When I was a teenager, I was a lifeguard during the summer months. That happened for about four summers. Fortunately, I never had a serious rescue. Sure, a kid here and there got in a little trouble. Sometimes they would go a little too long before taking a rest. On occasion, I would jump in and simply push them to the side. Once in a great
while, I did throw a lifeline with a life preserver. Here again, it was almost too much for the circumstance, but it did the job. Thankfully, I never had a close call.
In this business, there are a lot of agents who decide they can swim because they see great swimmers out in the market making it look easy. If you've been in this business for a while, and you've become good at what you do, you can make it seem simple. When the water is smooth and the weather is good, swimming seems almost natural. The same is true of real estate. When the economy is humming and there is a good balance between available houses, great interest rates, money to borrow and plenty of buyers, the business can look like a ride in the park. But, like 2008 when the markets collapsed and true skilled agents came floating to the surface, the poor swimmers get washed away. In 2008, our market had 1300 agents in an area where there are 156,000 residents (including kids). There was nearly 1 agent for every 10 adults. By the end of 2008, there were approximately 380 agents. That was 280 too many, but I digress.
Those of us who have survived the waves of the good and bad real estate markets have a lot too offer. I was at a family event recently where a photographer came to do family portraits. It was a lot of fun family event and I met a great photographer. I found out the photographer was also a real estate agent. I asked her where she held her license and she told me she was getting ready to ask her broker to send her license back. Curious, I asked how long she had been in the business and why was she giving up her license? She said three months. Three months? She said it was a lot harder than she expected and she wasn't doing any business and she couldn't afford to sit on the financial sidelines any longer.
I asked her if her office had a referral agent program, and confirmed that it did, but it wasn't working well. Hmm? I did encourage her to talk to her broker, but if she was still intent on sending her license back to come and talk to me about joining our office referral program. What is an office referral program? We set up a second brokerage, with a similar name, a few years ago to aid our agents when life became to busy for them to keep up with their lives and real estate. One of my agents wanted to go back to college to get a second post-graduate degree. It was because of her that I started our referral company. I had her put her license in our referral program. In the program, she would not be allowed to show property, give advice to clients or access the MLS, but she would not be have to pay local board dues (which are very high). She would do CEs to maintain her license, which are free with different schools. The biggest 
benefit is that she maintains her license without having to retake licensing tests, without having to pay board fees and any clients she refers into the company would earn her a 20% return on the referral if a deal closed. She would be paid without doing the work. A win-win for the company and the agent.
This young agent will likely join our referral company soon. She can maintain her license, do none of the work and ultimately early 20% on her referrals into the company. This is where being a lifeguard comes in handy. Not all swimmers are drowning, but in the moment, they may not realize it. Those of us who have been at this for a while can keep them from going under when everything in their world says otherwise. Throw those agents a lifeline. They will appreciate it.
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