Since I’m on both RSS lists for Notorious Rob (Rob Hahn) and Michael McClure’s Blogs I have had the opportunity to read and ponder both Rob’s points and Michael’s views, which I have been attuned to for sometime when it comes to professionalism, raising the bar, and education for the REALTOR and our industry.  “Should Real Estate Be More Sheepskin-Based”? by Rob Hahn @RobHahn is a great read in addition to Michael McClure’s post “Quick Survey on Professionalism” by Michael McClure @Professionalone . I highly recommend you read both.

I think both Rob and Michael raise reasonable questions when it comes to finding a solution toward the consumer’s perception or as Rob points out “such low esteem by the public.” I also agree that education of today’s REALTOR has much to be desired to “Raise the Bar” in professionalism.

So Where do I respectfully disagree? (Not on much)

In my 25 years as a Broker Owner and total of 34 years in the real estate industry I have experienced almost every type of real estate agent you could imagine come through the doors for
a career in real estate. I’ve had agents with Master’s degrees, PHD’s and Bachelors Degrees as well as high school graduates and those who never did finish high school for one reason or
another. I’ve witnessed several major traits that the most successful agents have, that absolutely had nothing to do with their classroom education prior to becoming a REALTOR, which is
passion, disipline, ethics, and the willingness to pay the price of success, which means doing what is hard and necessary vs. what’s fun and easy.

I do not believe University classroom education leads to any advantage nor disadvantage toward our industry. What agents need to know, understand and articulate is not taught in our colleges, it is taught by professional trainers in our industry and by those broker/owners who understand that real estate skills must be taught and provided on a consistant basis.

The problem lies in who the broker hires and the training provided

Our industry suffers from absolute apathy, laziness, and lack of motivation for taking the initiative to be self learners, self motivated, and self disiplined enough to stay abreast to the changes. Throughout the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s the classrooms were full, the agents were held accountable, and minimum standard production were expected. That went south when Associations became all REALTOR baords, and brokers became to chicken shit to set standards within their organizations. (Those two items could very well be another post

The real estate companies over the past 3 decades have hired completely wrong and are totally reponsible for the mess we are experiencing when it comes to lack of professionalism. Real
estate is not a part time position, yet last count showed over 50% of the agents across the nation last year never recieved a pay check. (That’s a Broker problem) They would hire anyone who could fog a mirror and pass a simple test. (That’s a State problem) Agents were not held to the expectation of attending training sessions, informative meetings, and continuing education beyond the minimum state required. (That’s a Broker problem)

Then 2006 came along (This maybe our chance to fix things, 5 years later)

Instead of beefing up the education, training and technology infrastructure of each office most brokers eliminated them or cut back drastically. The order taking days were over, where any agent who could fill out a form was out selling real estate. Agents who have been hired over the past 10-15 years had never experienced a down market and were never educated or taught to market real estate, prospect for business, and build relationships within the community. On top of that higher producing agents (2001-2006) demanded higher splits, cutting deeper into the brokers pocketbook which forced brokers to look toward other ancillary businesses to improve their bottomline vs. sticking to their business model. During that same period Technology and innovation continued to move faster than most brokers and agents could grasp and their new excuse is “I need to be out selling not learning new methods of doing business”. Now we have agents out selling short sales and bank owned foreclosures who lack expertise and knowledge to protect themselves, the broker and their seller. I think we will become very diversified and specialized as our industry numbers continue to shrink.

So now what do we do?

Well, I think Michael and Rob are two of many others, as you can see in Michael’s post that have continued to hammer away at professionalism. The old saying SW, SW, SW holds true today. “Some will, some won’t, so what” is where we are at. The motivated, disiplined, and ethical agents who know they need to be self learners will survive. The brokers who realize they need to change with the times or end up like Blockbuster Video. The consumers will get better service in the future because they are learning themselves, the right questions to ask a REALTOR before contracting to work with them. Our real estate industry will continue to evolve, change, and hopefully improve with new players, new models, and some of us who know the new consumer and what they expect from us.

In the meantime:

Dedicated professionals like Michael, Rob and many many others will keep singing the song of “Raising the Bar” and some will get it, but some won’t.

“Expect the Best” Mike