Attorneys and doctors are who they are because those professions require intellectual frameworks, domain theory, structured training, and mastery developed over years of guided practice. Their training builds the mind that does the work.

So a distinct difference exists between professional and profession. And NAR Realtors, brokers, agents love to bandy about the word professional without examining what that word really means, conflating the definition around the gulf between credentialism and expertise.

Real estate builds… well, real estate builds sales habits.

That’s not to say a Realtor isn’t capable of being a professional.

What a Professional Actually Is

A professional is someone who chooses their standards instead of waiting for the world to hand them constraints. A professional delivers even when it’s inconvenient. They make the hard call every time, even when the easier route would be to hide. They take responsibility for the consequences of their craft—good, bad, or flaming-hot Cheetos disaster. They keep learning because stagnation doesn’t just feel like death, but is death. And professionals don’t confuse drama with depth.

Professional is extreme ownership—whether you work for yourself or someone else. A professional is showing up with skill, intention, and integrity—even when no one’s clapping, and especially when you’d rather stay home, skip the work, bake cookies, and enroll in the Church of Oh-God-Not-Today.

The cool thing is, of course, anyone can become a professional. But only the well-qualified, deeply trained can practice a profession.

Real Estate Isn’t a Profession— Here’s the Evidence

The mistake the real estate industry makes is pretending they’re in the same category as a profession.

As of November 2025, New Hampshire counts roughly 6,571 licensed Realtors. MLS statistical data reporting shows that out of that pool, only 3,659 recorded at least one transaction in the fourth quarter of business.

That’s only a little over half of the people with a Realtor badge are actually doing deals. Everyone else? Coasting, dormant, or hanging onto a dream, or just beginning with no idea of what their next steps are.

Nationally, those numbers play out around 1.5 million Realtors, and according to an Inman report, 71% of real estate agents never closed a single transaction last year.

A Saturated Industry With a Thin Workforce

The industry looks saturated with actors, but the effective workforce is thin. And the active workforce hits around 10 transactions a year. That’s about the number I (currently) sit at. But many Realtors love to measure success by volume, that is the number of transactions per year. But there’s a line between agents who operate like craftsmen and agents who operate like factories.

In a 2018 study, Geoffrey Trunbull and Bennie Walter examined high-volume transactional Realtors and discovered top performers may deliver speed but not necessarily better outcomes.

Real Estate 101

Real estate without the real-estate-speak.

A Coffee With Steve Publication

The Inventory Problem

As of November 16, 2025, New Hampshire has 2,319 active single homes for sale, and for the longest time at any given day, an average of no more than around 3000 homes for sale. I don’t see this changing any time soon.

Nationally, those numbers work out to about 1.55 million homes. If no more homes come to market, we’ll run out of inventory in less than five months, which is, weirdly, a five-year high, but still below pre-Covid numbers.

So you end up in a market with far more people trying to help you buy or sell a home than there are homes to buy or sell. In an industry that’s overpopulated and under-trained, you have no built-in way to know whether the agent you hire has closed a hundred deals or zero deals.

What’s more concerning is that sales volume does not necessarily constitute the obligation of reasonable skill and care either.

When High Production Goes Off the Rails

One of my recent deals went sideways when a co-broker—someone who consistently closes forty-plus transactions a year—asked me to take part in what amounted to commission fraud and money laundering. I ended up pulling my broker into the situation because no matter how many times I explained that their perfectly logical-on-paper workaround was straight-up illegal, they weren’t listening. They weren’t, of course, trying to break the law; they just had no idea the move would put every one of us in federal crosshairs.

High production isn’t inherently bad, but high production without deep knowledge is dangerous.

The Culture of Panic

When you mix that low-bar entry, the absurdly thin inventory, and a congregation of agents terrified of being exposed as out of their depth, you get something volatile: desperation masquerading as hustle.

Just as I told my writing students though, there is never an English Emergency, there is never a true Real Estate emergency that couldn’t wait and be dealt with in the morning.

