What do you want to know?

I like it when people come to my office with various tips, such as when the mortgage broker comes by and gives us tips on how to upgrade credit scores, or when the home inspector comes by with tips on maintaining a house and staying safe in it (rare), or when the pest control guy comes by and gives us tips on keeping pests out of our homes. Etc.

I don't like it when someone comes by and tells us all about what they've done for the past 25 years and why they are the next greatest thing in mortgages, home inspections, pest control reports, or whatever.

Quite frankly, if you're a home inspector, I would expect you to be qualified as a home inspector, even in a state like California that doesn't have licensing. Now as to whether or not you're a good home inspector, that's a different story, and I've met some mortgage brokers who have the personality of my CPA's bookkeeper, who must have the most monotonous monotone in the world.

Anyone who goes to make presentations to a group of people should practice what they are going to say, and practice it so well so that when they get interrupted by the know-it-all in the audience, they can address his interruption and go right back to where they left off when they got interrupted.

I can't tell you the number of times that some presenter wasted five minutes after an interruption because he forgot where he was when he got interrupted. Interruptions are going to happen when you're in a crowd of 10+ Realtors!

And get those typos out of your presentations, especially if you're doing overheads!

I don't like going to office presentations because too many of the presenters have never taken public speaking and don't know how to do a proper presentation. Spend some time and learn, especially if you're self-employed and planning on doing everything yourself.

Remember that Realtors are paid to do two things very well: market themselves and negotiate. That doesn't mean that all Realtors know how to do that, but the major brokers certainly know how and have everything set up to make it very easy on their agents, one of the reasons I joined Century 21. Yes, I understand good marketing because I was with Borders Books and Music for 30 years, and my partner is an expert at marketing for small businesses, but my broker certainly makes it very easy for anyone to do things even without experience in layout, graphic design, etc. We know what looks good, what's easy on the eyes, etc. You should, too.

Hope I wasn't too harsh.