Tilakram Sharma, a retired air force officer and a real estate broker from the Noida suburb of the Capital, is busy these days interviewing at construction companies.

Sharma, a mechanical engineer by training, is looking for a job in construction companies that do fabrication work his real estate brokerage business has considerably slowed these days.

"Last year, in a week we used to have 10 bookings but now it's a big deal if we manage 10 bookings in a month," confirms Arun Sharma, who jointly manages Gaur Consultant with his father.

Arun Sharma has been in the real estate brokerage business for about five years. "I do construction on a contract basis... My father was mainly handling the brokerage business," he says. "Because of the slowdown I am concentrating on the construction business and my father is in talks with companies for a job."

Gaur Consultants now deals mostly with rentals residential properties. "The rental business is doing well...so we are continuing with that aspect of the business," says Arun Sharma.

Sharma is typical of many real estate agents in New Delhi who entered the business, attracted by quick profits, but have now either changed their profession or are looking at doing so.

The real estate agents' profession in India is largely unregulated without an apex body to regulate it. There is no criteria for becoming a real estate agent and the industry does not have any standards in terms of service conditions or charges. Brokers also do not have any legal status as professionals.

Because of the unorganized nature of the industry, during the real estate boom many professionals from other industries, such as architects, chartered accountants and lawyers, came into the real estate brokerage business.

While many of them did well, the slump in the real estate market has forced some of them to go back to their old profession or look for new jobs.

For instance, Nalin Nagpal, a lawyer, came to New Delhi from his hometown Sonepat in 2005, to join his cousin's real estate brokerage firm. In the firm, he was overseeing sale of properties and other legal aspects.

Looking at the profits in the real estate business, Nagpal decided to start his own brokerage firm in Faridabad, where many builders were buying land. "People were making a profit of Rs50,000-60,000 on an investment of Rs2-2.5 lakh within two-three months," says Nagpal. "It was a really good business then."

The business, however, did not work. In April 2006, Nagpal again started a brokerage firm called New Era Properties and Investments. This time, the business did well.