real estate dementia » development http://realestatedementia.com musings on a crazy industry... Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:21:57 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 i’d like to buy a vowel… http://realestatedementia.com/id-like-to-buy-a-vowel/ http://realestatedementia.com/id-like-to-buy-a-vowel/#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:09:57 +0000 brad http://realestatedementia.com/?p=183 if you’ve been in this industry even a short time, you’ve noticed the onslaught of letters – a.k.a. designations – following behind many agents’ names. achieving these designations can represent quite an accomplishment and an investment of time and money, not to mention gathering some worthwhile knowledge and skills to provide a higher level of service to our clients. and many of those can provide a competitive leg up in a difficult market.

alphabet soupalphabet-soup3

but it would appear we’re headed overboard in our pursuit of designations in the real estate industry. some agents have taken to fold-out cards to accomodate all their designations, and there are new designations being marketed each month to an insatiable market of letter hungry real estate practitioners. when is enough enough?

‘splain please

i know.  sounds funny coming from a guy that’s got enough letters behind his name to ensure a win at scrabble, but seriously – do we really need all those designations?  sure, the education’s worthwhile, but after you’ve got 3 or 4 under your belt, is it necessary to promote the other 3 or 4?  who’s going to care?  or even know what they mean?

i’ve had my crs designation for 15 years now, and although the council of residential specialists does the best job at promoting their designation to the general public, i still find myself explaining to clients what those 3 letters behind my name mean.  now add abr, crb, gri and e-pro, and you can see how i’m spending even more time explaining what those letters mean.  still, i find value in the designations and the education i received in achieving them, but i’m not too wild about taking more courses just to get some more letters behind my name.  in fact, i’m currently working on other designation courses, but will likely choose not to promote those designations for fear of needing aforementioned fold-out card.

i don’t know. is it just me, or is this crazy?

]]> http://realestatedementia.com/id-like-to-buy-a-vowel/feed/ 1 ain’t no silver bullet http://realestatedementia.com/aint-no-silver-bullet/ http://realestatedementia.com/aint-no-silver-bullet/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:51:56 +0000 brad http://realestatedementia.com/?p=39 i recently spent time in an instructor development workshop presented by tom martin of the instructor training institute (iti).  it was some of the best training i’ve attended in my 19+ years in the real estate industry, and certainly took effort.  for 3.5 days we pushed the envelope and went outside of our comfort zones.  it was intense. we had plenty of homework, lots of classroom exercises and presentations to design and deliver.  it wasn’t an easy education, but it was well worth the effort.

while i was sitting in class, mind wandering to all the emails, phone calls and work that i needed to attend to, it struck me that in order to grow i needed to push myself.  and i was pushing myself: little sleep, added stress and less time to do my normal workload.  all for the opportunity to learn. but the realization came that if i wanted to better myself – to become a better broker, instructor, coach and mentor – i’d need to devote time and stretch my abilities.  if i wanted to become better, there was no magic pill, no short cut, no silver bullet, to get me to that level.

i’ve found in these challenging markets most of us face that there are a lot of people looking for that magic formula – the one gizmo, gadget or whirlygig that will bring us success.  maybe the key phrase that’ll turn lookers to buyers, or the prop that will get us every listing we set out after.  we’re looking for the quick fix, the magic elixir that we can drink with the promise it will deliver a deal tomorrow or next week.  but it ain’t out there. there ain’t no magic potion, and there ain’t no silver bullet.

in times like these, there’s only the realization that we have to expand our thinking and try new things.  ‘cuz the old things ain’t working.  as soon as we recognize that and stop chasing the quick fix for our business, we’ll be ready to move forward.

and if we’re not going to move forward, we’re gonna take a bullet.

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