Mentoring in 2012

I have been a Realtor for six years now and an active Realtor for five. I have had some success, a lot of fun and seem to have earned the respect of my peers. That respect earned me a phone call from my broker asking me to mentor a brand new agent. I had never thought of myself as a teacher or a mentor, but Susan was persuasive and I accepted the responsibility.

A lot of good has come from it and there are some interesting challenges attached. My mentee has always earned a regular paycheck and I discussed with her that sometimes in RE it can be a roller coaster ride. I explained that it is possible to avoid that roller coaster by carving out time to lead generate regardless of your current volume of business. Keep the pipeline full, and the roller coaster fades away.

We talked at length about different methods of lead generation and how its important to pick one or two and then stay with them. Don't try a little of this and a little of that. Pick your method and go for it.

I asked the other agents in the office to at least for a little while refrain from acronyms. No SPQs allowed. Say it clearly, Seller Property Questionnaire. She quickly learned the forms and soon was speaking acronyms like the rest of us. We did a contract class then progressed to roll play. She would present a RPA, oops I mean Residential Property Agreement to me as if I were her client and I need to understand what I was signing. The contract class, and roll play worked great. The first few times we rolled played she graded herself at D minus minus minus. She improved and began to get comfortable.

We vied property together and I asked to do an AVID as we walked through. AVID of course being an Agent Visual Inspection Disclosure. We viewed lots of properties over a wide range of prices. Her response to the different properties was very interesting. I told her I would dis-own her if I ever heard her say "Now this is the kitchen".

She learned the basics fast and seemed to really enjoy the process. That's the good side, and now the bad.

She was astonished at the costs involved just to get going. Associations dues, MLS fees, business cards, web site and on and on. I told her never purchase anything without discussing it with myself or our broker first. She got calls from companies promising leads for a fee, Google placement, all sorts of things that cost and seldom pay.

Ten years ago a new agent could almost aways count on getting their first deal from their "sphere of influence". Not today, the economy has seen to that. There have been days where I could sense her frustration at learning but not doing real business.

One of the agents in our office became ill and has not been able to work. We passed one of her clients to my mentee. She was thrilled to have real business, even if  it was (and it is) a difficult client.

For me it has been an interesting and rewarding experience. She hasn't written her fist deal yet, but I believe she soon will. She has worked hard farming her own neighborhood, continues to lead generate diligently and always has questions.

My name is Dale E. Bledsoe with Crown Key Realty and as always I may be reached at 209-481-6031. You may also visit me on the web at www.dalebledsoe.com .