Whether training agents, loan officers or appraisers, it is the owner's responsibility to provide the very best training possible.  It is then up to those individuals to learn.  We all have a duty to the public to provide the very best service.  I want my staff to think of themselves as consultants, not sales people. I want them to think of the contracts and forms as representing the solutions to someones needs and not just pieces of paper that need to be filled out in order to get paid.  I want them to realize that the payment is the end product of a job well done.

For the last two and a half years, Anna Shellner and I have been working on a training manual for our agents.  The manual comes in two parts.  The first part concerns working with buyers.  The second part concerns working with sellers.  The manual also includes sections on:

* "the big picture in real estate".  A section describing the real estate transaction from beginning to end and the job function and description that each person along the way plays in the closing of that transaction.

* advice on marketing, the importance of keeping good records and more!

Each chapter has a quiz designed not to see if an agent has memorized the material, but to see if he has fully grasped the information written.

Anna and I started writing this manual because we saw that the new agents we recruited had only enough information about real estate to pass the state exam.  As a former instructer, I had first hand knowledge about how quickly the schools were churning out students.

Anna has an extensive background in real estate sales and marketing. She was a multimillion dollar producer in San Antonio when most homes were selling in the $40,000 range.  She has owned a mortgage company and worked in property management and appraisals in her 30+ year real estate career.

I have been a commercial and residential appraiser and broker since the 1980's. I also have worked as a loan officer,  property tax consultant and instructor in my 25 year career in real estate.

We wanted to "download" this knowledge to our agents so that they could be competitive and valuable to their clients quickly.  We email the training manual to them (quite a big file so thank goodness for T1's).

Whether training agents, loan officers or appraisers, it is the owner's responsibility to provide the very best training possible.  It is then up to those individuals to learn.  We all have a duty to the public to provide the very best service.  I want my staff to think of themselves as consultants, not sales people. I want them to think of the contracts and forms as representing the solutions to someones needs and not just pieces of paper that need to be filled out in order to get paid.  I want them to realize that the payment is the end product of a job well done.

For the last two and a half years, Anna Shellner and I have been working on a training manual for our agents.  The manual comes in two parts.  The first part concerns working with buyers.  The second part concerns working with sellers.  The manual also includes sections on:

* "the big picture in real estate".  A section describing the real estate transaction from beginning to end and the job function and description that each person along the way plays in the closing of that transaction.

* advice on marketing, the importance of keeping good records and more!

Each chapter has a quiz designed not to see if an agent has memorized the material, but to see if he has fully grasped the information written.

Anna and I started writing this manual because we saw that the new agents we recruited had only enough information about real estate to pass the state exam.  As a former instructer, I had first hand knowledge about how quickly the schools were churning out students.

Anna has an extensive background in real estate sales and marketing. She was a multimillion dollar producer in San Antonio when most homes were selling in the $40,000 range.  She has owned a mortgage company and worked in property management and appraisals in her 30+ year real estate career.

I have been a commercial and residential appraiser and broker since the 1980's. I also have worked as a loan officer,  property tax consultant and instructor in my 25 year career in real estate.

We wanted to "download" this knowledge to our agents so that they could be competitive and valuable to their clients quickly.  We email the training manual to them (quite a big file so thank goodness for T1's).

Happy New Year to all of you.  Last year was an interesting one of both growth and decline for our companies.  We moved into a new larger office in San Antonio (northside) from our old office (northeast) in October, thanks to team work the transition went extremely well.  We were down for just one or two days.  Considering all the people involved (contractors, phone installers, IT people, plus my staff), it was an amazing site to see it all come together so smoothly.

In September prior to the move, I affiliated with Key Financial Corp, in Florida.  Key Financial Corp is a net branch mortgage banker, licensed in 48 states and does FHA, VA and Conventional loans.  I am proud to be Key Branch 118 here in San Antonio.  September was probably not the best time to start doing loans, but the versatility offered by Key Financial has helped us to thrive in the midst of the mortgage crisis.  Having a good staff locally has also helped.  Remember, in bad times, the cycle will eventually go up, but in the mean time you have to market.  You have to spend more money on marketing when times are tough.  This is not always easy to do when you have less money coming in.  It's a tough decision, but what is the alternative?

Residential appraisal work has been slow throughout last year for us.  However, we were able to supplement the loss through additional commercial appraisal work.  We were selected to be one of ten appraisal companies by the City of San Antonio to do right-of-way work for the $550 million dollar bond issue passed earlier in the year.  According to our contact with the city, we should start seeing jobs coming in around February or March.  We were also selected for appraisal work by San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA).  So far, we have only gotten a few commercial appraisal assignments, but this should pick up considerably in 2008.

Our real estate company is finally starting to catch on here in San Antonio.  It was more important for me to get everything set up properly than to just recruit agents without a plan to house and train them.  My trainer, Anna Shellner and I wrote a comprehensive training manual for our agents including test questions after each chapter.  The training talks about the big picture of real estate and how it all fits together; from raw land to development to closing and property taxes. We also covered each of the forms and explained in plain english.

According to a web site called NuWire Investors, San Antonio is the top city for real estate investment.  The rankings considered population, job growth, home values, vacancy rates and unemployment rates.  They also considered affordability, which was determinied by comparing median income for the area to average expenses.  According to CNN, San Antonio has one of the best job growth rates in the county for college educated business and technical professionals.

As a broker and appraiser, I am seeing first hand the opportunities that the community has to offer to those moving here and thereby real estate professionals. Prior to 2005, the city's growth was stable at approximately 5% per year.  Since the fourth quarter of 2005, San Antonio's growth has skyrocketed.  Downtown and North San Antonio has seen the most significant price increases, but each quadrant of the city has seen substantial growth in prices.