From RealSource... Glenn's Blog

I'm doing a poll on one of our new blogs and need your opinion about communication and people that use big and obscure words.

http://blog.nerdtoenglish.com/poll

Should take less than a minute.

I'm curious about this since I often hear lenders and real estate agents use their "lingo" around clients that don't understand all the language.

Thanks!! Glenn

P.S. I'll post results in a few days.  I'm collecting data from several sources. 

Jennifer Allan's post, "Good for you, let me know if you need anything." led me to think of Real Estate as an industry and the story of the emperor's new clothes.  

While every industry has it's problems, I believe that the Real Estate industry has created some unique issues for itself that few wish to discuss openly.  And probably because those in a position of power to change it are the same ones that financially benefit by the dysfunction.

One of the suprises for me as I learned more about the details of the Real Estate business in the last few years was how many real estate brokers are primarily in the business of renting desks and collecting a "piece of the action."  Not all. But too many.

With all due respect, in some offices there are similarities to the mob.  You have to be party of "the family." The law says so. You've got no where else to go but another "family."  In time, you may can start your own "family."

And you are going to pay a piece of the action to the "family" on each deal, whether the "family" helps you out or not.  In fact, you usually have to "prove" yourself to the "family" before you get much help.  By then, if you survive, you may not need the help but that's cool.  The "family" won't have to make the effort then either.

Why do they not help much in the beginning? They want to know if you "got what it takes" before they show much interest in helping.  Survival of the fittest. 

And there are turf wars over neighborhoods and customers, not only with other "families" but those in your own "family" too. 

The old-school guys don't always see value of the young guns taking too much "action."  Sometimes "killing a few off" preserves turf.

We deal with many agents and brokers from a different vantage point than agents, brokers and customers.  It has been very revealing.  In more cases than not, we found brokers that not only did little training and support but even "charged" a fee in some quasi-hidden way for any third-parties to have access to their agents for any reason, including educational.

I want to be clear.  This is not all brokers.  There are some that have figured out that they can increase their income from "pretty good" to "very good" by investing in their team and growing a great team.  These people are a benefit to all those they interact with, including the public, their agents and even the economy.

But the majority we see don't bother building a real team because they make enough money with their own listings, buyers and renting desks to agents.  It's enough money so why work any harder. 

Attitudes are a reflection of leadership.  And the leadership that could change this is the very same group that most benefits from it.  Thus, they are not only incented to avoid change, they are incented to fight change. Thus, like George Orwell's Animal Farm, "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Despite all this, there also remain Realtors surprised that the general public does not think highly of most the industry.  This surprise to me is how many agents that are that out of touch with solid business concepts and/or consider all of the public as "lesser intelligence." And this serves no one, not even the agents.

I'm not sure there is an action point to this post.  I don't see the model changing except to be gradually overwhelmed by a better informed public that will increasingly find ways around such dysfunction.  The smart business people in this industry already know this and are making plans to be a part of these changes, for their benefit and to benefit the customers.

For the most part, the current business model rarely serves the customer best.  However, history tells us bad business models and the market both self-correct over time.  Tick. Tock.

This is Easy.

What is "this?"   Well, most anything and everything.  

But, yes, there is a catch.

You see, most things are generally easy... as long as nothing ever goes wrong.

Most jobs are harder than they look.  So are most lines of business.  And the better someone is at their job, the easier it looks to everyone else.  That is why so many people think others are overpaid.  They assume that because it looks easy, it must be easy. 

But business, project and life rarely go without a hitch.  The "hitches" are where the real professionals get the chance to separate themselves from the pretenders, the "wanna-bees," the complainers, the rookies and the amateurs.

The world gets further confused by the overly optimistic.  These are so-called professionals that price their services as if it will all go perfect.  They don't budget time or money for handling surprise problems.  These super optimists usually go out of business but not before confusing the market about fees, under delivering work and/or losing a lot of their own money.  

The customers also get confused by the "promisers."  They talk a big game but deliver little.  They may even mean well at the time but then just can't manage to follow up and deliver.  They make it "look" easy at the start but not at the end (though they usually have great excuses).

The successful professionals do often make a job look easy.  But only to those not paying close attention.  These are the professionals that work hard, work smart and stay client focused.  The projects are built to expect a surprise or two, whether it impacts time, money or both.  This keeps their projects successful when others struggle.  And they have the experience to be sure the surprises are handled efficiently and thoughtfully.

These pros remember why they are doing the job.  And they remember that the best way to take care of themselves is to take great care of the customers.  These successful people don't just hope it works out.  They make their projects into winners on a consistent basis, in many different economies and markets!

Are they perfect?  Of course not.  But they do usually have consistency combined with the power to adapt and overcome.

Sounds easy, doesn't it?   Yet so few pull it off well!