HOW DO YOU PERPETUATE YOUR PROFESSIONALISM?
Okay, quick show of hands. Who here considers themselves to be a professional? Good. Now, who here would say that they consider the majority of their fellow REALTORS as professionals? Hmmmm...
What constitutes a professional anyway?
One definition is "a person who is an expert at his or her work."
And how does one become an expert at his or her work? I would submit that experience and knowledge are certainly important ingredients.
I think we all can agree that the basic REALTOR's licensing course is a far cry from the be-all and the end-all of professional education. And while required continuing education courses are a good practice, they are hardly enough to build expertise.
More education and training is clearly required for anyone to consider themself a professional or an expert at real estate.
Here at Century 21 First Realty, we do quite a bit to provide our agents with continual training. We hold two training sessions a day, each weekday. These sessions are open to all agents and mandatory for new agents (anyone with less than 3 closed sales.) While this program definitely creates good agents, I don't believe it is enough to create true professionals.
I believe that one mark of a true professional is the continual search for knowledge. To this end, one of our teams (built around a superstar agent) established a suggested reading list for all of its members.I think the idea is solid. The list is not extensive, but I believe it is a great step in the right direction.
They have started with two books which are required reading, a soft skills book and a hard skills book. The soft skills book is The Best Seller by D. Forbes Ley. The hard skills book is What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know about Cash Flow by Frank Gallinelli.
I am kicking around the idea of establishing a suggested reading list for all of Century 21 First Realty Agents. I would love to get some input as to other books that you have found particularly helpful to you and your work in real estate.
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Joe Manausa, MBA, CRB, CRS | Broker / Owner | Century 21 First Realty
2365 Centerville Road | Tallahassee, Florida 32308 | 850-386-2001 | http://www.manausa.com/
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Gary Keller's Millionaire Real Estate Agent (really good & you don't have to be a KW agent).
The Fred Factor (sorry forget the author)
The Four Seasons by Laurie Beth Scott (excellent book on personality types)
The Present by John Spencer (short read, but uplifting--something we can all use right now!)
The other thing that new agents have to do to become a professional is just get out there & meet the people and get some experience, meet the people and overcome the fear of rejection.