Real Estate's Broken Business Model – Part II
(Part II of a four-part series ~ continued from yesterday)
The agents become cash cows for their brokers.
What a concept ~ hire a herd, milk them, and hope they return to the barn every night.
Works great in a hot market, but it’s a dismal failure in today’s slower market.
What’s missing here?
Well, perhaps it’s the fact that most new agents coming into real estate are clueless about how real estate really works.
There is the illusion that taking a few courses to pass the licensing exam is all that is required to become successful in real estate, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Those courses prepare new agents to pass the licensing exam; not for the real world.
And, brokers usually don’t provide adequate training in the real world aspects of real estate to ensure their agents’ success.
So . . . these new agents go to the office, sit at their desk, drink coffee, look at some homes, and wonder why there’s too much month at the end of the money.
“Gee ~ real estate isn’t anywhere near as much fun as my broker told me it would be and my Lexus lease payment is due next week!”
(continued tomorrow)
July 14th, 2009 Posted in Inside Real Estate
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By Bob Bass on Jul 14, 2009
Phil
I think you would have to agree our industry business model has not changed for 50 years. If the brokers are still hiring new agents to their company and not providing stellar training to meet the needs of today’s consumers, then we have a recipe for disaster. I think the illusion of passing the exam being all you need to be successful applies to the experienced agents too. The walls of our business have unraveled and if the experienced agents have not changed their real estate practices, then they too will sit at their private desks and drink the company rot gut coffee. Their frustration will grow and they with openly discuss the trials and tribulations with their combined coffee breath. The end result is still the same. They lack the skills and the knowledge to meet the needs of today’s consumers and the brokers are not coaching them through this process. The experienced agents are holding on to past glory days and are not stepping up to change. At least the new hires want to learn and they have the culture and technological skills to communicate with the new consumers. You will at least not find them in the office, but at Starbucks drinking better coffee and engaging in conversations with the real public.
Bob Bass
Broker: John L. Scott BOI