We have a responsibility to train our staff.

Whether training agents, loan officers or appraisers, it is the owner's responsibility to provide the very best training possible.  It is then up to those individuals to learn.  We all have a duty to the public to provide the very best service.  I want my staff to think of themselves as consultants, not sales people. I want them to think of the contracts and forms as representing the solutions to someones needs and not just pieces of paper that need to be filled out in order to get paid.  I want them to realize that the payment is the end product of a job well done.

For the last two and a half years, Anna Shellner and I have been working on a training manual for our agents.  The manual comes in two parts.  The first part concerns working with buyers.  The second part concerns working with sellers.  The manual also includes sections on:

* "the big picture in real estate".  A section describing the real estate transaction from beginning to end and the job function and description that each person along the way plays in the closing of that transaction.

* advice on marketing, the importance of keeping good records and more!

Each chapter has a quiz designed not to see if an agent has memorized the material, but to see if he has fully grasped the information written.

Anna and I started writing this manual because we saw that the new agents we recruited had only enough information about real estate to pass the state exam.  As a former instructer, I had first hand knowledge about how quickly the schools were churning out students.

Anna has an extensive background in real estate sales and marketing. She was a multimillion dollar producer in San Antonio when most homes were selling in the $40,000 range.  She has owned a mortgage company and worked in property management and appraisals in her 30+ year real estate career.

I have been a commercial and residential appraiser and broker since the 1980's. I also have worked as a loan officer,  property tax consultant and instructor in my 25 year career in real estate.

We wanted to "download" this knowledge to our agents so that they could be competitive and valuable to their clients quickly.  We email the training manual to them (quite a big file so thank goodness for T1's).