I know too many Realtors who will take a phone call at 2am. And proudly complain about their martyrdom. When are you at work, when are you not at work? That last addendum needs to be turned in and filed now, we need one more signature, yes I will come and list your house right now, and this whole deal will fall apart if we don’t install the pool gate right now.

The topic of 2am phone calls comes up during conversations around how to schedule your calendar. The line you inevitably hear is an industry leader admonishing, “You know, we’re just like doctors and lawyers. We are professionals. A doctor or a lawyer is not answering the phone at 2am. You shouldn’t either.”

Well, I want to point out, depending upon the situation, a doctor might actually take that 2am call.

Second, for Realtors answering that middle-of-the-night call, they are not reacting to an emergency; they are practicing the agent mantra speed to lead, focusing on response time metrics because supposedly the faster you respond, the better your odds of converting someone to a client.

Speed to Lead

With absolute zero hard proof, I’m confident that line was invented by sales automation companies because of the shift to digital leads, such as websites and other online advertising. The theory goes: as soon as someone clicks send me more information, the clock starts ticking. If you wait hours, the potential sale has lost interest and moved on.

The industry breeds people who think if they’re not available 24 hours a day, every second of the night, someone else will swoop in and drink their Kool-Aid.

But 2am is the exact time when the most mistakes are made.

Why the First Agent Wins

Around 70% of buyers hire the first agent they speak to. Roughly 80% of sellers go with the first Realtor who walks through the door.

Which is why the whole profession versus professional thing matters. This is the person you are about to hand over the keys to your life savings. And you deserve someone who has built a mind and not just bought a membership. Someone who actually knows what the hell they’re doing when the deal gets weird, the humans get emotional, or when the laws begin rubbing sharp.

And since the bar to enter won’t protect you, your choice of agent has to.

☕About This Real Estate 101 Series:

This full 10-part series pulls back the curtain on an industry most people never get to see clearly. Beginning with the low barrier to entry that brings so many agents into real estate, the pieces walk readers through how those agents are actually educated, supervised, and licensed to represent the largest financial decisions of someone’s life. From there, the arc traces the full anatomy of a transaction—what a Realtor truly does, how agency law works in the real world, and why so much of the job has less to do with houses and more to do with marketing and navigating human behavior. The series also explains how agents are paid, how production numbers get misused, and how to read a Realtor’s online presence with a critical eye. The final installment gives consumers a practical set of interview questions so they can choose representation based on skill, clarity, and trust rather than chance or convenience.

Next week: How Realtors Are Actually Educated, and coming up:

How Brokerage Oversight Really Works
Agency Law for Real Humans
What a Realtor Actually Does in a Transaction
Why Most Real Estate Work Is Marketing
How Agents Get Paid (and Why It Matters)
The Myth of the “Top Producer”
How to Vet a Realtor Online
Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire an Agent

About this publication.

Coffee with Steve is an independent publication by Steve Bargdill. Views are my own and do not represent Keller Williams Coastal & Lakes & Mountains Realty (“KWCLM”) or any other organization. Each Keller Williams Office is Independently Owned and Operated.

Not advice. Content is informational and educational; it is not legal, tax, or financial advice and does not guarantee results. Talk to a licensed professional who knows your situation before you act.

No agency created. Reading this does not create an agency relationship or agreement for services. Brokerage representation requires a separate written agreement with KWCLM.

Licensure. I am licensed in New Hampshire. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Wire-fraud warning. During representation by Keller Williams, you will never be asked via email to wire funds to anyone, including a title company. Do not follow email wiring instructions. Always verify by phone using a trusted number.

You can reach Keller Williams Coastal and Lakes & Mountains Realty at 603-610-8500 or Steve Bargdill directly at 603-617-6018.

Steve Bargdill | Realtor & Author | Dover • Portsmouth • Somersworth • Rochester • Seacoast NH | Licensed in NH as Stephen Bargdill Jr., with Keller Williams Coastal & Lakes & Mountains Realty.

Pronouns: he, they