Gone are the days of pot bellied, pan chewing, smooth talking, museum like mobile carrying, wholesale safari-suit clad army. They are changing with the times. Indian real estate agents or (locally called) Dalal are sporting a radical new makeover these days. A boom in real estate in India has given birth to the next generation of professional property agents. You will find them flaunting foreign degrees. You will discover they are completely in tune with the latest jargons that have hit the business magazines only the last week. Contentedly they are discussing floor to area ratio, vastu-feng shui merits-demerits, Italian marbles, decorated flooring, real estate gimmicks and substances with their offshore foreign clients via video conferencing.

It seems the order of the day, anyway. Gone are the days of shabby looking unprofessional . The burgeoning needs professional new age real estate specialists who have knowledge in world business, outsourcing, finance, architecture, investment and what not.

What's more, there are youngsters also who want to make a career in this field. Gauging the opportunity and also by the fact that the industry does not have enough of trained manpower, couple of renowned real estate developers have smartly launched business management program on the area. There are also short term studies which will give candidates a formal orientation and industry insights into this not so conventional industry vertical.

According to a conservative estimate by FICCI real estate industry in India is estimated at around $12 billion. The industry is growing at the rate of 30% per year. Industry analysts feel that the scorching growth is credited to demands created by offshore and outsourcing business sectors which include IT and ITES, high end software and technology consulting, contact centers, call centers, software houses, design firms and other process outsourcing companies. No wonder an opportunity galore has explored to the real estate agents in India in a never before way.

Ernst & Young, the leading consulting house reports FDI in India is expected to touch $15 billion this year. That's triple the 2004 figure. The report states that one fifth of Fortune 500 companies including global biggie General Electric, pharmacy major Eli Lily, technology leader HP are setting up research and development centers in India.