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It has been an interesting day. The company that used to represent 10% of national GDP filed for bankruptcy. We can only hope that from this crisis they emerge a smaller, smarter, and profitable company. It's also cause for me to remember when I had major personal crisis in my life like death of a parent, divorce, and cancer. I would like to say that every panic attack meltdown I have had resulted in a brilliant reorienting of my priorities, and that I emerged a wiser person. Sometimes yes and sometimes no, we are all human. But it got me to thinking about the monster crisis that is the real estate industry. How were my ethics and practices during those 6 or 7 years of craziness? I remember going to a San Francisco investors meeting in 2005, and in one day I sold 61 properties. If there is any salesman in you, you know that this is like giving heroin to a heroin addict, it is addictive. Glad to say that we still sold well priced Oklahoma homes but it was hard to hold myself back from the excess, and sometimes I went oh what the hell.
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66 Comments on Are Realtors ready for the next real estate boom?
I don't know how some comments can by made anonymously, but I just deleted one that is not only insulting, but lacks a basic intelligence. If you are going to make a comment please add to the conversation, and do not make ad hominem attacks on a person. This post is about ideas.
John, thanks for excellent comments. Your tech background leads me to another thought. It is not that i want to keep people out of the business, I am not suggesting that. In fact if i was an enterprising business major out of college I would look to real estate as a gold mine with my skills of social networking, and internet understanding. Just because someone has 20 years in the business does not automatically make them good. Speaking of rasing the standards, more intense courses on technology should also be a part of the cirriculum for getting a license. What also derives me crazy is how little is done to help newbies in the budgeting process and business planning. After all this is a business. I bet you are already successful with the attitude and expertise you have.
Joe, great insights. I believe in a self-correcting market. Those with an efficient business plan & discipline to see it through will obviously be more adapt to face the challenges arising with today's market. Good read!
Joe,
What a thought-provoking post.
Question No 1. Gosh I hope so. Licensing education seems to concentrate on the legal aspects. I'd like to see more requirements about the art of listening, working with clients, professional behavior when working with each other agents. Too many folks get that license in hand, but don't have an ounce of professionalism, which reflects poorly on the profession in general.
Question No 2. Would love to see that happen, and I would do it in a heartbeat. A new agent can provide a lot of enthusiasm and may be great at mentoring a longer tenured agent with techie tools.
Question No 3. Amen, but without steeper barriers to entry, when the market recovers those numbers are apt to soar again.
Question No 4. More virtual offices - I can do my job just about anywhere. Please no banks in the mix. That's one of the biggest headaches we face right now.
Question No 5. I'm amazed at how many brokers aren't visible in the community or even in the real estate community. I'm in this business because I like the "people contact". Brokers are more likely to get my attention if they are someone I see in person or talk to on the phone, not just get an email or letter from.
Final Question. How about membership dues on a sliding scale, so that those actively serving the real estate community at large (committees, directors, mentors, speakers) pay a lesser amount than those who aren't involved. I think we'll see more fee-for-service models and that could make sense. In some ways it's more time consuming to work with a first-time buyer on a lower priced home than it is to help an experienced buyer. Would be nice if everything we did wasn't free until the escrow closes.
Joe, great post, very timely! I think an unproductive agent is not nessecarily a "bad" agent. Maybe just an untrained one. We asked 5 or 6 agents to leave out market center in January because they had not closed a single transaction in the last year. In all fairness, I think it was more because they had not payed their office bill in a while. Over 40% of realtors on my mls didn't close anything last year. And Waco and Texas are faring better than the rest of the country.
As for NAR, I heard that they are considering a proposal that new agents have to meet certain experience and education requirements before earning the Realtor designation. That is a solution I support. Not that it makes much difference. I think the public doesn't know or care what the difference is between a Realtor and a nonrealtor.
Yes...I'm ready! Can't wait.
Patricia Aulson/Portsmouth NH Real Estate
Karen, I love your final answer. This is what I wanted to get started, a real dialogue among those who really care for this business.
Ann, I hope you are right about NAR, but again we need the support of Commissions and Boards to make this happen.
Patricia, I can't wait either, and mostly to see if it looks different and real this time.
Joe - this is a very good post and I look forwarad to seeing a higher degree of professionalism.
The NAR looks a lot like the auto unions: more interested in the health, wealth and political power of the union staff than the future propects for the industry, firm or individual worker.
NAR should take a look at just how that is working out for the auto unions as organizations.
We should all look at how well its worked out for their workers.
