Music, Love, Real Estate & Odd Obsessions

At this morning’s sales meeting, a Realtor with over 25 years of experience asked a naive question in regard to foreclosed listings.  Over the weekend, she found out how to manipulate the tax data that was available on the MLS to find the number of bank owned foreclosure listings in her area.  This is fairly simple to do, and anyone with access to the MLS data should be able to do this quickly and efficiently.  Why it took her this long to figure this out is her business.  But I guess that’s why her sales volume leaves a lot to be desired.

But, at the meeting her lack of knowledge in this area became quite apparent.  After describing to the group how she found 86 foreclosed listings in her particular zip-code, she wondered how, exactly, a Realtor goes about acquiring those listings.  She seemed to be under the impression that banks and mortgage companies must distribute them to Real Estate brokerages and agents in some way…and essentially wondered aloud where’s her slice of the cheese??

As the only SFR certified agent in the office, I informed her that she needed to establish relationships with the asset managers of banks.   Starting up a bank account with said bank is usually the first way to get your foot in the door.  And, usually, there’s agents who have already established relationships…so it might be an uphill battle.

While the gist of her question wasn’t exactly stupid…the fact that this agent has been in the industry almost as long as I’ve been alive makes her query almost laughable.  Surely at some point in her long career, especially over the last 3 years or so of a down market, she had to have been aware that banks are foreclosing at record levels.  Did it ever dawn on her that there’s a process involved after a bank takes back the deed to a property?

I guess this brings me to my ultimate point:  Not all agents are created equal.  Not all agents have the fire inside of them to be constantly inquisitive.  Not all agents understand strategic selling and prospecting.  And, even worse, an older agent who tries to sell themselves to prospective clients on their vast ‘knowledge’ and ‘experience’ in the industry can and will, in many cases, be the absolute worst person you could possibly choose to establish an agency relationship.

Older agents have not grasped many of the changes in the marketplace over the past 10 years.  The internet and computers befuddle them.  Contracts are more complicated than ever, with more contingencies than ever before.  Marketing has become more complex.

It used to be the agent could get licensed, work their own SOI (sphere of influence, friends and family, etc.) and be successful.  Perhaps that’s still the case…but over the last few years agents have been dropping out of the industry en masse.  For some, it’s the economy.  For others, it’s the turbulent changes within the industry itself.  And for some, like the so-called ‘experienced’ agent, it’s more of a refusal to stay current and on top of the business from an educational standpoint.

Sometimes I’m glad that I’m still relatively new in the industry.  But I know one thing:  I don’t know it all, but I’m always willing to learn.  I keep up.  I read voraciously.  I stay inquisitive.  While I may not always know the answer, I usually know where to look.

There is no such thing as a stupid question, but there’s certainly dense people who refuse to help themselves.  One would expect 25+ years of experience to count for something, right?  I’m the youngest person in the office, by a mile, and I’m at a point where I probably know more about the real estate industry than most of the other agents combined.  Take that, old age and treachery.  Youth and skill + an inquisitive mind shall conquer them all.