Why I Write

This is my 105th blog. I had no idea I had written so many. I started writing the blogs because I wanted to create points of entry for lay people and colleagues alike into what real estate agents do, how we think, and how consumers can more effectively advocate for themselves within the broker/client relationship. I wanted to demonstrate some of the complexity inherent in our jobs as well as the multiple pleasures. Our business involves strategizing, it involves relationship management, it involves aesthetics, it involves negotiating skill, and it often involves being a strong hand within the softest velvet glove. There is no other work quite like it.

So who are the people who succeed at this work? Recently Warburg’s management team has tried to standardize the way our three Sales Directors interview broker candidates. Certain things are givens – we need a resume, we need a list of sales broken down by year for anyone with a history in the business, and we require a DISC test, which is a remarkably accurate 7 minute online personality assessment. We have found over the years that a certain type tends to do well in brokerage: good people skills and enough backbone to be a closer. The timid, or those excessively interested in people pleasing, rarely close deals.

As the group discussed what we are looking for in candidates, a number of things became clear to us. Like every business, we want people who are at ease with technology. The world of the broker revolves around computers, the more sophisticated the better. Good math skills are important; not only the ability to quickly calculate 5% or 6% in your head, but also the ability to understand complex financial statements and organize them clearly for Board review. A great Rolodex helps, but it provides no guarantee that its possessor knows what to do with it. It needs to be accompanied by a tight business plan. And we try to never hire anyone who says they want to become an agent because they “like people” or “like architecture!” That’s fine, but it simply isn’t enough.

As I have noted before in these blogs, the changes in the information superhighway have transformed our business. As we have moved out of the information business and into the expertise business our core competencies have had to evolve. Negotiating is more fast paced and much of the background information is now transmitted by e-mail. But it is a foolish agent who conducts negotiations on the computer. They require the nuanced understanding only voice to voice communication can provide. In fact one of today’s core skills is knowing when NOT to use technology! A good broker does much more research than he or she did 15 years ago – on the market comps, closed sales, prices per square foot, scalability of pricing by floor, by view, by condition. But interpreting the mass of data available to both us and our clients is more important and complex than ever before. Hence the expertise!

So this is why I blog: I want to underline the professionalism which agents acquire but for which they are rarely recognized and the skills which the work demands. I want consumers to be aware of what we do and of what they need to do to make sure their real estate transactions run as smoothly as I can. I want to provide real time information about the market and how it reflects and counters economic trends. And I hope those with the skills described above will consider a career in the residential sales business. It’s rewarding, it’s endlessly interesting and various, and it’s fun. True, it eats your life, but I suspect almost every engaging job does that. Warburg and the other top firms employ ex-bankers, lawyers, teachers, performers, actors, and, increasingly, ambitious young men and women just out of college who see residential as their lifetime career. Do YOU love what YOU do?