Gretchen Varkonyi began selling real estate in 2003. The market was hot, and Varkonyi, a mother of two, was also working full time as an administrative assistant. She hoped to learn the ropes and build a career in a competitive but lucrative business.

For five years, real estate was her second, part-time job, and it provided a supplemental income for Varkonyi, her children and her live-in boyfriend at the time. “It was a third job for us,” she said.

But last month, when it was time to renew her real-estate license with the State of Rhode Island, Varkonyi, who lives in Pawtucket, sat at her computer and calculated once again that in today’s market, being in real-estate sales was costing her more money than it was bringing in.

In December, Varkonyi had decided against renewing her “errors and omissions” insurance, which protects agents if undisclosed problems with properties surface after a sale, and she quit her job at the Cranston office of Keller Williams in January. But she had until April 30 to decide whether to keep a hand in the business by renewing her state license, which costs $130. She finally decided against it.

Keller Williams was requiring agents to directly pay advertising costs for their listings, in addition to a $40 monthly office fee, Varkonyi said. “That’s always been our policy,” said Bob Sparn, the broker at Keller Williams’ Cranston office.

But as the costs of doing business added up, her sales commissions last year completely dried up. Like most real-estate agents, Varkonyi was working entirely on commission. Varkonyi’s last two transactions, closings scheduled for the third and fourth weeks of July last year, both fell apart at the last minute.

“Both buyers backed out,” she said. “… Up until that point, I was barely making it on a wish and a prayer.”

She decided she could no longer afford to pay the advertising costs to list houses that could take months or years to sell. “As a listing agent, it’s my responsibility to provide the best marketing plans for my clients,” she said. But with no money coming in, “I said to myself, ‘It’s just too much.’ ”

Varkonyi’s personal situation has also changed; she is now a single mother, and she lost her primary job last July. “You can’t do this as a single mom,” she said. She is now looking for steady work.

According to the state Department of Business Regulation, Varkonyi’s predicament is not unique: there were 5,485 real-estate salespeople licensed in Rhode Island before two-year renewal notices were sent out in February, and now there are 3,827.

The net loss of 1,658 people is a drop of about 30 percent.

Among the smaller group of real-estate brokers, the dropoff was less dramatic, but still significant: there were 2,866 brokers licensed last year, and now there are 2,248, a loss of 618, a decline of about 22 percent.

In Rhode Island, real-estate salespeople must work under the supervision of brokers, who must have more education and experience, and real-estate agencies must be operated by brokers.

Sparn said he knows other agents who have had to evaluate whether they want to stay in the business. Some get second jobs to survive the down market, and some leave, he said. Keller Williams has provided sales coaching to their agents to help them deal with the current market, he said. “It’s a tough business,” he said.

Valerie Voccio, of the DBR’s Division of Commercial Licensing & Regulation, said the numbers include people who just became licensed for the first time this year, so the number of salespeople and brokers who have left the business are a bit higher than the figures suggest.

Even with fewer salespeople and brokers, those still in the business are competing for pieces of a shrinking pie: last year, the number of single-family houses in Rhode Island sold through the state’s Multiple Listing Service declined 8.6 percent from the 2006 level, and condominium sales declined 4 percent. In the first quarter of this year, the sales hit was thunderous: single-family transactions were down 23 percent, and condo sales declined nearly 37 percent, when compared to the first quarter of last year, according to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.

Varkonyi said that when the market bounces back, she may consider a real-estate career once again. She said she would like to try commercial real estate, which she thinks might be less emotion-driven than the residential real-estate business. “I don’t mean this in a negative way, but when you’re working with people and money … there are so many emotional things. People can be just wacky.”

Until then, however, she’s not worried that the business will suffer from a shortage of agents any time soon.

“In Rhode Island, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a real-estate agent,” she said.

cdunn@projo.com