Awards we will never see in the real estate industry

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Teresa Boardman

I like to think of this as the painful time of year when real estate agents and companies make claims of greatness and win awards.

There will be a diverse list of “top” people. The diversity is mostly in the style of a necktie or if they wear a tie at all.  There will be special categories for women because even though women dominate the real estate industry, we are not who the male deciders consider being “top”.

On the one hand real estate professionals like to paint a picture that they work hard and help people buy houses but the awards usually have to do with how much money an agent made or how many rich people he or she helped.

If I gave out the awards things would be different.

There would be an award for the agent who helped buyers use the most down payment assistance money.

The buyer’s agent who got the highest number of offers accepted that included FHA and VA financing.

An award for agents with the most diverse clientele and special awards for agents who help the rent trapped get out of the trap.

A prize for the real estate professionals and companies with the most first-generation home buyers.

Agents who made more than “X” amount while using less fossil fuel.

An extra special award to the woman who makes a decent living selling real estate while caring for children and elderly parents.

Nah the awards go to the folks who make the most money and are “all that and a bag of chips”. . . . and people wonder why the narrative is always about the real estate agent who does too little but makes too much.

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A new era of useless advice

Posted on November 28, 2023 by Teresa Boardman

Ever since the NAR got sued over how commissions are paid there has been an abundance of really useless and in some cases stupid advice for real estate practitioners.

Many in the industry do not understand the issue. It isn’t as much about how much Realtors are paid as it is all about how Realtors are paid. Specifically who is paying them.

According to NAR rules, home sellers have to pay buyer’s agents because to list a home for sale on the MLS, the listing agent has to promise compensation to a buyer’s agent. Realtors in most cases are forced to put any home they list for sale on the MLS. There are exceptions for large company pocket listings.

It doesn’t seem like NAR understands it either but the goal for NAR is to keep things the way they are. NAR can not change and there isn’t the smallest chance they will admit there is a better way or a different way to run organized real estate.

As for the useless advice, there is an implication that getting business working with buyers isn’t competitive and now it will be. WRONG.  The competition is fierce.

As an industry, we know how to represent home buyers. This isn’t new. Buyer representation contracts are not new either.

I find myself searching for new sources of real estate news on the internet due to being tired of reading the same tired articles about how to represent home buyers and how agents can prove their value to buyers.

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When leaders hide

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Teresa Boardman

Sometimes when there is a crisis in an organization the leaders of the organization go silent. They are hiding hoping that everything will blow over but sometimes it doesn’t blow over.

Some will be told that they can not say anything while others will be told what they can say.

They go about their extremely important duties as if nothing has happened.

They lurk on social media posts and news articles and will occasionally jump in and use the gaslighting techniques that they learned in leadership school.

If that doesn’t work then they may try blaming anyone who is pointing out that there is a crisis for the crisis. We call this deflection. Rather than taking responsibility for a problem people with weak leadership skills will blame someone else.

When an organization has thousands of hard-working skilled leaders who are doing the most important work that there is we wonder how and why they can ignore the biggest crisis facing the organization that they have dedicated so much of their time and effort to.

It turns out that the people we thought were leaders and those who call themselves leaders are not leaders at all.  If they were leaders we could hold them accountable or at the very least they would come out of hiding so that we can have a conversation.

Weenie awards to all!

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Silence can be deafening

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Teresa Boardman

Silence can be deafening. The “leaders” who are silent right now are speaking volumes.

Leadership isn’t just about enjoying the good times and taking a bow when all goes well. Sometimes leadership involves dealing with some ugly stuff.

Are you sure you have what it takes to be a leader?

 

 

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Squat, scrunch and look small

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Teresa Boardman

This is for the powerful and amazing women in real estate.

Sometimes powerful women get together and when they do we find photographic evidence of the get-together on social media.

There are some poses women will use in photographs to appear smaller and thinner. Men don’t seem to do this but maybe they do and I just don’t know about it.

When a group of women get together and pose for a photograph and they all kind of hunch down and put one foot forward, bend their knees, and do all that they can to look small it can look like they have to pee and are trying to hold it in.

Please, ladies, you all look lovely. You don’t need to look small to be great. Stand tall, and go ahead and take up some space.  Don’t be afraid to show the world how powerful you are.

We don’t truly have power until we are able to let go of the notion that we have to be the thinnest person in the photo.

Posted in Good Advice | Leave a comment

Brand confusion

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Teresa Boardman

The most recent data about National Association of Realtor members says that 62% are female and that the median age is 60.

81% of motorcycle owners are male, and the median age of a motorcycle owner is 50.

Soooooo.  . . . the National Association’s “riding with the brand” campaign makes perfect sense as a way to showcase who we R.

REALTOR® PRIDE will sweep across the nation with Riding with the Brand! United by our pride in the profession, together we’ll celebrate what it means to be REALTOR® STRONG

Members can win a “riding with the brand” motorcycle and they have “riding with the brand” belt buckles.

It is possible that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is out of touch with its members.

Maybe the campaign is supposed to resonate with some other group of people.  “Riding with the brand” is traveling around the country and promoting Realtors.

Nothing says Realtor like a motorcycle except for maybe a big ole belt buckle.

Sometimes I get the feeling that NAR is in denial. They wish that members were young and male but instead, members are people just like me. I haven’t been young for some time now and I have never been male.

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Where us my Threads webinar?

Posted on July 7, 2023 by Teresa Boardman

Threads

As I write this on my blog cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand, “Threads” has been available to real estate pros for 24 hours.

The new app is sort of like Twitter I am told. I am not using it yet but am waiting for a free webinar. I know that the app is just for real estate and am surprised that no one is teaching us what the best practices for using it are.

To all the gurus out there I am waiting. Will this be the kind of game changer Club House was or maybe is? Will it be as hot as Plerk was in 2008 or will it be like those Google apps that had waiting lists to join but have since disappeared?

One thing is sure and that is that Threads is for real estate pros and it will be a game changer so please hurry we need guidance.

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