In the last year, One South has brought in some new agents. And when we say ‘new,’ we mean ‘brand new and shiny / right-out-of-the-box / still under warranty’ new.
It has been interesting.
One South 1.0
For the first years of our existence (we opened in January 2008,) we mainly brought experienced agents into our office. We set our brokerage model (splits/services/focus) to appeal to industry vets who were accustomed to a certain level of production. Our administrative support was geared to help successful agents experiencing issues related to capacity (especially during the peak seasons) and who needed to leverage an administrative ‘team’ to help them achieve increasing levels of success. By and large, the ‘plug and play team’ model has served us well and it allowed us to grow from our original core group of 5 to over 50 agents and staff during a period when 25% of Realtors left the market.
One South 2.0
And then something changed … we began to be increasingly sought by a new crop of talented and capable individuals who saw real estate as a great career choice. The notions of self-determination, unlimited potential and opportunity to invest had returned and gone (it seemed) was the public perception that the market was broken and the career path was poor one.
It had come full circle.
Real Estate – The Big Topic
As you would expect, the needs of an experienced agent were far different than one whose first day in real esatte was (coincidentally) the first day they walked through One South’s door. Gone are the days when a broker would point to a phone book, small desk and a rotary dial phone and say ‘Good Luck! Call me when you sell something!’ In order to be fair to the agents we were bringing into the business, we needed to offer what was tantamount to the finest training platform available and not just toss them in the deep end of the pool and see who could swim.
And what what we realized when we began writing our comprehensive training program? (I am borrowing a quote from one of the new agents) – ‘Real Estate is a BIG Topic.’
And you know what? Real estate IS AN EXTREMELY BIG Topic…
In order to be truly successful in this business, an agent must have skills which touch on:
- legal literacy
- contract structure
- negotiation
- regulatory environment
- mortgage and commercial lending
- Fair Housing law
- development
- trends
- valuations
- analytics
- web platforms
- social platforms
- print and other digital media
- marketing techniques
- geography
- asset types
- construction methods
- historic districts
- federal, state and city incentives
- syndication
- Association rules and regs
- MLS rules and regs
- MLS search techniques
And I am sure this list only covers part of it.
Real estate is not just a ‘Big Topic,’ it is a HUGE topic…whose size grows daily.
Having a firm whose collective experience touches on all of the topics above (and then some) means our agents (and their clients) will always have access to the knowledge they require to provide the best representation available in our market. While it may sound cliche to say we are ‘cutting edge’ or ‘ahead of the curve,’ it is true that we strive to play in the spaces where others are yet to find.
The New Agent and The Veteran
What makes all of this worthwhile? When both new and experienced agents begin to interact and learn from one another…that’s when.
This new generation of agent comes to the table with a command of technology which challenges the veteran to stay relevant yet each veteran is armed with decades of experience which allows their advice to be pointed, valuable and informative. If we (the brokerage) do the correct job in creating an environment of sharing and collaboration, we will laid our groundwork for decades to come as the next generation of enthusiastic, technologically savvy AND knowledgeable agents hit the streets with decades of experience at the ready.
I am excited for our future.