REALTORS’ SURVIVAL GUIDE, PART 1.  “What Do We Bring To The Table?”

We all know this is a DIFFICULT real estate market.  Sandpoint, Idaho is no exception.  Prices have declined to historic lows, personal financial portfolios have been trashed, home loan dollars can be difficult to secure (even though interest rates are also at historic lows), home sales are down, home sale prices are down, COMMISSIONS are down…LIFE IS DIFFICULT.  Being a Realtor® is difficult. 

Most of the Realtors® that I know are “reinvented”.  They have “morphed” into the real estate industry by way of a rich and diverse career road.  It is this very career road that has helped pave the way to their success.  The  majority of Realtors® in my MLS Association (The Selkirk Association of Realtors) here in Sandpoint have the most interesting, eclectic background of any group I have ever associated with regardless of what industry we are talking about.  I thoroughly enjoy being a part of this group and I am duly impressed!  (This is ONE of the reasons I love it here in Sandpoint.  I don’t look at my fellow Realtors® as competition.  These are the people that have done so much to enrich my life here in Sandpoint!).

We, as Realtors®, cannot forget about the path that got us into this industry.  The tools we have gained through our career life experiences are the very tools that will help us get through these economic times.  As a group, most Realtors® cannot survive this market on real estate sales alone.  Sorry, but that is a fact.  We work in a cyclical marketplace and if we have not cached away enough money to get through these times, we need to supplement our income.  Our personal profiles reveal the tools needed to survive.

Our personal profiles need to be readily available to potential clients.  The client/agent relationship is typically a very personal experience.  Good clients tend to become good friends.  It is important that a potential client has some background of the agent he/she is selecting when making a life-changing decision like buying or selling a home.  I invite all customers to study my personal profile before selecting me as their agent.  All of our classes on the Realtor® Code of Ethics, Core classes, Agency and the other yearly required classwork are immensely important but, so to is our work history both inside and outside the Real Estate world.  It is my belief that the fact I owned a company of over 120 employees for 25 years has given me certain tools that may be unique to me that can help a client through a bumpy real estate transaction.  The examples of how life experiences can help create an exceptional Realtor® are, of course, countless.

Our personal profiles also reveal tools that can directly bring in income to help survive this market.  There are fall-back positions that we may need to take whether we return to doing some of the tasks we had mastered in our past work history, incorporate some of those tasks into our current real estate practice or resort to a consulting position based on our expertise from our “former life”, these tools need to be utilized from time to time.

Part 2 in The REALTORS’ SURVIVAL GUIDE will explore how this can work.

Kent Anderson is a Realtor®, sales associate with Coldwell Banker Resort Realty in Sandpoint, Idaho.

If you are considering buying or selling a home in Idaho, you deserve local expertise and advice to be provided by a professional in real estate. Kent Anderson, is a full-time Idaho REALTOR® providing full time, professional real estate services to home buyers and sellers in the cities of Sandpoint, Sagle, Ponderay, Kootenai, Clark Fork, Priest River, Priest Lake, Hope, Bonners Ferry, SCHWEITZER MOUNTAIN RESORT and all surrounding cities in the  Bonner County / Boundary County North Idaho area.