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The New Real Estate Agent

I posted a blog awhile back titled, "Where is everyone", it was a commentary how less and less people were working in the office. Ablogger named, Stewart Penn - West Hollywood Condo Specialist (Penn Properties), commented that his vision was that fairly soon Realtor would only be working from virtual offices.

I reflected on his comment and thought, if he is correct, our industry's standards are doomed. We become better when we associate with others. It has been said that the fastest way to increase your income is to get wealthier friends. It's true, you will have the net worth of your five closest friends.

This also applies to your real estate skills. If you do not associate daily with people who are successful in this market you will not be able to learn how to be successful. If you are in a virtual office you will only become as good as your natural ability will take you. It is necessary to mastermind, it is necessary to role play with others, and it is necessary to have accountability partners.

We learn mastery from working with others. I recently offered a 100 day challenge in my office. I am not charging for this challenge and I also made it available to Realtors from other offices. 40 people signed up, 30 were my agents and 10 were from different brokers. The responses I am receiving from those engaged in this challenge are incredible. They are amazed at their improvement in scripts and dialogues, negotiating of price reductions, creating urgency in buyers, etc. We role play each Monday at 9am sharp. In each role play there is an agent, a client , and an observor. Than they switch roles.

The average Realtor in this challenge is making 60 new contacts a week. They have actually increased their daily lead generation hours, they are increasing their databases, and they are becoming masters of Real Estate Dialogues.

I believe if more offices offer the types of programs that we are offering attendence will rise, skills will increase, and Realtors will earn more money.

Posted by Ralph Odierna on 06/03/2008 10:40 AM

Comments (27)

realtors, scripts, lead generation, clients, masterminds

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27 Comments on The New Real Estate Agent

JUN

2008

Yes, but at least AR helps us stay in touch with what's happening and learn from each other, all across the nation.

Have A Great Day

Doris~ this is true to some degree, but until AR becomes live streaming interective video, you still the need the benefit of instant feedback.

Interesting. I just got my own office at my brokerage because I felt it was a place for me to goto work and also meet people who work in the industry and offer a place to meet clients.

My broker offers something similar to your challenge. He holds 3 weeks at a time every morning 9:30-10:30, we discuss what we are doing to prospect for business that day, what we did to prospect for business the previous day and how we can improve. we also do some roll playing.

Ralph - I totally agree that agents need to interact with each other in order to learn and grow. My point is that an office isn't essential for this to occur. There are many other forums where this can take place. (ActiveRain being an example). It's interesting that office managers don't have all their agents join and participate in ActiveRain.

I would far rather agents visit other Broker's Opens and interact that way, being able to discuss real situations and issues. Just look at how attendance by agents at these Opens has dropped.

Very few offices have really dynamic Managers and Leaders (you, however sound like an exception). The result is the office becomes a place to hang-out during business hours.

In my mind. ideally a large office should be a place where an agent goes to get recharged, encouraged, nurtured and energized. But in reality, most of the large offices are places filled with internal politics and petty jealousy.

Floor time now yields extremely limited results (as clients can obtain the information they want online), corporate advertising is decreasing as the corporate offices try to reduce overheads, so the real benefit of an agent belonging to a large company is diminishing.

I've been there, I used to operate a large Brokerage - and when I moved to Los Angeles I joined a large "Big Name Company" - only to realize that I generated very little business that was directly attributable to the large office.

Eventually I decided I could do less business, make more money, become more profitable and have more fun as an "Independent Brokerage".

Steven~I'm glad that you are taking an active "roll" in Real Estate

Stewart~I agree on your points in regard to the way large corporate offices think, But I view my main job is a business development coach for my agents. Floor time to me has always been a joke.

What is floor time, floor time is the company leveraging a listing agents listing and then farming it out to someoen too lazy to generate their own listings. I would rather teach the skills to procure your own listings and let all the calls flow to the listing agent.

The internal politcs and jealousy occurs becuase office leadership does not have the back bone to halt it in its tracks.

Stewart, I know you are your own broker, why don't you give me a call and let's see if we can create a partnership that would be a win win for both us, I like your style

Ralph - An associate of mine joined your office this week - he moved to your office from another large National Company where he felt there was nothing to be learnt from that office.

He's looking forward to good things as part of your team.

hmmmmmmmmmm, Lucky???

Yep - and what a good guy he is! One of the most professional agents I've had the pleasure of meeting.

BTW: I've invited him to join AR.

Stewart~ I am excited about Lucky joining, you and I should spend 30 minutes together, get to know each other and see if there are ways to help each other...what about next week?

Ralph,

I agree and disagree with your premise. I think that telecommuting is definitely the future. I grew up in West L.A. and most of my family still lives there, and I dread visiting because of the traffic. The price of gas isn't going down either so telecommuting is starting to look a lot more attractive than it used to.

I also used to own a large brokerage (88 employees). I had some realtors that were always very busy meeting people and not very productive. Also I think that the reason that fewer people are in the office these days is because the market is slow and many agents are rethinking their careers.

