Trust Me, I’m Not An Agent
Well. Dalton left. But before he went, I think he shipped all of his frustration to me in a box. And clearly, a delicate flower such as myself can’t handle that kind of pressure. So forgive me for a minute here, but this needs to be said.
If you’re not an agent, I don’t want to hear about how your favorite new shiny thing creates closings.
If you don’t actually sell real estate, you can’t really tell me how it’s done.
Period.
Regale me with your theories – that’s what they are. Theory. Trot out testimonials from those you’ve helped. Show me how your SEO methods worked – give me numbers, if you’ve got ‘em – but only for the agents that actually use the thing.
Unless you’ve got the buns of buyers and sellers in seats in front of you on a regular basis, it’s all just your theory. And if you’re after a national audience to sell your shiny new thing to agents, your experience using it has absolutely no relation to me trying to get a local audience of buyers and sellers.
Teach me what you know. I’m open. I’m interested. Heck, it may actually work. But don’t ever – ever – tell me it gets closings, when that’s not your experience.
Whew. I feel better now. Don’t you?
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This article published on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 9:40 am | Contact the editor
Topics: Real Estate
About this Columnist (Full Profile)
Kelley Koehler, aka the Housechick, is usually found focused on her Tucson, Arizona, real estate business. You may also find her on Twitter, where she doubles as a super hero, at Social Media Training Camp, where she trains and coaches people on how to integrate social media into successful business practices, or at KelleyKoehler.com, a collection of all things housechick-ish. Despite her engineering background, Kelley enjoys translating complex technical concepts into understandable and clear ideas that are practical and useful to the striving real estate agent.
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Comments (22)
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- Mark Eibner:
we’re at it again Trust Me, I’m Not An Agent: Get out of your feed reader and comment on .. http://tinyurl.com/dh8v2s
- sheilabragg:
Trust Me, I’m Not An Agent: Get out of your feed reader and comment on this post- we PROMISE that the Sham.. http://tinyurl.com/dh8v2s
- AgentGenius:
agentgenius.com NEW Trust Me, I’m Not An Agent http://tinyurl.com/dh8v2s
- Real Estate Feeds:
Trust Me, I’m Not An Agent: Get out of your feed reader and comment on this post- we PROMISE that the Sham.. http://tinyurl.com/dh8v2s
- Bring the Blog:
http://agentgenius.com/?p=11721 << @housechick prefers to learn from producers rather than professors. Amen.
- Kelley Koehler:
i’m a delicate flower, dammit. http://budurl.com/imapansy
- cindy*staged4more:
RT @brendacarus: RT @housechick: i’m a delicate flower, dammit. http://budurl.com/imapansy
- Kelley Koehler:
RT @laniar: @housechick AMEN to your article: http://agentgenius.com/?p=11721 [wheee!]
- Harriman Real Estate:
RT @LaniAR: @housechick AMEN to your article: http://agentgenius.com/?p=11721 [Tell it, Sister!]
- Ines Hegedus-Garcia:
SHINY THINGIES!!! http://bit.ly/1a0QyF
Benn Rosales
Conal Campbell
Elijah May
Lani Rosales
Tara Steele
Marti Trewe
Charlene Jimenez
My frustration didn’t arrive postage due, did it?
Your healthy skepticism is like a breath of fresh air. Taking it in does make me feel better.
Seriously, I’m flabbergasted those who know you even a bit haven’t mentioned anything about the ‘delicate flower’ description. But since we’re both such sensitive souls, I’ll let it go.
I can’t add anything of quality to what you’ve said so well — so I’ll just add my heartiest endorsement.
Vendors are to real estate pros what college/university professors are to business in general. They’re positive what they teach is money in the bank. Yet they (professors) opt for lives of theory without practice — criticizing from the cheap seats of lifetime tenured security.
Meanwhile the delicate flowers in the trenches of real life keep figuring out ways to make things happen — most of which have little if anything to do with what they learned from so many cocksure theorists.
You put a smile on my face today, Kelley.
Yes, I do feel better. I totally agree. As long as they are those who will buy…
Can I smell your flower? no really….I want the friggin’ flower already!
Hi Kelley – I love that nobody will ever accuse you of not being clear and direct!
Don’t hate me because I’m not an agent!
Nor am I trying to sell products or services to agents (not my target client audience).
That said, I like to think that my sharing my marketing experience/expertise and sometime contrarian views could help an agent.
I agree with you, I can’t tell you how it’s done. (Although I did observe my father as both an agent, then a broker/owner of his own business for 30+ years, nothing outside of actual experience gives you experience.)
All that said, I hope that you (and others reading this) will be open to us outsiders that are just trying to pass on a tidbit every now and again in a sincere “pay it forward” spirit.
xo
Brandie
Brandie – I was mostly just pissed at the heading for a story. To suggest what works to sell someone’s education nationally will work to sell real estate locally… that don’t fly.
I’m all for sharing. I’m all for suggesting how it could be applied to real estate. I want to hear what’s worked and what hasn’t, DESPERATELY. I want to try all kind of other ideas that people use in other industries, see if they work for me or not. Just don’t tell me it works for real estate when that’s not a valid conclusion… yet.
I absolutely think all of your marketing experience is incredible, and I’d love to hear about it. And I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t walk up to me and say, hey, Kelley – do this and you’ll get 4 closings.
Tell me your client got 4 closings – great! Tell me how well it worked for you in your target market – sweet! I wanna learn. I could just do without the smoke being blown up my a** at the same time. I am a delicate flower, ya know.
I hear you. Fair. Thanks.
p.s. I’m a delicate flower, too. Ask anyone!
Agents are always hoping that next “thing” will be the silver bullet that will propel them to super sales. I was skeptical when the the guys from San Diego came to my association convention and gave a presentation on the inter-web thing, getting an e-mail account, and registering my name as my domain (I already used aol). I had used e-mail at my old job so I understood how important it could be. But DougFrancis.com was like pretending to be Steve Case or something.
So I bit and spent twenty bucks… who knew?
Stay objective, don’t criticize everything immediately, and keep sharing ideas.
Got to go, Idol is on!
I didn’t realize that anyone other than Jeff Brown was a delicate flower – though he has blossomed substantially
Kelley – awesome post – point well made
Kelley – You mean, “Talk is Cheap”? Appreciate the point.
ahh a breath of fresh air. We all want to learn but stick to what you know and have a track record to share.
One of my pet peeves, good bloggers but no business to speak of.