Is YOUR agent IN THE BUSINESS anymore?

So things in your neck of the woods is a little slow lately.  Not having as many showings, not hearing from your agent and just generally you're a frustrated home seller.  You certainly are not alone these days.  Yes, things are picking up from January to February and as we head into March but the market activity is just a side note to the real question I'm thinking about today.

 I showed a home recently and when I called to follow up with the agent, (an agent that I have spoken to a while back on another home) I was a little shocked at the turn the conversation took. 

Apparently, this agent was at work when I called (the call took place about 2pm in the afternoon).  When I say the agent was at work, I mean he was at work in a job other than real estate.  A little shocked, I asked, so why are you working at XXXXX?   The agent's answer was that he had left the real estate business and returned to his former career field.  This agent has been in the business for 4 or 5 years so this really puzzled me.

When the agent got off of work, he called me back to follow up about the house I showed (my buyers had narrowed down their choices to two homes and ultimately eliminated this particular home because they were unable to get the answers they needed before submitting an offer by 4pm).  We continued our conversation from earlier, cut short as it was by the demands of another employer's time clock.  This agent has left the real estate business, currently has 4 or 5 homes listed for sale, and is handling those seller's homes on a "part-time" basis while he works for his new employer.  I asked him if his sellers know that he is no longer a full time real estate agent and he said no, that he was able to handle both "jobs" just fine. 

I don't think he realized that by not being there THAT day, he might have cost his sellers an opportunity to sell their house.  Now I say might because we ultimately don't know if my buyers were all that serious about that house or if they had already decided on the other house before we talked to him.  BUT I can tell you that he did not get an offer that day.

So it got me to thinking.  With the shifting market, I've already seen a lot of less successful agents leave the business.  Our office sent back some 20 licenses to the state board for one reason or another at the beginning of 2008.  Those agents COMPLETELY left the business but they had NO business depending on them either.  How many agents around the country have gone on to another job or profession and have kept their license active with their broker thus allowing them to continue to have listings in the MLS?   Did those agents let their sellers know that they were no longer full time agents and give them an option of terminating their listing so they could list with a full time agent?  I have no way of knowing that but I'm guessing, from my experience the other day, that they did not tell their sellers.

So is YOUR agent in the business anymore?  It might be a good idea to ask!  (By the way, before you ask, I am a full time real estate agent, love my profession, and strive to be the best real estate agent in the world!)