Maybe you can help me understand this better. I never understood how to properly motivate people. I always believed that, aside from the paycheck, it was the self-gratification that propelled agents to do well. I believed that I didn't need to offer other incentives. When I was just an agent, I always thought the trips to Hawaii or the dinners out to be silly incentives. If I was working hard enough I could buy those things for myself. I didn't need my boss to dangle those over my head, I wanted cash. I have since come to realize that for some people, just the recognition from their boss is enough. They do it for that and not the money. It is as if the boss has become the surrogate parent. Maybe that is too Freudian.

My point is that the successful future agent will probably be part telecommuter and part socialite. When it takes two hours to get from San Vincente and Wilshire to Sunset and Fairfax and it costs $25 in gas, you'll see a lot less business lunches and a lot more AR participants. You are just ahead of the game. Great Blog.

Hi Ralph,

Great post. I think you bring up an excellent point. And it’s not just for the real estate industry.

I know in our business, when our people get together for some ‘face-time’ it’s a whole different dynamic. Especially when we’re working on creative concepts. And I don't think anything online, any video, or anything else will ever fully replace that.

Christian~ to motivate Realtors you must become a master "state influencer". You need to find at the very core what motivates them and create a win for them in that state. For some it is money, for others, culture, each person is different. I find the best way to motivate people is to examine at a deep level what they consider success to be and then help them focus on creating the outcome that best suits their success.

Christian - great comments. I'm also not a formal psychologist - however I can, from over 10 years experience as an Owner/Manager of a fair sized Real Estate Brokerage, tell you with cerainty that most Managers are surrogate parents.

Many agents want to receive their "parental approval" and many (good) managers have the inner need to "nurture & parent" these "adopted" children. It can be an exhausting, and sometimes thankless job!

Michael~ how very true

Howdy Ralph... GREAT post! I agree with your assessment and think you make a strong case for your assertions. Without saying it outright, you also make a strong point for individual agents needing to take responsibility for their own success. You offer outstanding programming in your market center, but as independent contractors agents can not be forced to participate in career development opportunities that you make available to them. The agent has to want it and has to make a committment to participate so that they can excel.

I have worked with interactive technologies and sometimes they are very effective and other times they are less so. While technology is a tremendous asset and tool for agents, I do believe that real estate will always be first and foremost about relationships built face-to-face, so that if you are going to attempt to strengthen your skills in working face-to-face with clients, the most effective way to do that will be in a face-to-face environment with trainers and colleagues.

I respect Stewart, but on several of his points I choose to disagree. If you work in an office with a manager or team leader who is less dynamic than Ralph, my TL, Lynne, or some of the other outstanding managers who share their time and knowledge with us here on AR then I say it's time to look at changing offices. All agents pay for their broker affiliations in some manner and have a right to expect a dynamic, knowledgable and motivational manager... and if they are not getting it then they are being short changed and should look for a situation where they will get that. As for floor time benefits decreasing, our market center has seen the opposite and we just launched a big local marketing campaign yesterday, so I suspect the office activity will only get better!

Steve - you make some valid points - but I think many of the old business models for many Real Estate Brokerages will need to change. A lot of the giant companies are simply too "top-heavy" and as margins tighten, they will not be able to sustain huge corporate management.

In the midwest, quite a few mega-brokerages (most of which happen to be national franchises) are finding it harder to keep those bloated chrome & glass office buildings. It's tough to keep the desks full in this market. Some are renting out space in an effort to save their own buildings.

I've been approached by two good-sized companies in this metro area during the past month, both asking if I wanted to rent out space in their building (for my independent firm) at a cut-rate price.

I agree with Stewart that the majors have become top-heavy. When times were good, these enormous offices were mills for collecting desk fees as much as they were real estate companies. Now the bloom is off the rose and the agents who were forking over desk fees (but not making sales) have fled the business. Those companies are finding it very tough to make it on company dollars from sales alone.

wow I lost control over my own blog

that's what you get for being so controversial! LOL

Sorry Ralph - it's in my nature .... :)

JUN

2008

I just joined a keller williams. I found in my previous brokerages that being in the office didn't help much. if I had a question, they would suggest a "course".

JUN

2008

Even I'm able to do the same things from my home office as my real estate firm office I prefer going there daily for the interaction with my fellow Realtors.

Virtual offices serve a purpose but they do not replace the bricks and mortar variety.

I agree with Jim. I am always amazed at our market center at the synergistic energy that comes together when a group of agents are interacting, sharing ideas, opinions and insights. And I thoroughly enjoy sharing with and learning from my colleagues. Sometimes it happens in the office areas. sometimes in the training room and even in the kitchen. The only thing that happens in my kitchen at home is burned toast and coffee. Makes a good case for going into the office.

JUN

2008

Ruth~ and you took their advice and blazed a new course and new direction

Jim~that's what I'm talking about

Steve~are you the one sharing everyone's lunches in the kitchen

YUP! That's me. What did you bring today? LOL!

JUN

2008

This is an exceptional example of simple human connections. I love your piece, "If you are in a virtual office you will only become as good as your natural ability will take you." - Bravo!

JUN

2008

Connie~ thank you so much for being aligned with me

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Ralph Odierna

West Los Angeles, CA

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Keller Williams Realty

Address: 10880 Wilshire Blvd #122, Los Angeles, Ca, 90024

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