Category: General

The word “integrity” is grossly over-used in Real Estate, including by the worst Salesy Slicksters who have none. When I say over-used, I’m talking “chef’s kitchen” or “gleaming hardwood!”

Here’s my definition  of what true “integrity” means in Real Estate:

1. You are an “agent,” as opposed to a “salesperson.” You always act in your clients’ best interest, without regard to your potential benefit. Sometimes this means talking yourself out of a commission check.
2. You perform your duties to the very best of your abilities at all times. Easy to say, not so easy to execute. It means skipping lunch with a friend, so you have enough time to nail the correct price on your CMA. It means telling your client the straight-up-truth, no matter how little they want to hear it. You do the hard stuff.
3. You recognize your weaknesses, and you continuously work on improving them, ultimately to deliver a higher quality of service to your clients.

Almost all Real Estate agents will claim that they follow the first two points (whether they do or not). But it’s the third one that differentiates the best from the average. Genuine high-integrity agents are never quite satisfied with their abilities, and they continuously work to improve.

For example, you know you should be reporting to your seller clients on a regular schedule. But it seems like there are always a thousand other things to do, so your reporting becomes haphazard and ineffective.

Knowing how important it is for their clients to be receiving timely scheduled reports, high-integrity agents seek out ways to improve their organizational skills. They are always “tweaking” their businesses to deliver better information and service to their clients.

When you conduct yourself in the ways I’ve described above, you’re exceptional, and the word gets around like wildfire. Believe me, I know.

Beginning in my second year, I earned between $590,000-$865,000 every year for 12 years in a row, all as an individual agent, and with the vast majority generated from referrals.

People ask me all the time how I was so successful. What was my “secret”?

When I give them my answer (see above), they think I’m being coy. I shake my head and wonder why people are always looking for “secrets” when the truth is staring them in the face.

These same people—the ones looking for “secrets”—would seemingly rather spend hours every day chasing cold Internet leads, rather than building a self-sustaining, profitable, rewarding business, by simply delivering exceptional customer service.

I still don’t get it. ‍

You’ve got your shiny new Real Estate license, and you’re all signed up at a brokerage!

Now what?

The choices you make now will have a direct impact on your entire career, and there are a thousand choices that are equally compelling and confusing!

For example, should you join a team?

The word “team” has a positive connotation, doesn’t it?  It implies all kinds of good things – mentorship, structure, support, training, camaraderie, and everyone working towards the same common goal.

This sounds wonderful!

And it could be!  If you’re lucky enough to be joining a small team with a high-integrity leader—one who genuinely wants to mentor you—this could be a great way to launch your career.

However, before you make this critical decision, be very cautious about the Big-Box Team with the celebrity “mega agent” and their slick recruiting message.

The bigger the team, the slicker the message, and the further it is from reality.

The problem is, if you join a Big-Box team, you’re NOT learning how to successfully run all different aspects of your own Real Estate business. Why would the team leader teach you everything you need to know to become his or her strong competitor? ‍♂️

Sadly, many agents who choose this path end up leaving the industry after a year or two, disillusioned, and with an utterly FALSE SENSE of what a great career Real Estate can be. This is because they’ve only seen the worst side of our industry, the part where you’re memorizing scripts and calling poor quality “leads” trying to convert disinterested people to clients.

You didn’t think they were giving you the good leads, did you?

Question: When you did all that work to get your Real Estate license, did you secretly want to become a telemarketer?

I doubt it. But, in my opinion, this is one of the main reasons that so many agents leave the industry, disillusioned, and often broke.

It’s just not that easy to become one of the few who becomes a great success, but this is true for any profession.

For example, let’s say you’re a professional athlete. Are you making millions?

Probably not. Because the vast majority of athletes spend their entire careers in the minor leagues, barely eking out a living, while only a select few make it to the big leagues.

It’s the same in Real Estate. Did you know that NAR statistics show that 87% of REALTORS® don’t make it to their fifth year in business?

And by the way, here’s what that data doesn’t tell you: Out of the remaining 13% that do make it to five years, there is a large percentage of those who are merely parking their license at a cheap brokerage and doing between zero and three deals a year.

That means the actual failure rate is MUCH higher than 87%!

There’s only ONE main reason for this despicable poor record; a lack of education and direction on what to do AFTER you finish Real Estate School. I think it’s ridiculous that we expect new agents to make it in the real world, based on the tiny bit of education you’ve received so far.  ‍

It’s like being sent out into the workforce immediately after graduating from kindergarten.

