A Fresh Approach to Real Estate Rookie-hood with Jennifer Allan

On Saturday, we kicked off what I hope will be a regular thang over at SWSLand. The first ever Rookie-to-Rookie Show where I invited four newly non-rookies (that is  - agents who are just out of their rookie year and survived to tell about it) to share their secrets for, well, living to tell about it!

I thought it was a fabulous show and the post-show feedback seemed to support that opinion. THANK YOU Kathy Jackson, Janice Styles-Hall and Sarah Taylor (and Erin Deric who had to bail last minute, but was there in spirit).

The show was a panel discussion where I posed several questions to my guests about their rookie experience. Questions such as...

We then went to the audience and did the best we could to address their questions, but, alas, time flew and we ran out of time. So, as I promised my standing-room-only crowd, we'll hit the rest of your questions here at Active Rain.

I've listed the unanswered questions below. I'll answer them from my experience here in a comment, and ask my guest hosts to do the same. Oh, and DO feel free to post your OWN responses - the more, the merrier!

• What can I do if there are no other agents in the office to go to for training or mentoring? I work in a small office where most agents work from home. How important is it to have other agents to learn from or can I just figure this out as I go and as questions come up? 

• If you really have no money for marketing, meaning you could afford about $100, what would you do? 
  

• What did it cost to sign with a broker? Training, books, tapes, leads and so forth. 

• How important are designations - ePro, GRI, etc? 

• Have any of you established a niche? If so, why that one? What experience do you have with absentee owners? <--one of two (the other military relocation) that I'm strongly considering... Thanks! 

• I have heard company provided template web sites don't work. Do you agree or disagree? 

• How large an area can one person cover? 

• Has anyone advertised on bus stops? 

• What are your feelings on new agents joining a team? How do you avoid being taken advantage of on a team as a rookie agent? 

• Did anyone work a full time 8 - 5 job while starting their real estate career? I find that all the classes, luncheons, meetings, closings etc. take place during the work day. 

• When you have a listing where the seller wants to "wait ‘til the market improves," instead of lower the price, what do you tell them? 

• Do the speakers think floor duty and open houses are really worth doing?

• How important is the brokerage firm you decide on? Ex: A well known firm such as Keller Williams or Century 21 verses a smaller unknown name? The smaller unknown name has such a better broker/agent split, less fees, etc. Would I be getting more leads from the larger firm or do you find your own clients at both firms? 

• What is one of the most important things you wish you would have known when first starting in the business? 

 Stay tuned for the date & time of the next Rookie-to-Rookie show...

From time to time I post a blog about the abysmal state of rookie real estate training in America.

• Here's one - Just What a Rookie Real Estate Agent Needs: CHARM School!
• Here's another. "Good for you, Let me know if you need anything"
• And another. New Real Estate Agents - Put DOWN that Phone!

Do I have an agenda? Eh, maybe. Yeah, I sell books about real estate training and I even have boot-camp type program specifically for rookies, but that alone doesn't inspire the contempt, yes, contempt I have for the real estate training industry.

I'm disgusted by the "fake it til you make it" attitude. I'm annoyed by the focus on prospecting competence over, well, COMPETENCE competence. I'm frustrated by the stories I hear of promises made during the recruiting process that are broken as soon as the rookie shows up to work. I could go on and on.

But today, I'm asking. WHY? Why is it this way? It occurs to me that if 80-95% of our new agents fail within the first year, then something isn't working and maybe we ought to try something different. Like... training? REAL training, not some fluffed up, time-wasting, sales-pitch-disguised-as-education to promote some product or another?

Here are the reasons I've heard for NOT training our new licensees.

1.       Not a good use of resources. Since the majority of new agents will fail, it's a waste of money and time to implement a decent training program.

2.       Not a good use of resources, Part II. Since the agents who do not fail will likely leave their first broker in search of a better deal elsewhere, why would Broker 1 spend time and money training the rookie to be his future competition?

3.       That's the way it IS. This is a sink or swim business. If you don't have the drive to learn the business yourself, you shouldn't be here at all.

4.       That's the way it IS, Part II. "We" didn't have our hands held and we somehow survived.

5.       Real estate agents are competitive; therefore, there's no real motivation to help someone who will become your competition.

It's easy for us Old Fogies to brush off the need for training - after all - we don't particularly want any more competition. And besides, "we" didn't get formal training and we came out okay. But then in the next breath, we complain loudly about "the guy (or gal) on the other end of the sale who doesn't know what he's doing and is screwing up my deal."

Maybe it's just that we've forgotten how much there is to learn in your first year and how complex the process really is. I talk to rookies every day, so I'm reminded of their pain and confusion... and their utter frustration with the lack of support they receive from the broker or trainer.

So I'm sincerely asking - WHY do we seem to care so little about quality training in our industry?