Afterall, the industry of which we are all a part is really in bankruptcy mode right now. There may not be a few big players going to court and making international news. But there are tens of thousands of newly-former REALTORS doing that very thing.
And there are many local RE franchises being given back to the national firms just like car dealerships are closing.
Joe,
We all pay our dues to NAR in hopes that their lobby will keep the Banks out of the RE biz.
I do think we should all mentor those who come after us in this business we can all learn from each other every step of the way. I just closed a transaction last month where the buyer agent was new and this was her first offer, I help her all the way through the transaction, and she works for another Real Estate company. We should always help the new agents they just might make us better at what we do
The future will always be bright for those of us who see the class half full. I was taught that 1/3 of the agents are comming into the business and 1/3 are going out of the business and the other 1/3 are doing the business. This has alway been true. So there is hope for those of us who stick it out through the good time and the bad times.
I have been a techie for almost 25 years and real estate is starting to catch up to the real world. we just need to embrass it and it will make our jobs better, we hope.
Sharon, thank you for saying that. Also Newport beach is a great place to be a professional!
Jim Hale, Interesting thought about the industry in a bankruptcy mode. I want to give that some thought.
Jim Hemphill, Stefan Swanepoel recently said that 93% of the business is being done by 7% of the Realtors. I had not seen it that high but anywhere close to that would indicate that we have some Realtors who don't know how much money they are losing in the business. I haven't been into tech as long as you, but as an older person it fascinates me and it is fun to learn new stuff.
Hi Joe, Congratulations on this well deserved featured post and the terrific comments it has generated. Regarding question no. 2 -We have so many mentors on AR, and I have been fortunate to work with my great broker/mentors. I think we should all try to help one another and lift each other up -- not tear others down. Those who are not willing to help are part of the problem, not the solution.
Hi Joe...
1. Nope. It's NAR and NAR is about money.
2. We already do that when we hold a deal together for an agent who has much to learn. We also do it right here on AR.
3. 1,000. One to hold the light bulb and 999 to put the spin on the house. I cracked myself up with that one :)
4. Virtual office.
5. But Joe...I am the greatest :)
P.S. You should duck now, here comes that fantasy football :)
TLW...ROAR!
Mary, I am very happy about the comments. It helps create an open discussion.
TLW, I know you are the greatest, and I have not received a recruiting letter from you. The communte would kill me. Had to delete a comment about Broker Bryant, me, and 90% of Realtors. You should be honored that BB was mentioned first. FYI, my first pick is Tom Brady.
Joe - Enjoyed your post. After 25 years selling real estate, I have to say nothing surprises me. Things I would like to see change -- more professional agents who pay attention to detail. The current situation is already culling part-timers which is a good thing.
The future of our industry -- definitely social networking, more reliance on personal websites & technology and fewer agents working in an office environment. Most of us already have computers, printers, faxes, iphones, etc. - we can work anywhere.
Joe,
Think positive. I think NAR will emerge smaller, smarter, and more profitable (for the members) as well. Good post!
I'm with Renee on mentoring - the newbie sucks your brain dry of your valuable knowledge and then is off on their way. Why should I? I'm not a charity, sorry to be blunt with that.
NAR will never change unless we change it. We need to unload the jackasses in charge now. It's a bloated cow with our dues and they don't help police our industry because they NEED those dues. Viscious circle of incompetance.
There were others recently who did a similiar post about the future of the real estate office, pure fantasy about a virtual office, etc. Why worry about it? Go sell something!
The funniest stat to me is the average age of a Realtor and even worse is the average age of managing brokers. I'm 40 years old, so I'm young compared to average. I told my parents agents never leave the industry. Even if they go inactive in marketing lots keep there license and just sell the listings that fall in there lap.
What I see for the future is the same thing that happened to the stock brokerage industry. 10 years ago, one had to pay $100 to $200 to sell a round lot. Today, one can do it for less than $10, and some even free services. We offer a similar brokerage service, so won't our industry go the same way, with more transactions at a lower commission?
Lyn, I actually enjoy the mentoring process, and yes i will give up my time to it knowing what it cost, but that is my choice.
Mike, I am about to speak to a brokers quarterly meeting in OKC to promote a new class that our Board has initiated about web 2.o tools. I will ask these brokers who are mostly post war boomers do you blog at least 3 times a week, do you do any SEO on your agency website, are you Active on AR, and do you have a Facebook business page? The answer will be an overall no. Sine Gen Y is as big as boomers, this is where they should recruit. If I was 28 and they couldn't answer these question yes, why should i join you? That's Oklahoma.
Brian, what I love about our industry now is that we have choice in services and that is what the public deserves.