I'm a new kid (relatively speaking at 4 years) to this gig called real estate. Oh, I had some exposure years back when my parents sold real estate in Montana, but by that time, I had moved on to someplace like Houston, New Orleans or maybe Miami Beach. And real estate would be my 6th, yes I said 6th career in my lifetime. NO, you don't need to know what all the others are. But let's just say, each of them has been a great stepping stone to real estate.
I can say that every career has been service oriented. Helping people in some form or fashion. Whether it was renting a car, hosting a meeting in a hotel, or booking a cruise, it was all about service. (Just gave you some hints, didn't I?) Of all of them, the hotel business, by far, gave me the best training you could get for real estate. First off, you had to be detailed and organized. Contracts, files, etc. And it was big ticket items. I had one meeting that spent almost $600,000 in my hotel in 4 days. No chump change there! And it taught me to be professional.
Times when you had voice mail, but a live voice ALWAYS answered the phone, it NEVER went directly to voice mail. People, people, people.
One could argue whether real estate is a service business. I would certainly say it is. I'm providing service to my sellers in the form of market knowledge, product (neighborhood or building) knowledge, marketing expertise, negotiation service, hand holding, and much more. Buyers get much of the same information or service as well. After all, we are helping an individual, couple or family make one of the biggest purchases in their lifetime (unless they are on #2 or 3 for buying) but still they are looking to us (me) for help (service). People, people, people.
Back to my parents selling real estate....it didn't mean much to me then, but now I remember this big notebook my mom always carried....ahhhh.. it was her MLS book! Today, we have this little thing called the Internet. Makes our lives much easier. Sometimes, to easy. Buyers can shop for a house, narrow down what they want to look at and then, select an agent to show them the homes, and write an offer. (The simple view) But, they still rely on an agent to help them, guide them and work with them. The buyer is a person, the agent is a person. People, People, People.
Last night, I was at a Happy Hour event for Midtown Neighbors' Association, where I'm the Membership Chairman. I was having a conversation with two people, and it turned to social networking! Ahhh...music to my ears! I'm Tweeting, Facing, Linking and blogging like there is no tomorrow. Now, Twitter, which is all the buzz, has not caught on in Atlanta yet. I can do a search for Tweets in a 5 mile radius, and some of them are days old, not seconds!
I was talking with Geoff, a patent attorney who is in his 20's and Sam (a girl) who is in her 30's and does something web related. Geoff knew nothing about Facebook or Twitter. Sam is one of my friends on Facebook and knows all about it, but nothing about Twitter. Geoff admits he's an engineering geek and did not even have a computer in college. (Scare me!) So, I gave a quick 60 second (or 140 character) sales pitch on Twitter. But Sam posed an interesting question..."But don't you want to meet people face-to-face when you sell real estate?" Well, for sure!
I explained how Geoff can know all about me (or as much as I have chosen to tell) and by the time he calls me. He has done his Internet searching, found some homes he is interested in and calls me to work with him, because he already "knows" me. But he has decided to work with me through the introduction I have made from my social networking. But in the end, it's people, people, people.
I read an article today on Inman News and completed a survey about our industry, the real estate industry. Questions like what is our future going to be? What will the business models be? What will a career in real estate be? Sure, there is technology, but really, would you buy a house from someone you never met face-to-face? (Ok, yes, some people have done this..but certainly NOT the norm for a real estate transaction.)
When all is said and done, it still comes down to people, people, people.
Comments(7)