Stop Hiding What You Know About Real Estate

"Kindness pays off 10 fold in the long run..." Spot on! And yes, it works online...it is what Team Eric is doing to try to stay on top in the GREITW seo contest. Thanks for posting this and sharing it. IMO it is one of the secrets of making money and in life. What comes around, goes around. Great post.

I know the conundrum well.  Is Sally making a sincere effort to get up to speed on new technologies or is she looking for Steve to just do it for her?  Time and time again I have given classes on specific subjects and am probed over and over by the same persons how to do something unrelated to what I am teaching and them continuing to not know how to utilize what they have.  I simply do not have time to dedicate over and over to the same person that thinks having 3 websites but mastering none will get them business,  asking questions about Z57 or AA sites when giving classes about Point2 (I don't have knowledge about every platform out there), and of the multiple sites not being able to remember how to get to each one, what the user name is, and what the password is.  As far as competition, I understand well and am selective in what I share but will always help someone with a specific question - How do you do this or that?  If I invest many hours every day for years learning and find that someone wants to be in my spot with 10 minutes effort or pay someone else to do it for them, it is usually a wasted effort anyway.  But what really galls me the worst is those that will take up your time, get what they asked for, and never follow through.  What was the point of taking the time out to explain things?  Eric, you surely know what I mean (and by the way, being a company technologist versus a working agent I remind you that the working agent may have important things to get done when disturbed by someone elses needs!  I do believe in gving though and agree that kindness pays off.

Cal- I TOTALLY get that...with 120 agents in our office, you cannot imagine the drain. (Well...yeah, you probably ca...grin). It is intense. I would NOT advocate getting yourself run over by the "silver bullet" crowd...those who think that if they take you to lunch then they have a right to hours of your time to help. I agree with you 100%. There is a difference between that and those who "hoard' their little bit of knowledge and don't share at all. What has worked for me has been to form a "coalition of the willing"...those who DO get it...do NOT use people...and will NOT violate trusts...and who understand the VALUE of the research that I have put into it. (years). Those folks are entirely willing to help me as well. With a new agent, I think the line is between helping with a question and doing it for them.. It is a tough conundrum and I DO realize that ...

Nice commentary Eric!  Did that cover where you were trying to go with this rmasse10?

I figured I would comment as well.  Sally is new to the industry, coming from nursing.  Steve has been in the business long enough to know what he is doing.  I know both of them fairly well, or at least to comment on the situation.  I have in fact gotten the same responses from Steve when I asked him a question or 2 in the past.  At that time, he did not know what my background was, other than I was a relatively new agent in that office (not a new agent overall).  I said before I teach classes...this is to some 600 agents, on my own time and Steve does in fact attend some of my classes, so I am sharing with him without issue. To further sideline Sally and her efforts, Steve has told Sally not to follow anything I say in these classes.  That one in itself rubbed me the wrong way.  I give my time, dont tell agents what to do but present alternatives or additons to their current business to make it better.  If they choose to apply somethings that I show them...fantastic, if not, thats fine as well.  It is pretty much a buffet of opportunity and you pick and choose what you want.  But to outright say, "Dont do anything that he is teaching in any of these classes", that is just pure sabotage (think I spelled that right). The direction I was going with this is that this industry seems to be cloaked in secrecy.  It is really not called for, we are not producing an engine that runs on water, or a device that creates power from nothing.  My background is engineering, as I have 2 engineering degrees and several US patents to my name.  I come from industry that requires secrecy, from the shear products that they produce.  A little help and kindness, still goes a long way...at least in my book, and actions like this just create issues in the long run.

If I were Sally I would be coming your way for help! 

She is...and she has, but the company assigned her Steve as mentor.  My wife is a realtor in the office as well and shares my views on how things should be done.  She is currently not set up to mentor as she doesnt have the time...but for this case, she is going to the broker to offer her services.  I myself in no way have anytime available, but always spend an extra hour or so to help out people that need something when I can or via phone...but I never hide anything...if I am asked, I tell them.  They can choose what to do at that point.  Not everyone is comfortable with everything.  Some people get a lot of their business from door knocking...great, doesnt work for me.  Some use paper ads, great, doesnt work for me...people tend to try things and see how it works and if they are comfortable with it, they stick with it.  Not everybody likes the "secret sauce"!

This also goes to the kind of Broker you work for and the office atmosphere or the company "culture", as they say. Some real estate offices might be smaller, with more of a family feeling, with everybody helping each other out. At the other end of the spectrum is the large Brokerage that may have a more "cut-throat" atmosphere, where everyone knows that there are way more Agents than there are deals. Since there aren't enough deals for everyone it becomes a zero sum game.  If you can't do enough deals, then you might not last, and every minute you spend helping a rookie get their deals done, is a minute you won't be getting one of your own. What most people in the "cut throat" office don't realize, is that their short term thinking is self defeating. In the long run, it's by helping each other and working together that brings everyone more business.  This business is all about connections. The more people you help, the more likely you are to discover new opportunities you didn't even know existed.  For instance, the rookie you mentor may end up getting married to a building contractor who is building so many homes that the rookie wants to team up with you to sell the homes together. But since you blew the rookie off when they needed mentoring, they end up teaming up with somebody else..... somebody that helped them when they needed it. It's called Karma....

Well put Vickis, It turns out, and I did not know this until the other day, that the Rookie's husband is an ER doctor that has lots of client doctors looking for homes in an expensive area of town.  She has asked my wife, who has helped her in the past, to team up with her on some buyers.   Like I said, kindness goes a long way, and you never know who your gonna help, nor should you care...thanks for the comment. It is interesting at the chords I hit with this topic

Vickis; Nicely said! It is about the character and culture of you office.      

"you never know who your gonna help, nor should you care..."   Well stated!

I wrote about something similar a few weeks ago where the situation is the same but involved a team.  The result was a divided company and culture wasn't even a consideration at that point.  One of my personal vices is my obsession with success manuals (I am trying to break the habit).  One my favorites is the 7 habits books by Stephen Covey.  Covey says in his book that "the only way to truly know something is to experience it again, for the very first time".  Teaching is the only way to truly be good at anything. 

The funny thing is that the culture is suppose to be a "help your fellow agent" and go out of your way to be kind to others, although I could name about 1/4 of the agents that could care less about it.  This is just one of those guys that just doesnt care   thanks for the comment