Training a new real estate agent can be exasperating for a broker. The amount of time required to train new agents can be very taxing on a broker’s schedule. Although runners spend a fair amount of time training, it’s usually never enough because there’s so much material to cover.
Where most brokers go wrong is when they give the new agent some of the basic training, they task them with watching videos made by top-notch real estate trainers. Everything these trainers teach you is true and accurate. So where does it all go wrong?
Pretty much all the agent training that’s available is for agents who have had some experience, say about a year. When you take agents who are wet behind the ears, put them through this advanced training, they get discouraged and quit.
In some cases, brokers use videos that they bought a long time ago and all the proven methods that were used at that time have become obsolete. An example of that would be “cold calling” which is creating a list of phone numbers for an area and having an agent or agents call the owners in an attempt to get lists. Cold calling no longer works for two main reasons: the vast majority of people have signed up for the Do Not Call list, and agents need to make sure they don’t call these people or they could be subject to a hefty fine. The second big reason is that most people now use answering machines and caller ID, so they can screen their calls and decide if they should pick up the phone.
If they don’t know who you are, they won’t take your call.
The type of training a new agent needs is quite different from the standard training offered today. It’s a training that will get them started to do the simple things that happen in the real estate business. Making appointments, showing a home, how to encourage a buyer to make an offer, the right way to hold an open house, and that’s just for starters! There are many other things that will take a long time to learn, so runners often neglect this type of training and do it little by little. It can be frustrating for a new agent to wait for answers if the broker is not available. This is where this type of training becomes invaluable.