by Rich Schiffer, Weichert Realtors
There is a crisis in the real estate industry that is often overlooked, rarely talked about by the media, and largely unknown by the general populace:
- 80% of all new real estate agents do not succeed in this business.
This is a crisis of catastrophic proportions, which I will discuss in detail in another post.
I have beat the oddsand am still standing after my first year, and my business is picking up in a time when many people are struggling in this changing landscape of the current real estate market.
If you are like many others, you want to know what to do to make sure you are on the success side of the equation. I will also discuss that in detail in another post, but suffice it to say, the tools available to members of Active Rain have played a big part in what is working for me.
The content posted by the members of Active Rain contains knowledge, wisdom, and shared experiences beyond compare. Reading what the community has to offer on topic after topic has given me more knowledge, more shared opinions and experiences, than I could have experienced for myself in a lifetime. The simple act of reading an open dialogue between multiple participants has enhanced my own ability to be open-mined and able to see things from a view other than my own. This can be invaluable in building rapport with clients, and when negotiating on their behalf.
I think everyone will agree that knowledge is only valuable when it is used. By itself knowledge is no more valuable than finding a classified ad in last year's newspaper. Random numbers on a piece of paper might be more valuable, in fact.
Application of knowledge, or informed action, is the only way to truly benefit from knowledge. Knowing how to plant a tree is different from actually planting a tree. According to health statistics, we could all benefit from application of knowledge -- we know that eating less and exercising more will likely lead to a healthier body -- but until we do something with that knowledge, nothing changes. Sound familiar? 40% of the U.S. population, myself included, need to apply what we know about weight loss.
I have built up my knowledge base because of reading Active Rain blogs. I am doing something with what I have learned by blogging about things like Delaware County PA Real Estate, Homes for Sale in Upper Darby, Delaware County, the Home Buying Process, and many other topics. As such, I now have a veritable library of posts that I can point my prospective clients to. When they read my posts, I am instantly afforded a degree of expertise in their minds. Without Active Rain, and the blogs I have written here, creating that level of credibility in my clients eyes would take a lot more time and effort.