If you’re smart, it won’t take you long to figure out how little you know.

“OK, Ted!  If joining a team isn’t the right answer for you, what should I do?”

Invest in yourself. You know the basics. Now, please take it to the next level.

The Agent Skills Master’s Program will give you a massive advantage over 99% of your competitors within six months. You’ll take a huge leap forward in your career, surpassing agents that have been struggling for 20 years in the business.

If you don’t agree, I’ll give you all your money back, no questions asked.

I started my career the same way as most of you did, fresh out of Real Estate School with zero prospects and not having a clue what to do next.

I wanted to learn more, so I explored all the coaching options that were available at the time.  But none of it seemed right for me, especially the idea of “prospecting” every day. Yuck!

I’m just not the type of person who enjoys calling people out of the blue and reciting canned scripts, “If they say this, you say that!”

Honestly, if I had to be a telemarketer to make a living at Real Estate, I’d rather scrub toilets in a Mexican jail.

I’m not passing judgment. We’re all different, and for some agents, “prospecting” is a highly-refined art, from which they derive both great success and personal satisfaction. To each their own.

The other thing the coaches were espousing was spending gazillions on “marketing,” including nonsense like “Guaranteed Sale” programs. What a crock!

I became disillusioned with the fact that virtually everything being taught to REALTORS® was all about how to GET business, and there was nothing about how to BE a great REALTOR®!

It was as if there was no discernible difference between one agent and another, so the only skill to be learned was how to “fool” people into working with you, rather than one of the other clones.  ‍ ‍

This is like saying all professional athletes are exactly the same.

The reality is that the vast majority of athletes spend their entire careers in the minor leagues, barely eking out a living, while only a few make it to the big leagues.

It’s exactly the same in Real Estate.

What’s the difference between the minor leaguer and the major leaguer?

SKILLS, my friend.

How do you get the SKILLS? By having a hunger to learn and being willing to practice every day.

As a brand new REALTOR®, it’s a good thing I was smart enough to know how little I knew.

I still had zero prospects, so—with nothing better to do—I decided, “I’ll just go look at properties and see what I can figure out on my own.”

So I previewed listings every day, beginning with anything that was near my home. I took detailed notes, and then I followed up and tracked what happened to each listing; when they sold and for how much.

I started to notice the “cause and effect”; how much each property sold for and how long it took, based on the initial list price, condition, features, surrounding amenities, etc.

On the weekends, I borrowed listings to do Open Houses (I had zero listings). This was uncomfortable for me because I’m not a naturally outgoing person, but I worked on improving my interpersonal skills. I took the Dale Carnegie Course and several other personal development courses, and I read piles of books about sales and marketing.

When working at Open Houses, I mostly just tried to become more comfortable with interacting with people. And I started to enjoy it!

One day, at an Open House, I asked a young couple how they liked the house. They were very open and explained why it wouldn’t work for them. So, I mentioned a nearby listing that I had previewed the day before, and how I thought it was well-suited to them and well-priced too.

They were intrigued and said they would drive by, and they would call the agent and ask to see it.

I managed to choke out, “I could show it to you if you like!”

They agreed, and I showed them the property. It turns out it wasn’t quite right, but I established a relationship with this couple, and a short time later, they bought a house; my first sale!

I continued previewing every new listing, and I got better and better at working Open Houses. Being able to talk very knowledgeably about all the surrounding listings was by far my biggest advantage. People started to regard me as the Local Expert!

Then it suddenly occurred to me; I WAS the Local Expert!

In terms of understanding the nearby inventory, I knew more than any other agent, including about listings that had recently sold. I started feeling more and more confident with pricing and advising on how to maximize results, whether buying or selling.

Then I realized that I was more than just a Local Expert. Through practice and study, I had gained skills that I could now apply across a broad spectrum of different situations and areas. ‍

I started getting really busy! After a slow start (it was months before I made my first sale), I managed to earn $186,000 by the end of my first year. Then things started to get crazy. I earned $590,000 in my second year, while still making all kinds of major blunders, since the truth was, I still had a LOT to learn.

As I learned more, I earned more. Within a short time, I was earning in the $800’s, as an individual agent, and I had to start getting picky about whom I worked with.

There’s a lot more to my story, of course, but I just wanted to write a bit of encouragement to you newbies.

