I talk to a lot of real estate agents and if there is one universal problem I see, it’s this: you are not selfish enough – not nearly selfish enough. I’ll explain that in a minute. First, let me ask: how many reading this took auto-shop in high school? I’m guessing maybe half. Of those that took auto-shop, how many actually work on their own cars? Right. You don’t take it so you can grow up and work on your car. You take it so when your car breaks down you have a clue what might be wrong with it. You want to know if the repair shop is taking care of you or just taking you for a ride. The importance of wide-ranging knowledge is even greater for agents. The real estate business is a difficult one in the best of times and it’s always time consuming. It encompasses so many different areas, you may not need auto-shop (although I recommend it), but you do need Mortgage-shop, Title-shop, Escrow-shop, Sign-shop, Web Site-shop, Appraisal-shop, Home Inspection-shop, Staging-shop and on and on. Obviously you can’t be an expert in all these areas, but just like auto class, you should know enough to make sure you – and your clients – are being taken care of rather than just taken for a ride. Beyond that the most important thing you can do is surround yourself with a team that excels in these areas. Herein lies the problem for which I titled this post: real estate agents are not nearly selfish enough… with their time.
I’m going to share one perspective on how big an impact this can have on your bottom line. Last Wednesday I was involved with three different events affecting over $1.7 million of real estate transactions. For the math challenged, that’s $51,000 in real estate commissions. I’m writing this from a lender perspective because that’s what I am, but it’s all about the agents.
- Early on Wednesday we funded a VA purchase loan for a little over $700,000. Not remarkable in and of itself; Read more