Hold on, now. I can see the hair standing up on your back. "Them's fightin words," you say. But this is a question worth considering. After all, we just read a post in this site called "I Hate REALTORS." The author even created real estate marketing out of that tagline. (I hope the NAR doesn't go berserk because she misused the the holy "R" word and violated their proprietary rights. Don't worry. I won't tell on her if you won't.)
Obviously, she tapped into a public nerve when she discovered this clever market idea. REALTORS get no Rodney Dangerfield respect. In our fair state (Minnesota) there are more real estate agents than there are buyers. Our Association doesn't seem to care either. They don't seem to do much to curb the influx of them. It's easy to sit through class, take an easy test, and pay the board some money. This glut of agents does not do anything to add to either the value or the public perception of REALTORS.
It is no secret that anyone can become a Minnesota REALTOR, unless you are a convicted felon or brain dead. The good news, though, is that real estate sales is like any other sales business; 10% of them do 90% of the business. What that means is that the real estate agents out there who are making the sales are the best of the group, especially in this market. If you do a little investigating, you will find that many of them bring incredible skills from other professions. Just take a few of our agents at IBR, for example. Tom Hakala served as a Lakeville Police Officer for 20 years before becoming an agent. He honed excellent bargaining skills as a trained SWAT Team negotiator. He picked up analytical skills during his stint as a crime scene analysist. He picked up PR skills as a Community Liaison Officer. Loretta Holscher developed analytical and managerial skills as a engineer and project manager for US West, with an international assignment in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Jud Lauzon was a top level manager before he joined our company. Imran Khan a distinguished college career that groomed him for the demaning Health Care Administration field. He chose real estate because he wanted to work directly with clients and did not want to sit in a board room all day. He found real estate to offer more possibilities in terms of creativity and investment potential.
Maybe just about everyone is a REALTOR. But the ones that are out there selling homes right now probably have some smarts going for them.
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