@Matthew I have to agree that our satisfaction has to come from doing the job right rather then any title – And I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to notice that all the secretaries disappeared

@Mark – Really well made point about comportment in the performance of any set of services. It puts me in mind of an insufferable but exceptionally competent Doctor my wife once visited. Regardless of the quality of his services, he was impossible for us to work with him.

when does the ability to provide a quality of intangible service become a measure?

sure, joe proagent may know what T’s to cross and how to keep me from being sued but if he’s a jerk… to what degree does mannerisms and intangible service enter the picture?

I want my clients to to call me “honest, helpful and understanding.” I don’t care if they call me a Realtor, Consultant, Salesperson, Real-a-tor,Broker or Jim Bob so long as we meet their goals at the end of the transaction and they feel as if they made the right choice in hiring me to serve them.

I think that people spend wayyy too much time trying to define themselves as opposed to just doing the job.

I know that I am the village idiot here, but really you can call it Executive Assistant, Receptionist or Administrative Assistant… if you take notes, answer the phone and get coffee – you’re a secretary and the pay doesn’t change.

“Professional” may be hard to define, but I know it when I see it.

http://tinyurl.com/4dv56h

“Qualifications. You qualified as a real estate professional for the year if you met both of the following requirements.

*More than half of the personal services you performed in all trades or businesses during the tax year were performed in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participated.
*You performed more than 750 hours of services during the tax year in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participated.”

Here’s one of Webster’s definitions: “participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs”

I think there are two different arguments going on.

1: Should we use the word “Professional” to mean “Licenced.”

In many areas in life the word “professional” means “does this as their main income” rather than “has a licence”. eg – Professional Actor (vs. local AmDram member), Professional Driver ( = taxi driver, trucker, bus-driver, or even F1 racing driver) as opposed to “someone who just drives him/herself to work and the kids to school.

For example, I’m lead tenor in my local Church. If I sing for a wedding, I get paid, but that doesn’t make me a “Professional singer” in any meaningful sense.

However, my friend Richard, who used to play Andre in the UK “Phantom or the Opera” and earns a good living in the Corporate Entertainment circuit by singing at company functions IS a professional singer… even though he has no “licence” as such.

2: Should we use the word “Professional” to ONLY mean “Realtor”, or should the word apply to ANYONE who is (depending on the answer to question one ["Paid" or "Licenced"]) to work in the sector.

If we said “licenced”, then “licenced realtor”, “licenced landlord”, “licenced property manager”, “licenced appraiser” could all be “Real Estate Professionals”. (Obviously, only Realtors would be able to describe themselves as “Realtors.”)

If we say “main income”, then anyone whose main income was Landlording could call themselves as “professional landlord” (to distinguish them from the ranks of the middle class who bought a rental unit or two in the hope it would be a better pension than their pension).

Your use of the term [A] Licence makes me think that we’re probably broadly in agreement.

Mark