Top producers feel the pain, too

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Re: 'Revolutionary thinking for real estate' (Dec. 12)

Dear Editor:

What does a successful real estate company look like in a challenging market? Transparency! We keep hearing the word "transparency" in the media these days.

What does that mean for a real estate industry that has been rattled at its core? Agents who were making over $100,000, $250,000 or even more each year are now having a hard time making their mortgage payments.

These agents I am talking about are not the fly-by-night, get-rich-quick agents -- these are consistent top producers who have given their lives to this industry. They have lived, breathed, eaten and slept real estate. Every move was calculated. They were respected by the media, their community, their industry and their clients.

These are highly effective people who would be successful in any career. They chose real estate for many reasons: the flexibility, the challenge, the love of their community, and a career where they could be in business for themselves but not by themselves.

These are not part-timers I am talking about. These are the agents you would see in the paper as top producers every weekend: diehards, leaders, talented agents that had passion. The have had many years of experience in this business and were able to change with the times.

Most of these agents who worked before the boom will tell you that the boom had its challenges just like the bust. We spent more money than some brokers, and we had no social life and no balance. Flexible meant we bent every which way when the client, team member, or vendor called or e-mailed -- whether it was at 6 a.m. or 11 p.m.

We took on every aspect of this business ourselves. We embraced the Internet even when we did not know what we were doing. We neglected our families, our health, our social lives and our inner beings.

To be a top producer in the boom time was not easy. It was exhausting, and agents who were successful were tired and worn out. We were taught that we always had to put on a happy, positive face, but when you are exhausted, burned out and worn out that became harder to do.

Then the market began to slow down. This was not a slow leak -- this was like when you were a kid on a playground and you fell of the top of the monkey bars. It was like having the wind knocked out of you. You couldn't breathe and you couldn't get up. You just laid their until someone came to help you.

The problem was when the real estate industry busted it seemed as if there was no one there to help. You were alone on the playground just lying there. You could hardly breathe, you hurt and you didn't even recognize where you were. You were alone, emotional, with no support, no one to help you, and money was going out faster than it was coming in. We had staff, buyer's agents, marketing people, huge broker bills bigger than your mortgage, vendors to pay, and just enough business for one agent. We had to feed the machine, but there was no food left.

We were told by the industry and our brokers that this was just part of the cycle: "The strong will survive. Wait it out." That was easy for them to say -- they were on salary or had fat bank accounts to float them for the next two years. They did not have to write these checks out of their home equity or credit cards every month. Some of us saved for a rainy day, but the rain did not stop. It just kept raining and raining and raining till agents were drowning in debt and could not come up for air.

So where does that put the top producer now? What we thought we knew was true was not. Those of us who wanted to stay in this business had to change. We cut staff, cut expenses, did what it took to stay in business. The problem was that many of us were at companies that did not provide any support, marketing, management or resources. These companies were founded on the principle that you paid for what you used and the broker was there just as a building and brand name.

Now we are coming into 2009 and this market is our new reality. How do we survive as top producers? I think the solution is to marry the traditional broker with the 100 percent broker. We all understand that it costs money to be in business. No top agent has a problem with the broker making money, as long as the agent is making money, too.

How does this look in 2009? I think I found a broker who gets it. I met (my current broker) after a dear friend and huge producing agent sensed that I was stressed out. She told me about a meeting of the broker with the company's top 20 agents.

He said, "I made a lot of money during the good times and I am ready to reinvest it in the top talented agents in the business."

Some of the discussions that came out of that meeting:

1. Get rid of the nonproducers -- they were taking up resources.

2. Research and pay for the top Web sites as a company so the agents don't have to worry about it.

3. Take on some of the tedious marketing work because we have let our marketing staff go.

4. Get rid of the bills -- stressed out agents are not successful agents.

5. Put successful agents together in pods or groups to mentor and support each other.

6. Research the market and provide us with REAL market and company statistics so we do not have to guess if we are doing OK.

7. They wanted the broker to be involved in the day-to-day operation, accessible to the agents for counseling.

8. They wanted a leader who was willing to invest in their businesses.

9. They also sought counseling on money management, where to spend money, and how to budget in these uncertain times. This would be a give-and-take business model, something that was not common in the real estate industry in the past 10 years. They did not want to be an island -- they wanted to be a small community of top agents who exchanged ideas, resources and positive energy.

The agents wanted a place to go to talk and tell managers how they were feeling. They said they just want to sell real estate, have a successful business, and have a balanced and healthy career.

With turmoil, two things can happen: You can die, or you can pick yourself up, restructure and change with the times.

Eden Baroody Jordan
Vanguard Realty Inc. GMAC Real Estate
Orange Park, Fla.

 

 

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