There are many paths to having a successful career in Real Estate. You don’t have to be salesy. You don’t have to be a telemarketer. You don’t have to give up an ounce of your integrity.

The best advice I can give you—early in your careers—is to pursue more knowledge and skills, and never stop learning!

The quicker you can get a head start on your skill development, the quicker you’ll develop a reputation as a Trusted Expert. When you achieve that status, and you do the right things, the business comes to you, not the other way around. With a little guidance, it doesn’t take long.

Procrastinating is robbing your future.

Last week, we talked about the “learning pyramid” and how we don’t retain much information by simply listening or reading about new ideas or concepts.

The way to thoroughly learn a concept is to take action on what you’ve learned.  You’ve got to start DOING!

Beyond that, if you want to challenge yourself, try teaching the concept to someone else. For example, try explaining the concept of the “learning pyramid” to a friend or your spouse.

Chances are you’ll mess up at first.  But don’t worry!  Making mistakes is part of the process.  Just go back and study the material further.  Try to focus and concentrate on retaining the information.  This isn’t easy in our distraction-filled world, but that’s life, folks.  Learning is a struggle.

When you can clearly teach a concept to someone else, you now KNOW the information.  Through the struggle of learning, the new information is now hard-wired into your brain, which has physically formed new neuro-transmitters and connections.

Just like a physical workout, your mental workout can be painful.  Do you want bigger or more toned biceps?  You can read all about how to do bicep curls properly, but the act of reading doesn’t do much. You’ve got to DO them.

To train your brain, accept the pain. 

By the way, all of the above was included in last week’s post.  However, by repeating it in a slightly different way, you probably now understand it better than before.

Spaced repetition is another important concept to understand when it comes to learning.  This gives those neuro-transmitters a chance to reset and build upon what they’ve already retained.

Which do you think is better?  Going to the gym for three hours once per week, or going for one hour, three times per week?  The answer is obvious, and it’s the exact same concept.

If you really want to build knowledge and skills, it requires revisiting the information several times.  Our brains actually pay LESS attention the first time we experience something new.  You’ll learn noticeably more the second and third time you focus on any topic.

Studies have proven that your focused learning sessions should be between 30 and 90 minutes.  Anything less is not enough to solidify the information, and more is too much for the brain to retain.

I strongly suggest that you make an ‘Appointment with Yourself’ for your learning sessions.  This means you time block a specific time to do the work, you turn off all distractions (just as you would if you had an appointment with anyone else), and you concentrate 100% of your energy on learning the topic at hand.

Another important learning concept is to go deep vs. wide.  Concentrate on thoroughly learning one subject, rather than trying to learn a little bit about a wide range of disconnected topics.  This just causes confusions and you won’t retain ANYTHING, so what’s the point?

Avoid subjecting your brain to all kinds of non-purposeful, unimportant information.  This actually stunts the learning process, and your ability to retain anything, which is obviously counter-productive, and can cause you to quit trying.

Having a purpose to your learning is important!  Ask yourself, “What is the end goal for me learning this information?”  And be as specific as possible.  For example, why should you care about the “learning pyramid”?

“To make more money,” is a lousy answer because it is completely disconnected.  Here’s a good answer:

“By understanding the process of learning better, I’ll be able to make better use of my time, learn more things faster, put those things into action, improve my skills, and thereby serve my clients better.  This will improve my overall job satisfaction, and ultimately, I’ll make more money.”

When you have a clear focus for learning, your brain will filter out distractions from the constant bombardment of useless information that is constantly swirling around every one of us.  Without a clear focus, it won’t.

You’ll need to decide what to focus on, and this may be a new skill in itself that you need to develop.  That’s because our school system has inadvertently trained us NOT to have a natural curiosity about things.  You were told what to study and what was going to be on the test.  The goal was to provide the correct answers to already-known solutions, as opposed to discovering anything new.

You need to stoke your natural childlike curiosity that is stored deep inside you!  Start questioning everything.  Stop looking for the quick one-word answers and instead seek out a deeper understanding.

If you want to differentiate yourself as a talented, deeply knowledgeable, highly skilled REALTOR®, devote yourself to a course of continuous learning.

If you’ve lost your spark for learning, the most important thing you can do in your life is to get it back, my friend.  The best time to do that might have been twenty years ago.  The second best time?

Now.

Don’t wait another five years, look back, and say to yourself, “I wish I had started five years ago.”

—Coach Ted

I teach GOOD REALTORS® how to become GREAT REALTORS®, with a simple, step-by-step, logical, easy-to-follow, easy-to-implement, inspirational program that requires zero interpretation.

