I was thinking the other day about how lawyers are licensed to operate in each province. They provide their clients guidance and counsel them through important transactions. Real estate professionals guide clients too. They guide them through the most important purchasing decisions of their lives.

The day before that I was thinking about cab drivers and how you have to have a license to drive a taxi. In many cities the majority of cab drivers do not own the taxi they drive but they drive under the banner of a broker, who is ultimately responsible for his or her actions. The real estate industry is kind of like that too.

The big Toronto International Film Festival took place recently and I was thinking about talent agents. They must be accredited today. Some of the high-profile agents have bigger reputations than their clients. Good talent agents are sought-after and can demand a premium rate from new clients. Some high-profile real estate sales reps are like that too.

The more I thought about it the more it seemed obvious to me that being a real estate agent was a lot like many businesses and professions. Agents negotiate compensation in accordance to their ability and value to their customers. You don’t have to be the owner of a brand or corporation in real estate but you can operate your business within a brand. There are a lot of very successful businesses like that.

Then it occurred to me that there was one fundamental difference between real estate and every other licensed business I could think of. Those people get paid regardless of how things turn out for their client.

The vast majority of lawyers in Canada are paid even if they lose the legal action they take on behalf of their clients. If you get into a taxi, you have to pay a drop fee to the driver as soon as you get into the cab, even if you only go one block. If you are a good talent agent, you demand a fee right up front from your client. Even a good waiter who makes thousands of dollars in tips still gets a minimum wage to show up for work at a licensed restaurant.

If you are in real estate, however, and you don’t sell your listing or your client does not buy a property, you don’t get paid.

I have heard this issue debated six ways from Sunday and I know all about the incentive for diligent work this provides and I have heard all the arguments about how this gets good agents to come forward. I have heard it all including the one line that drives me crazy, “That’s just how it is.”

I will be the first to admit to you that I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to commerce but I have to ask the question, does it have to be this way?

Real estate is not the only business that works like that. There are others – the most glaring to me is publishing. If REM does not sell ads I am in trouble because I don’t get paid. But I don’t have to have a license. I did not to have to go through formal training. I do not have to take courses for credits in order to renew my license. I am not as heavily regulated as real estate agents.

I guess my point is that every business person I know of, who has to get formal accreditation, licensing and is regulated, demands a fee or retainer up front, except for real estate professionals. Even a plumber charges a hundred bucks or so just to knock on your door and then charges you for the work he does. Why shouldn’t you?

Real estate professionals should get together and do something about it.

Maybe it is what I have heard for 30 years. Maybe this is just how it is. But it drives me crazy that an agent who deals with something that is not merely important but the most important thing anyone buys and sells doesn’t get paid some kind of retainer right up front to act as their client’s agent.

Heino Molls is publisher of REM. Email [email protected].