Property experts have renewed a push for change, amid the "scary" reality that it's possible to become a real estate agent after just several days' training.
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Trever Molenaar, Real Estate Institute Illawarra chairman said it was "scary" that people can currently sell a home with four days' online training.
"To work in real estate you need to be registered," he said.
"It's a four-day online course that gives you a certificate of registration to say you can officially talk to buyers and sellers.
"You have a multi-billion dollar industry, and we're allowing people that have four days' training to run around and sell houses.
"There's people around right now who could be selling houses with four days' training, and the consumers don't know the difference."
Prior to the state election, the Real Estate Institute of NSW is campaigning to improve education and training standards for the property services industry.
REINSW is calling for changes to the regulatory environment for the property services industry – particularly the training requirement of just four days to gain a qualification to enter real estate practice.
Traditionally, gaining a qualification for entry to the property services industry required three years at TAFE.
The education requirement was slashed to four days by NSW Fair Trading in 2003.
"The people coming into the industry, when they know they've got to dedicate a lot of study to become an agent, it weeds out all the people who just drift in and out really quickly," Mr Molenaar told the Mercury.
Therefore, he said Illawarra sellers should check their prospective agent's credentials beforehand.
"Find out if they're licensed or registered, find out where they did their training," he said.
"It probably doesn't make too much of a difference to the buyers, but when problems arise, the more training they have, the better they're equipped to defuse the situation.
"(Otherwise) they haven't had enough training to be able to understand the pitfalls, and that comes from experience and training."
REINSW CEO Tim McKibbin said the NSW Government ultimately listened to their lobbying, passing legislation in 2016 that will increase the education requirements by new entrants into practice by 600 per cent.
"Surprisingly, however, NSW Fair Trading has not yet implemented the reforms," Mr McKibbin said.
