Let's start off with a given. The 2006 real estate market is tough and unlike anything we've seen in five years. The problem is if we go back five years, it was the advent of the Internet in residential brokerage. We're at an historical point in our business. While the go-go market was going on, real estate consumers changed. Now that we're in a more traditional market, we can't rely on our traditional habits of recruiting and training agents.
It's painful, but I'll say it; if a prospective new agent meets with you and they don't have technology skills, won't get technology education, or don't have the money to purchase Internet marketing, take a pass on them. The most recurring theme I've heard from experienced agents this year is, "the market is forcing me to retire." Not really, they were so busy writing contracts the last couple of years they felt they didn't need an Internet presence. Yes they do and did. The market passed them by. Over three quarters of buyers use the Internet in their home search according in The National Association of Realtors. This number hasn't been static either, there is a healthy upward growth in it each and every year.
Where do you find these new-age technology agents? Online! Is your brokerage web site easy to navigate, display a career link on the home page, and offer an updated career page? Do you advertise real estate careers with your firm online in places such as craigslist.org, monster.com, or in the online edition of your local newspaper? List your career opportunities on job boards, start a real estate career blog. Tag your print advertising with your career page on your web site. Start a email newsletter for those thinking about a career in real estate. Have mid and top producers write short why-I-like-the-company stories, how mentoring can ease the transition into real estate, and how to write a business plan.
The cost of supporting an agent desk is now over $20,000. That's a big investment from you for a new agent. The problem is that turnover may average over 50% according to The National Association of Realtors(R) Retaining Top Personal Toolkit. Why are so many people, both managing brokers and agents spinning their wheels? The warm body syndrome, popular in the last few years in agent recruiting. The theory is the more warm bodies you have, the more commission income, the problem is you never gain the income because half of new agents leave every year. It's really a revolving door, and only the business card printers are making any money.
To slow down your new agent revolving door, you must make a commitment to educating new agents for at least 2 years. Each week you need to have a new agent class for a minimum of one hour, we call it; Agent 101. At the end of the year you have a graduation ceremony and luncheon. The second year is the same weekly meeting but called Next Level. Here you continue to support and grow your second year agents. What I hear time and again for new agents is that their is no structured path for them the first years in the business. Hopefully the days are gone where a managing broker thought sink or swim with newbies. The statistics show where that mindset leads.
Ask new agents that you're interviewing if they can make the 2 year weekly class commitment for training in your office. If they can't commit, why should you? Both the Agent 101 and Next Level are filled with ways to manage time, figure out to qualify buyers (and not for mortgages), deal with difficult sellers, design and implement both a marketing, and business plan. The meetings also allow for venting of real estate business frustrations, many new agents realize they have the same thoughts about the dynamics of the residential real estate business. And they're not always a pretty picture. It is great though to see the success of these no-so-new-agents when they complete Next Level as successful professionals.
One thing that also has changed along with agent recruiting is the reason we all come to work everyday, the real estate consumer. Home buyers and sellers are not looking to be "sold" a home. They look for real estate professionals to be a resource. The 2005 National Association of Realtors(R) Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers bears this out, of the top five resources buyers look for in their real estate agent, selling-me-a-home is not on the list. New agents need to be a resource more than ever before. We used to be the keeper of the information, but in 2005 24% of all buyers said they learned about the home they bought from the Internet, versus 36% from their real estate agent. The inverse relationship of these numbers is not going to reverse. To be a resource in 2007, agents need to remember one thing that the Internet hasn't provided to buyers and sellers; the local day-to-day aspects of all the micro markets spread across the country.
Don't forget that mentoring and coaching are valuable tools for all agents, especially in our rapidly changing real estate business climate. You might roll your eyes, but the numbers of agents going outside their brokerage office to get the skills they need to be successful in the coming years is on the rise.