Ted Greenhough
Agent Skills Real Estate Training
Knowledge + Action = Skill

Have you ever gone to a lecture, been inspired, vowed to implement some of the strategies, never got around to it, forgot everything you learned, and changed absolutely nothing?

We all have.

Our crazy distraction-filled world doesn’t help.  I think it’s alarming how the ability to concentrate is becoming a rare skill.

We’ve become ridiculously lazy.  Why bother learning anything when we can instantly Google the answer?

But here’s the thing.  Google can give you instant answers to simple questions, but it cannot give you the deep knowledge that is required to build SKILL.

You’ll never differentiate yourself as a talented, deeply knowledgeable, highly skilled REALTOR®, until you start DOING, as opposed to LISTENING or READING.

The “learning pyramid,” developed by the National Training Laboratory, suggests that students only retain about 10% of what they learn from textbooks, but they retain about 90% of what they learn through teaching others.  The exact percentages are debatable due to numerous variables, but there is little doubt that the order of the pyramid from top to bottom is highly accurate.

Every teacher will agree that contemplating how to help others understand a concept is the best way to improve one’s understanding of the subject.

I can personally attest to this!

As an individual agent, I earned in the range of $590K-$865K throughout my Real Estate career, which most would regard as being highly successful.

Confession time:  I did this mostly by instinct and seat-of-the-pants decision making.  Yes, I did certain things that turned out to be massively helpful, but I made most of the decisions to do those things by pure fluke.  Here’s my decision-making process early on in my career:

“Well, I’ve got nothing else to do, so I guess I’ll try doing this.”

It’s a fluke that I happened to choose to do the right things.  But here’s the key point:

I DID things.  That’s how I learned.  I didn’t just sit around and listen to others or read about what to do.  I DID.  Yes, I listened and read, but then I took action.

Did I make mistakes?

Hundreds of them!  That’s an important part of the process of learning.  You do things, you make mistakes, you make adjustments, and you become SKILLED.

Now, in my new career as a coach and trainer, I’m discovering something I never expected:

I’m elevating my skill level far beyond what it ever was before!

By teaching others, I have to learn concepts far more thoroughly than my previous “seat-of-the-pants” knowledge.  The practice of teaching concepts to others is forcing me to learn and retain information at a much deeper level than I ever had before.

This is exciting for me, as I transform my life from REALTOR® to educator.

And this is guiding my actions as I work towards the development of my online course.  I’ve had the entire first section (half a book) written for a while now.  But that’s just the first step.  I don’t want my course to be just another “regurgitation of information”, to be briefly experienced and forgotten.

My challenge is to design the course so that it is interactive and encourages my students to take action on the concepts.  That is how they will become SKILLED.

I will never be satisfied to simply sell my course to a thousand REALTORS®.  I have a far more lofty goal that that:

I want each one of my students to put the ideas into practice and achieve true success.

Truly wanting my clients to achieve success is the same attitude I had in my Real Estate career, and I’m still the same person, after all.

Here’s the key lesson for you from this post:

If you truly want to learn a new skill, put it into practice.  DO it.

Beyond that, try to teach the new skill to someone else.  This could be as simple as discussing a new concept with your spouse.

You may trip over your words at first.  That’s part of the process.  If you can’t clearly explain the concept to someone else, it means you don’t know it well enough.  Go back, re-read, study, practice, and try again.

Is it a struggle?   Yes, indeed!

You need to accept that learning anything new is a struggle.  Your brain is literally building new neuro-transmitters and connections.  Just like a physical workout, your mental workout can be painful.

To train your brain, accept the pain.

That’s life, folks.  If you’ve got lofty goals, you don’t reach them by sitting around day-dreaming.  You DO what you need to DO, including learning new skills.

How do I know learning is a painful experience?  Because I’m doing it right now!  You think I’m pulling all this stuff straight out of my brain?  Ha!

Sure, it’s painful, but it’s also immensely rewarding.

I’m thoroughly intrigued by what I’m currently learning about learning, so watch for more tips on how to learn more effectively, coming next week!

—Coach Ted

I teach GOOD REALTORS® how to become GREAT REALTORS®, with a simple, step-by-step, logical, easy-to-follow, easy-to-implement, inspirational program that requires zero interpretation.

Ted Greenhough
Agent Skills Real Estate Training
Knowledge + Action = Skill