I wish I had known then ...

Practical advice for the new (and not so new) agent.

by Chris Heagerty   Much formal education exists for the licensee. Often, though, it is what you learn between the lines that tips the success scale in your favor. Below are 21 valuable lessons that old timers have learned through experience. Whether you are a new agent or could use a reminder, these are as true now as they were 30 years ago.

• Don’t practice on the public; practice on your peers instead. Role play formally and informally with your peers so you can hear how you sound and gather constructive criticism.
• Good selling is more about meeting needs than making a sale.
• Don’t wait to know everything before you act. No one ever knows every detail.
• You learn anything best by teaching it to someone else. Get involved with your company’s training program. Help your peers who might need coaching.
• If you are totally baffled by buyer or seller behavior, 99% of the time, key information has been withheld.
• Common sense reigns supreme when you are missing standard guidelines.
• If you are doing a task for the first time, seek out someone who has done it before.
• Make friends with your peers and share your lessons learned.
• Find a mentor and talk to him or her often.
• If you can’t present a contract upside down without reading it, then you don’t know the content well enough.
• Look for patterns in your successes and failures. If you can articulate what you are doing right or wrong, then you can repeat or avoid behaviors on purpose.
• Search for the nugget of truth when you are criticized. When you sift through for the nugget, you can use this truth to improve. Avoid justification.
• Develop patterns of standard behavior for your real estate practice. Then remain true to your own best practices. This is a great way to avoid liability.
• If you are too busy to take on a new client and the consumer can’t wait, refer him. This meets the consumer’s needs, benefits a colleague, and allows you to earn a referral fee. This is always preferable to keeping the business and doing a poor job.
• If you don’t have the answer, you probably didn’t ask the right question.
• Treat yourself as well as your car. Your physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental well being deserve routine maintenance and care. You would do no less for your automobile.
• If you can’t afford a new or expensive car, go for a clean, neat, and organized vehicle. This speaks volumes about you.
• Cultivate a buddy backup system. The buddy should be trustworthy and capable of serving your clients as well as you in your absence. Buddies can be a team member, an in-house colleague, or a REALTOR® with another firm, if you are a single practitioner.
• Be prepared. The Boy Scouts’ motto works equally well for REALTORS®.
• Make the Code of Ethics part of you. The code is a strong guide for you. Behaviors that are code-friendly earn the respect of your clients and peers.
• Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. It is better to promise nothing than fail to meet the client’s expectations of you.

Chris Heagerty, CRB, CRP, GRI, is market director for eRealty.com in Austin. E-mail her at cheagerty@eRealty.com.

Illustration © Artville.

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