It's only been a matter of time before it would catch up. The pizzazz, glamour, and perceived "hype" of certain industry Short Sale designations are finally catching the awareness of leadership and real estate agents across the nation. If you've received a Short Sale designation recently, you'll want to read this. After an exhaustive effort in attempting to get Short Sales closed, Agents are finally beginning to realize what they really don't know when it comes to the topic of Short Sales. Given how much Short Sales have become one of the hottest topics of the decade, it seems that the "prestige" of having certain letters behind your name has become the primary focus of many organizations and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent only leaving Agents after several months wondering where their money went. Unlike many real estate niches and disciplines, for Short Sale education to be 100% effective, it is vital to an Agent's future success that the instructor they're learning from has many years of personal experience in working Short Sales.
Having been in the Short Sale training environment for over 4 years now, you'll find the following story very interesting and quite astounding. In the Fall of 2007, I received a phone call from a person of significance in the real estate industry asking about our Short Sale training program and whether or not he could market our product as part of his national coaching program, as well as teach our material. I asked him "How much experience do you have in working Short Sales?" and he said none, but he said not to worry about his lack of experience, because he was a good speaker and commanded a great presence. It didn't matter to him at all that he didn't have the practical experience that was necessary to assist the hundreds of thousands of Agents who were struggling with their own Short Sales across America. Instead, he said Short Sales were going to be the "Hot Topic" for the next few years and that he wanted to make sure he was prepared to take full advantage of it. "Full advantage" without experience? Hmmm, I smell an opportunist who is about to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from Agents making them believe they have something more than they really do because of his popularity and notoriety. Given the complexity of this topic, I told him that we would need to think about his offer and consider how we would do this considering his lack of experience. Again, he reassured me that experience didn't matter. After serious consideration, we decided to pass on his offer. Exactly two months later, he announced on his website that he was an "expert" in Short Sales and that he had a full-blown Short Sale training program.
While many states have already passed legislation, more state government officials are calling for new rules and regulations to increase consumer protection and to better educate homeowners who may be facing the devastation of foreclosure. In the end, if the consumer is warned about certain designation-descriptive words, then it only makes sense that real estate professionals will return to needing experience-based training, as they did just 3 years ago before America found itself in a housing crisis.
For more information and Agent feedback, visit www.AmericasHomeRescue.com.
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