From the perspective of this long-time Principal Broker here in Middle Tennessee, the massive increase of newly licensed real estate sales agents is creating potentially terrifying conditions for uninformed home Buyers and Sellers.

We REALTORS (Members of the local, state, and National Associations of Realtors) are deemed to be “professionals” in our practice of representing Home Buyers and Sellers. Most professions “subscribe” to a Code of Ethics, but many are “aspirational” and inert.

Ethics – The Realtor Code of Ethics differs from ethical codes in most other professions because it is ENFORCEABLE by the Realtor membership. Realtors “Police” each other and the general public can file grievances. The original intent of our COE was to “set an enforceable standard for the protection of the public” This link offers an audio clip: Bruce Aydt talks about the Realtor Code of Ethics

This influx of new agents brings with it great potential for grossly insufficient training with respect to the the actual practice of a Real Estate Sales Professional. The State Required education offers enough for the new licensees to “pass the test” and virtually ZERO training on the “How” of helping Home Buyers and Sellers navigate this oh-so-important process. It’s up to the Principal Brokers to provide whatever training necessary before releasing them into the field. As with most things, HUGE VOLUME of new agents overwhelms many Brokers’ ability to properly equip the new agents with the knowledge necessary to be an effective real estate sales professional. This dynamic leads to “OJT” (On the job training) and “SOHKT” (School of hard knocks Training) which can be problematic at the least . . . Agents “serving” their clients with “Trial and error experience” which unfortunately negatively influences their clients’ home buying and/or selling processes . . . the blind leading the blind through a vast, complex, important, high stakes transaction.

Etiquette – When we are short on knowledge, we inevitably operate from a position of insecurity and fear, because we don’t know what to do. How do we do this right? What should we say? When do we do what? What are the “Best Practices” for each and every phase of this transaction? My suspicion is that “etiquette training” is a rare species.

There IS something we can do about this . . . Let’s acknowledge this elephant in the room and take ACTION!

Rather than continuing to build a case for the necessity of this “Etiquette and Best Practices training”, I’m going to build it and see who will come . . . If you are a REALTOR, and you think this is a good thing, let me know barry@paretorealtyllc.com and I’ll be sure to invite you to the meeting.

Strategist-CEO of Pareto Realty Real estate sales Professional Inviter-Facilitator-Practicer of Open Space Technology Opening safe space for people & organizations to self-organize around issues & opportunities BarryOwen.US Invite-Listen-Love View more posts