The time from the first day of school to the Christmas break seemed like an eternity to me when I was young. We had 2 semesters to go through, Thanksgiving and both football and then basketball season. 
Now it all seems a blur of reaching yearly goals and closing lingering deals. It is official, there are now just 4 months left in this year to achieve the goals you have set for yourself at the beginning of the year. I am new to real estate this year and set some pretty lofty goals. I came into a new market, one that is 1800 miles away from my home of 30 years, hoping to use the new school techniques to provide better communication to my prospects and clients. In this regard I have already achieved my goals. The more significant goal of houses sold and commissions pocketed has not been so easy to lasso.
The office I came in to was not set up for any training whatsoever. I thought, no big deal, I would just grab a real estate guru DVD series and have at it myself. The first 90 days in Dallas I waded through the daily exercises that Walter Sanford suggests in his book Starting Over… 
I started farming my neighborhood, talking to top producers, going to meetings and getting involved in community events. I worked, with other agents in my office, on some REO work that was delivered to us from agent in another state who had connections to Asset Managers with REO properties in our area.
Through that process I learned both good and bad. The agents in my office were seasoned REO agents having done a variety of them in the old school manner. I didn’t so quickly learn that it is a whole new world in the REO world until our ratings came in as very bad because we were not completing our tasks in a timely fashion. The old school agent, who was the listing agent, on the first two REO’s we received was adamant about her skills, she knew how to close these deals and the bank would be satisfied that they got the most for their house. She was wrong, and it took me almost 5 months to fully understand how wrong. As a result our office lost over 40 potential listings because of this.
We were given one more REO to handle and I was made the listing agent. At this point, the other two agents in my office were disgusted by the process and wanted nothing to do with it. Right now, today, I have my REO under contract and moving towards a closing. My own personal rating with the banks is the highest rating there is. I pay attention to the tasks that are assigned and get them done. It is really that simple. I lost time by listening to agents who were not paying attention to the changes in the industry. This lesson will save me years of wasted time as I move on. I will never get so comfortable with the way I conduct my real estate career that I am not paying attention to the changes that are happening around me. I will continue to study and learn. I will continue to ask questions and get better. To me that is what a profession is all about.
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