In which I discuss “Why a real estate license empowers women and could change your life” on Inman.com then try to make a point that I think is worth making.
Share & Print
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
Print
Rob Hahn
Managing Partner of 7DS Associates, and the grand poobah of this here blog. Once called "a revolutionary in a really nice suit", people often wonder what I do for a living because I have the temerity to not talk about my clients and my work for clients. Suffice to say that I do strategy work for some of the largest organizations and companies in real estate, as well as some of the smallest startups and agent teams, but usually only on projects that interest me with big implications for reforming this wonderful, crazy, lovable yet frustrating real estate industry of ours.
6 thoughts on “#GetReal with Notorious ROB, Ep. 1”
Rob, everyone starts with 1 transaction. Then they go to 2. It might be 6 months in between the last one, or it might be longer or shorter. Then they go to 3, etc. So doing 1 transaction is not a crime, everyone does it with their Broker’s help, then they move on to more.
I think the response she received was over the top and might discourage a lot of potential new Realtors to give it a try. That is what her article was about, giving it a try, it might just change your life, which is true. It changed my life.
The statement that appears to have caused all the raucous was this one “Every woman should have her real estate license. Be a referral agent, or just do one deal; it’s always worth it, even for just one sale.”
I didn’t read the article because it was already down when I saw this facebook video about it. Leigh Thomas Brown’s live facebook video is probably a lot more popular and causing more discussion than the original article.
https://www.facebook.com/leighthomasbrown/videos/10155167505444155/?hc_ref=SEARCH
I read some of the comments on the Inman article. IMO some of the vitriol was in reaction to how part time women Realtors have been portrayed. I’m thinking of the recent case in Seattle where the two male Realtors sent out a postcard portraying part-time Realtors as incompetent and included an image of two women with kids, looking frazzled.
The part-time agent IS a business model that returns profits for those business owners. I’m a capitalist and self employed. Let’s let all business models thrive, right?
There are competent and incompetent part-time agents of both genders.
There are competent and incompetent full time agents of both genders.
There are agents who do one transaction a year and do it very well.
There are agents who do 100 transactions a year and are a complete train wreck.
Want more competency? RAISE the barrier to entry. But business owners don’t want laws that raise the barrier to entry, because it’s easier to make money with a low barrier to entry.
What we need is a new business model that will expose the incompetence–within BOTH GENDERS and BOTH part and full time agents. Because the industry has always been very slow to do this voluntarily.
Some company is hopefully creating this business model right now, which will attract clients. Ethics and economics are intimately tied together. Somebody please start this company:
The new business model will include fulll transparency of:
Education
Full employment history going back at least 25 years.
Volume of transactions per year (and whether the agent is part of a team, that might distort the volume)
List price to actual sales price ratio of all listings
List price to actual sales price ratio of all sales when representing the buyer.
Client reviews that are not stacked, meaning, the Realtor does not have control of who gets to rate them. EVERY client rates EVERY Realtor and it goes right online for all to see. Realtor can respond to a negative rating but doesn’t get to take it down.
How the Realtor is rated by his/her colleagues.
All state and/or federal disciplinary actions, whether related to real estate license or any and all other professional licenses.
All Realtor ethical complaints and the resolution.
Complete transparency of bankruptcies, foreclosures and other history of financial mis-management.
Complete and total lifetime ban from the industry if the agent has been plead guilty to or been convicted of a financial felony, including real estate or mortgage fraud related felony.
I imagine there are several hundred thousand Realtors who will have no problem with the above.
Actually, I’d just be happy if we could ban real estate and mortgage fraud felons from being able to sell real estate. Can we start with that? I’d take the incompetent part timers over felons any day.
Totally agree with Bryn Kauffman everyone starts with one. I am sure brokers find it hard to tell you before they start in the business who will be a top producer. They may have ideas but see them not perform to expectations and then see the person they thought would not surpass expectations. Should every new agent have to apprentice, and do so many transactions with another agent as a mentor first? Maybe. Number is not a way to measure, but how the client is represented, and that is something harder to measure. I know top producers I would not want to do a deal with because of their ethics and behaviors.
The article has been pulled from Inman.
Why? A little discriminatory you think? Goodness Rob…
Comments are closed.