I have an entire class based on the pyramid of teaching that agents go through and how upside down it is. The primary teaching that goes on in a brokerage regards contracts and escrow process. This is the least important aspect of what you do for a living. (It is very important to how you get paid and even more important to how you keep what you got paid – but it is at the bottom of the scale in measuring what agents do for a living.) Contracts are “fill-in-the-blank” boiler plate. For $300/transaction you can have someone do it for you. If there comes a time when a contract is unclear… an agent is not allowed to advise anyway! It goes backward from there: how to close a listing, how to show a home, how to run an open house until finally, just maybe, if there is anytime left, the broker might talk about marketing.

This is beginning to feel like a whole post that needs to be written so I will leave off the rant. Suffice to say that if you look around at the listings in your neighborhood you will see the antithesis of good marketing. If you look around at the “marketing” pieces that our fellow agents use they are the antithesis of good marketing – especially in a 2.0 world.

Learn marketing. Combine that marketing with true and passionate caring for your client – make it comfortable for them to put their trust in you. Almost every other aspect of what an agent does can be outsourced.

I have an entire class based on the pyramid of teaching that agents go through and how upside down it is. The primary teaching that goes on in a brokerage regards contracts and escrow process. This is the least important aspect of what you do for a living. (It is very important to how you get paid and even more important to how you keep what you got paid – but it is at the bottom of the scale in measuring what agents do for a living.) Contracts are “fill-in-the-blank” boiler plate. For $300/transaction you can have someone do it for you. If there comes a time when a contract is unclear… an agent is not allowed to advise anyway! It goes backward from there: how to close a listing, how to show a home, how to run an open house until finally, just maybe, if there is anytime left, the broker might talk about marketing.

This is beginning to feel like a whole post that needs to be written so I will leave off the rant. Suffice to say that if you look around at the listings in your neighborhood you will see the antithesis of good marketing. If you look around at the “marketing” pieces that our fellow agents use they are the antithesis of good marketing – especially in a 2.0 world.

Learn marketing. Combine that marketing with true and passionate caring for your client – make it comfortable for them to put their trust in you. Almost every other aspect of what an agent does can be outsourced.

I actually appreciated all your questions and comments.
and, yes, we ARE a franchise.
Can’t remember exactly what I said about it there in SF.
We have not filed our FDD in California so I was being pretty vague about stuff.

And, yes, we’re adding a pretty kickin’ CRM to our backend also.

Love to talk more to you about it.

ps. it would be awesome if you added a comment tracker (or whatever you call it) to your blog so I can get notified when others comment on the same post, etc.

I actually appreciated all your questions and comments.
and, yes, we ARE a franchise.
Can’t remember exactly what I said about it there in SF.
We have not filed our FDD in California so I was being pretty vague about stuff.

And, yes, we’re adding a pretty kickin’ CRM to our backend also.

Love to talk more to you about it.

ps. it would be awesome if you added a comment tracker (or whatever you call it) to your blog so I can get notified when others comment on the same post, etc.

A quality Realtor is one who doesn’t sell anything. He represents his clients best interests and places said client’s interests as the paramount concern. Sometimes this is listening, counseling, guiding, interpreting, advising – on price, terms, etc – and sometimes this is negotiating – with the client as well as other Realtors.

Part of being a great Realtor is knowing who the other “good” professionals are who the “bad” ones are. How does one quantify this knowledge?

Using all of the above, we have to set expectations appropriately for all involved. Personally, I consult and I adapt to my clients’ needs.

The profession has tried to protect “what we do” for so long (when often it was just putting a property in the MLS) that we have neglected to clarify exactly what we do – even when the list is extraordinarily long.