As the market heats up (and in most parts of North America it has) things keep changing in a positive manner … and yet a lot of things remain the same. The agents that are good are doing better than ever, and the agents that aren’t any good are complaining more than ever. If you’re good, you’ve got to be happy with this market and if you’re not any good … get good.
Here’s what I don’t understand … we’re fortunate enough as an organization to work with agents from almost every major Real Estate franchise company. Re/Max … Century 21 … Prudential … Keller Williams … Coldwell Banker … Realty Executives ... Exit Realty, etc. The majority of the major independents have agents that are customers of ours, as well as a wide variety of great agents that work in their local Real Estate companies.
At our Management Retreat earlier this week, Keller Williams Brokers said the following to 175 other Brokers. I’ve heard this quote that I’m going to give you repeated by Keller Williams Brokers time and time again … so if somebody chooses to get mad … find out who within the organization keeps saying this and chastise them - not me. “Keller Williams is a Real Estate training and coaching company that is disguised or acting like a Real Estate sales organization.” I’ve heard this comment made time and time again over the last couple of years, and what’s interesting to me is that, now, I’m told by a person that interviewed with Keller Williams to be a coach … that they are going to take their coaching company and make it a public coaching company … meaning Keller Williams is going to move beyond coaching just their Brokers and agents to now start coaching all of you.
This is an interesting thing for all of us to think about. First of all, they believe they can be a competitive coaching company in what has become a very highly competitive industry. Second, they seem to believe that Real Estate agents that do not work for Keller Williams will be delighted to feed money to the Keller Williams bank account, while at the same time Keller Williams is competing with that same agent for listings and sales every day. Interesting, isn’t it? Now, obviously I don’t have inside information as to whether this will actually take place or not, but the person who shared this with me said this was a direct quote from Keller Williams headquarters in Austin, TX.
I think all of us recognize that at times our industry is an unusual one and I’ve said at times that the basic methodology in how Real Estate is being handled is, at best, an unusual methodology. I’ve said that the Brokerage industry appears to be broken and I’m not sure if it can be fixed in a manner that makes it a viable industry for Brokers, as we know it today. However … to think that the agents within all the major franchises and major independents will sign up and pay coaching fees to an organization owned by one of the largest competitors … really makes no sense. However, after doing the work I’ve done for as long as I’ve done it, nothing would surprise me. There are some things I just don’t understand.
Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647
