BECOMING A CHANGE-AGENT
Sometimes you just have to create what you want to be a part of!
Geri Wietzman
Raising the Bar of Real Estate: Becoming Part of the Change for Better
We have looked at how our industry has changed and will constantly evolve. The past few years of housing depression has forced many other changes. Many of the Realtors® are no more, some of the offices are gone, and we were forced to learn to do business differently. Declining values, defaults, short sales, bank-owned properties and the like have become common place and gave us a new education. Our advertising shifted dramatically to the internet expediting what was inevitable. When it is all said and done, there will be new market leaders, both individuals and offices.
You are reading this because you are considering a change for yourself, either a career change or a change to another brokerage. You want more and something better, something new which offers hope and new potential. Although change is uncomfortable for many, I assume that you are open to welcoming change right now. However, I want you to consider more than just a change in environment and structure.
Let’s change the manner of real estate in our local communities. This can happen one Realtor® at a time but then can grow exponentially. Suddenly the customs and practices of our business climate are new, fresh, attractive, and much better for everyone.
It Is Time To Let ‘Old School’ Ways Die-Out!
Recently I received an email from one of our Realtors® that well expressed what I have come to believe. “I really think there are some “old school” agents that consider real estate a combative occupation, and they take everything as a threat or an insult.” I will add that for some Realtors® the goal is conquest over other agents or offices and ‘I must decisively win, and you must decisively lose’. Competition is about “us and them”. For some, every difficulty is a call to war and every offense received is another memory for a storage arsenal for future use. It is not enjoyable to work with such people; well let’s just say it, it is miserable and taxing! It is also not good for our industry and our clients.
Better Principles and Better Realtors® for the Next Generation
This same Realtor® continued, “I hope in the years to come Bella Casa Real Estate Group can not only have a different culture in our office, but I hope that we can also affect other brokerages and cause them to be more willing to work together for the good of all of our clients and the community.”
I applaud that kind of thinking. We need to work diligently to create and maintain a professional manner and courtesy that becomes second nature to us all. We must nurture this in our own workplace but also need to cultivate this anywhere in the community of Realtors® where there is fertile ground. Let me suggest some characteristics that I hope you will commit yourself to as you consider changes for the future of your business:
At its core, new school practices acknowledge that a ‘win-win’ strategy is not only possible but attainable. Negotiations are about finding the crucial values of each client and finding ways to achieve what my client needs and wants while giving something else that is important for someone else’s client. We strain to find ways to please both parties. Sometimes both clients have to compromise to achieve a sale which is in everyone’s best interest, but even there the sacrifices can be shared equally. Why can we not have this wisdom and strategy as we work with competing brokers?
Yes, we are competitors, but we have all witnessed winners who are gracious and those who are arrogant and belligerent. Must we always keep score of wrongs done and extract our competitive revenge? Can we not acknowledge and give credit for the accomplishments of others without tearing them down with our cutting comments and harsh criticisms? Can we work together with competitors in projects and causes for the good of the community? Perhaps we could do more to change the public’s perception of Realtors® by simply supporting our industry colleagues and giving them their due respect instead of spreading rumors and slander about them publically. Perhaps we could absorb an insult, discount a lie, understand an emotional blow-up by someone in a moment of weakness and frustration and not escalate it into something nasty. If we all practiced graciousness and sought to be first class rather than common, we could make our Realtor® community more enjoyable and profitable.
Professional courtesies go a long way toward crafting a change which we will all benefit from. Putting our industry before our individual sensitivities is good business. Forging a first-class reputation for our brokerage is about how we do business. Tolerance, generosity, understanding, patience, and wisdom are the building blocks; consistency is the regular maintenance which protects the reputation. Respect is about a lot more than power or sales numbers; it is built because of genuine character.
Disclaimers Before You Attack Me!
We are competitors! Life in the trenches gets tough. Inside a transaction there is tension and frustration, our clients get angry with each other’s stubbornness and perceived ‘greed’. Every kind of person goes into real estate, and some Realtors® we will not like just because of their personality, others because they are ‘idiots’ (meaning they are not as experienced and knowledgeable as I am!). Conflict management is a large part of our Earnest Money Agreement for good reason. If you have a mind for it, there is no lack of reasons to get mad at someone, hold a grudge, and then when the time is ripe, cut loose with your own version of ‘justice’. Remember, our goal is to help willing buyers and willing sellers find each other and work out the details of a mutually beneficial sale. Our industry is not nearly as adversarial as the practice of law where winning and losing is the critical issue, and where absolutely rabid representation may prevent gross injustices with potentially deadly effects. We have the ability to foster civility in our work.
We are competitors and that by nature is imperialistic! We want that ground, and we are not going to give it up to someone else just to prove we are nice people! We are not here to share evenly with each other and play nicely. Real estate is hard work, and we are determined to achieve significant goals. We are building our own businesses, and some want to be market leaders. Many want to make a lot of money. We have already acknowledged that when competition is fierce, creativity is unleashed, the public gets better service, Realtors® get better opportunities, the quality of Realtors® improve, business models evolve, better competitors enter the scene. This is reality, but it begs the question, can all of this remain reality in an atmosphere of graciousness where we all also contribute to the greater good of our offices and our industry? I believe they are not mutually exclusive.
We All Fail; Cut Us Some Slack!
The moment anyone suggests that we aspire to high values, he or she becomes a target to tear down and to accuse of hypocrisy because “I remember when…” It is one of the ‘no win’ scenarios of life. Perhaps we should never try to do better because we will pay a price as competitors perceive that we are claiming we are better than anyone else. No one is or should be claiming any such thing. Like athletes we are striving to get it right, even perfect, but it takes immense amounts of practice, and a great deal of failures, to become the best. I want to work with people who want to be the best at being gracious professionals. Who does not fall to weaknesses?
Who never gets stressed-out and pressured to act against one’s own intentions? Who does not know the feeling being hard on someone else? Sometimes it is even ‘fun’ to be so. But let’s not give up working towards something with sweeter fruit. And when we blow-it; let’s admit it, apologize, and move on to a more noble way of doing business!
Become a Change-Agent
So as you consider changing where you work, the business model you think will offer you the best opportunity, and your goals and objectives for this next year, consider becoming an agent for change also. If you already aspire to these values, then I encourage you to patiently and methodically be the inspiration and example for improving our industry, our service to our clients, and even more so with you, the culture of Bella Casa Real Estate Group!
Meet Our Agents
Randy McCreith, Principal Broker
Bella Casa Real Estate Group
503-310-9147
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