I was meeting with a young lady this weekend who is considering a career in real estate. We were introduced by her fiance who is a friend of mine that works outside of real estate but in a similar field.
It was more of a casual conversation than it was a “recruiting” appointment. I looked at it as an opportunity to talk about the pros and cons of a career in real estate and share what I have learned in my almost 25-year career. I was there to answer questions and hopefully help this young lady make some good decisions that could make a big difference in her newly chosen profession.
She came prepared with a list of questions and a positive attitude. After a little small talk to learn about her background and tell her about my resume of different roles and responsibilities over the years, we got to some of her main questions.
- Full-time or part-time?
- Individual or team?
- Jump in now or slowly ease into it?
- What should happen in my first 30-60-90 days?
Lots of good conversations occurred and she hopefully realized that a career in real estate is like a pair of shoes; One size doesn’t fit all.
Then she asked a really good question – “What should I look for in a manager or brokerage that would make me feel good about working for them?”
“First of all,” I said, “As a Realtor, you will be an independent contractor. You won’t be working FOR anyone. You’ll be working FOR yourself. You’re the boss. You’ll be in charge of your schedule, your activities, your expenses, and your profit.
“You’re looking at a manager or brokerage as a partner because you’ll be working WITH them. Early in your career, you’ll use words like “we” and “our” a lot until you have enough experience and confidence to take ownership and start saying “I” when it makes sense. That’ll come with the competence and confidence you’ll start gaining each day you’re in this business.
“One of the best to find out who is the right fit for you is to find out which brokerage has the 5 T’s. They are not only something for the brokerage to hang their hat on to help their associates become better, but they also serve as a story for you to tell every client you are introduced to why they should work with you.“
So what are the 5 T’s?
Tradition – How long do the history and traditions of the company, brokerage, or office go back? Is there some history of success? It’s often said that “the best indication of future behavior is past behavior” so knowing that your company isn’t just making things up as they go is a comforting thing for people.
Teamwork – Even though this is an “independent contractor” business, having teammates and peers around you help make it so you don’t feel all alone. Is there a supportive office environment? Do you have access to other local offices? Is there a culture of engagement and support?
Tools – What will the broker or company provide when it comes to equipping you with the resources to deliver truly remarkable service to your customers, clients, and community? Do you need to bring your own resources to the office every day? What are those “added touches” that will help you go from good to great?
Technology – Old-school techniques for sales still work. That being said, the ability to leverage and harness technology will allow you to add a new-school approach to your old-schools skills. A CRM platform, digital transaction management system, websites, and other high-tech resources help deliver both efficiency and effectiveness.
Training – Obviously with my 15+ years in some sort of training/mentoring/coaching role, I’m a little biased on this T. As a new agent, it’s critical to find someone who can help give you the basic scripts, dialogues, objection handling skills, and other general day-to-day sales skills that most pre-licensing schools just don’t teach. Whether it’s in-person, online, virtual, or on-demand, there is enough to learn about the real estate industry that you’ll never know it all. Having someone who understands and invests in continuing education is a good sign that they want their associates to succeed.
As a new agent, which one of the T’s would help you get to the next level?
As an experienced agent, which one of the 5 T’s can you leverage to help more clients?
As a manager, broker, or owner, are you making sure that you’re dotting the i’s and crossing the T’s?
Each of the T’s is tremendously important on its own, but when you can find a way to stitch them all together, they help create a very powerful story for you to tell.