Real Estate Institute chief Greg Troughton lashes new property sale reform plans CONCERNED: Andy Muirhead is critical of the proposed changes. HOME buyers and sellers will have to pay between $1500 and $6000 more because real estate agents will have to get lawyers involved in the sale, the REI has warned. Real Estate Institute chief executive Greg Troughton said the extra cost was caused by new minimum training requirements in the real estate profession which would mean agents were no longer able to do basic legal work for transactions. Lawyers would have to be employed at a far higher hourly rate than agents, he said. "The REI is appalled because this is not only a blow to the integrity and professionalism of our industry but also a blatant attack on consumer protection and accountability,"" Mr Troughton said. Agents who can now act like lawyers in land transactions will become like those in NSW where they can only market and sell the property More work for lawyers; it will be happy days for them, at $460 per hour. "Our counterparts in NSW (where the proposed system currently operates) estimate that under this system it would costs anywhere between $1500 and $6000."" People will be able to become agents after only two weeks training under the new rules, compared to the current six weeks, a move designed by the Federal Government to make training the same in each state. Mr Troughton complained that as an incentive the Federal Government was offering $40 million in payments to the State Government to push its agenda, which was making it difficult to convince them that customers should not have to pay more. "This will be absolutely devastating to consumers in South Australia if real estate agents are no longer allowed to process the contracts when a home is sold,"" he said. "We are fighting this tooth and nail, because I would argue that even five to six weeks training for someone to be licensed to sell or buy a family's major asset is not nearly enough either."" Mr Troughton said the incoming Federal Government would also be lobbied to "see some sanity." He said the Attorney-General John Rau was sympathetic to the argument, but the $40 million incentive payment on offer was a powerful lure. Mr Rau yesterday left the door open to compromise on the issue. "I have informed the real estate institute that I am very much in their corner on this issue,"" he said. The Commonwealth's National Occupational Licensing Scheme - which affects several industries and seeks to reduce red tape for business - is, in principle, a good thing. But it should not come at the cost of a lowering of licensing standards. Mr Troughton said a second issue he had raised with the State Government was the threat posed by shonky operators becoming involved in the industry if only two weeks training became the minium standard instead of six. Currently real estate sales representatives are required to undergo 17 units of study, compared to four under the proposed system. The 17-unit course covers issues which are not specifically dealt with in the four-week course, such as "interpret legislation to complete agency work"," "minimise agency and consumer risk"," and "sell and finalise the sale of property by private treaty"." The Federal Government, through COAG, which is a combination of all State governments, pushed the restructuring so that retrenched workers could quickly switch to another profession. "The training is one side of things, but we need to make sure all the proper checks are done as well,"" Mr Troughton said. Andy Muirhead, 45, has recently completed his 17-unit degree, underwent another 6 units to get a diploma and now works for Accessible Housing. He said the proposal to cut training from 17 units to four was "almost laughable"." "I don't know how anyone could have any degree of competency after four units,"" he said, that's almost laughable. "That's an enormous difference," he said. Everything they teach you in those 17 units is all critical to having a real holistic understanding of what's expected, I couldn't imagine reducing it from 17 to four. I think the 17 should be standard and from a client's point of view I'd be really concerned, the standard should be raised, not lowered. I couldn't imagine it would possible to do that role properly after just four units. That's impossible. Can you imagine the sort of people that might be attracted to the industry if it were that simple? You would have zero confidence with the agent and they wouldn't get the listing, you wouldn't trust them.