RE Consulting: "Sounds Interesting, But It Will Never Catch On..."

Real Estate Consulting (as defined by ACRE, the Accredited Consultant in Real Estate Designation):
1.To take a consultative approach (as opposed to a sales approach) when working with clients; and
2.To offer choices in the services provided and how those services can be paid for.

As the recently-anointed Commander in Chief of the ACRE program, it falls upon me to spread the word about the real estate consulting movement, at least as far as ACRE is concerned, and to help people understand what consulting is… what it isn’t… and why it’s cool ;-]

Which, of course, I believe it to be. Cool, that is. In fact, I think the concept of real estate consulting is incredibly cool. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t have agreed to take over the ACRE program from founder Mollie Wasserman and make it a part of the SWS empire.

But not everyone agrees with me about the coolness of consulting! In fact, many of the people I talk to about consulting in general and the ACRE program specifically seem downright skeptical that real estate consulting is a viable business model, and certainly nothing that would work for them, although most say that it “sounds interesting in theory.” 

When I press them to tell me why they think consulting is “interesting only in theory,” I typically get one (or two) versions of these seven objections:

“It sounds interesting, but…

…my broker will never go for it.”

…it will never work in my market.”

…why would someone pay me to do what everyone else does for free?”

…why would I want to make less money?”

…charging upfront fees is illegal in my state.”

…prices are too low in my market to make charging fees viable."

…I like working on commission."

All reasonable objections, on the surface! After all, if you believe that your broker won't "let" you consult; if you're sure that you'd make less money as a consultant or you've heard that offering compensation options is illegal in your market, then I can certainly see why you might think consulting isn't for you.

But I'll tell ya what... if the concept of real estate consulting DOES sound "interesting in theory" to you... give me the opportunity to discuss each of the above objections and THEN decide if consulting might be something that's not just "interesting" but 100% doable!

Deal? 

Stand by for further discussion!