Since the NAR commission suit settlement, buyer agents have faced new rules, new documents and a new normal. This month, Inman drills down on Today’s Buyers Agent with the fresh marketing strategies, skills and tools buyer agents are using to prosper in changing times.
Imagine if we licensed drivers the same way we license real estate agents; our roads would look like a bumper car track.
I remember my first day as a real estate agent, wearing my jacket and tie, sitting at my desk, ready to get to work and thinking, “I have no idea what I am doing.”
To clarify, I had learned the basics of prospecting; I had worked on my scripts for hitting the phones or knocking on doors, and even sitting open houses if another agent would give me the chance. I knew the basics of getting clients. What I didn’t know anything about, however, was what I was supposed to do in case someone answered a door that I knocked on and said, “I’d like to write an offer on the house across the street.”
Practical training is a must
Though I’m a licensed broker in six states, with over 20 years of experience, I still had that same lost feeling each and every time I received a new license. I place the blame for agents’ lack of readiness squarely on most states’ licensing courses and educational requirements.
As an illustration, let’s compare the steps necessary to get a real estate license with getting a driver’s license (something with which I have white-knuckled familiarity thanks to my 16-year-old).
Driver’s license training is “skills-focused.” The coursework focuses on the useful, practical knowledge that a driver will use every day — things like what to do at a stop sign, how and when to signal, and whether or not one can cross a double yellow line to pull into a driveway or parking lot (something that sparks an argument almost every time I go to Costco).
Real estate license training is much more scattered. For instance, instead of simply teaching that discrimination is illegal and providing a list of protected classes and people, real estate training and testing is equally focused on things like when different civil and housing rights acts were passed.
When a HUD tester shows up asking if the owner will rent to a person of color, I think it’s more important that an agent knows to say, “Of course,” and not “The first civil rights act was passed in 1866, but was undermined by the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson … ”
History is great, I love history, but when approaching a stop sign, I thank the DMV that my son knows to apply the brakes instead of looking at me and saying, “In 1954, the Federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices required that all stop signs must be red and octagonal.” (I would hazard a guess my insurance company is thankful, as well.)
We need traditional blackbelts
A karate instructor once told me that traditionally, students didn’t go out and buy darker and darker belt colors as their skills grew; rather, they wore the same belt, which started off white and darkened over time with experience. When it comes to real estate, it seems many agents “buy” a black belt as soon as they get their license, without having or seeking any practical experience.
On the other hand, the aspiring driver gets their white belt when they pass the written test and starts to “darken their belt” with practical experience behind the wheel (with an experienced driver ready to grab the wheel one seat over).
It’s not until the novice driver has attained a degree of road competency that they are allowed to take a practical driving test, and upon passing, get to give their parents mini heart attacks any time they hear anything that vaguely sounds like metal hitting metal.
Which licensee is better prepared?
Who’s picking up the slack on training?
That lack of actual skills-based education in real estate puts the burden of training on brokerages, and not all brokerages are created equal or up to the task. A friend from my licensing class went to a brokerage that provided her a mentor who drilled her on paperwork and procedures through practice listings, offers, counteroffers and repair requests.
My first brokerage paired me with a mentor who hadn’t done a deal in quite a few years and was more concerned with whether the coffee was fresh or from that morning, instead of whether contingencies were removed actively or passively. (Oh, and she got that one wrong on my first deal, and I was nearly sued.)
Inexperienced karate students and drivers can cause serious physical damage; inexperienced agents can cause serious financial and even civil damages that affect their clients, themselves and their brokerages.
Before getting a license, plumbers and electricians are required to undergo vocational training and years of apprenticeship; I am grateful for this system whenever I flush a toilet or turn on a light switch (especially if the light switch is in my bathroom).
With so much at stake for a client buying or selling a home — something which is, more often than not, the largest and most significant financial transaction of their lives — I think the public deserves better than “off-the-shelf blackbelts.”
If departments of real estate across the country were serious about their mission to protect the public, they would align licensing education and certification with actual practice in the industry. There would be tests on skills or mandated apprenticeships, and continuing education for renewal would reinforce these skills.
But for now, I guess we’ll settle for tests that require an agent to know how many square feet are in an acre (43,560), or what year the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed (1990), instead of knowing how to write a counteroffer properly.
Writer’s note: The opinions in this article represent the author’s opinions and do not reflect those of Side.
Spencer Krull is a managing broker with Side, and also works as a real estate expert witness and consultant for attorneys.
