Numbers from the state and the Rhode Island Association of Realtors show a continuing decline in the number of people working in real estate in the Ocean State.

Membership in the Rhode Island Association of Realtors has declined nearly 14 percent since the end of 2007.

The association said it had 5,014 members at the end of 2007, and 4,704 members at the end of 2008. As of October 2009, membership has declined to 4,319.

The state Department of Business Regulation issues two-year licenses to real estate brokers and salespeople.

The last two-year cycle began in 2008 and the next one begins in 2010.

Renewal forms go out in February and are due April 30.

According to the department, in 2008, 7,036 salespersons were expected to renew, and 1,440 of them did not do so.

But for 2010, the DBR expects just 4,596 real-estate salespeople to renew their licenses — a drop of nearly 35 percent since 2008.

In the smaller group of real estate brokers, the DBR said it expected 3,101 licensees to renew in 2008, and 487 did not.

For 2010, the state said it expected only 2,614 brokers to renew their licenses — a decrease of about 16 percent from 2008.

“We have certainly seen a decline” in the number of agents, said Mary Lahey, regional vice president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. CBRB still has more than 300 agents working in Rhode Island.

Lahey said CBRB has a program in which agents who have left the business can still be compensated for referring clients to the company.

She added that “over the past couple of months, the number of people enrolled in our prelicense [real estate] school has started to accelerate.”

She said some of these new entrants are people who have lost their jobs in other fields during the economic downturn.

“I see this as a real weeding-out period,” said John Hodnett, principal broker of Lila Delman Real Estate. “….It eliminates the people who are selling one house a year.”

“….For the full-timers, the good agents will make more money” because there is less competition, he added.

Hodnett added that his agency recently hired six new people in the past several months, bringing Lila Delman’s agent count to 58 in its four offices.

Since most real-estate agents are independent contractors, and receive no salary or benefits, it costs agencies little to take on new salespeople.

For agents, it costs at least $1,000 per year to stay licensed and insured. Agents usually provide their own car to transport clients to showings. The way office and advertising costs are paid varies among agencies.

Libby Isaacson, chief operating officer of Residential Properties Ltd., said her company has added agents since the housing downturn started in 2006, even though overall business has declined.

Some of the new agents have come from competing agencies which have closed offices, she said.

People who started their real estate careers near the end of the housing boom may not have been established enough to withstand the downturn. “It takes about five years to get really well established,” Isaacson said.

At the same time that fewer people remain standing in the real estate field, the state’s Department of Business Regulation has increased mandatory continuing education requirements from 18 to 24 hours every two years.

The change was instituted to make Rhode Island’s standard closer to the national median.

Salespeople and brokers must comply with the new 24-hours requirement by April 30, 2010, to renew their licenses. However, licensees who hold a valid license originally issued before Dec. 12, 1984, will continue to be exempt from mandatory continuing education.

cdunn@projo.com