Here are the three things (in my opinion) that make up a genuinely great Real Estate agent:
Integrity – “I care.”
Great agents tend to lose a lot of sleep worrying about their clients. This is because they have high integrity! But don’t worry! High-integrity agents get more and more sleep as they accumulate more knowledge and skills.
Knowledge – “I know.”
When we first get licensed, it’s embarrassing how little we know. It’s like we just graduated from Real Estate Kindergarten. I’ve long advocated for more in-depth agent training until I finally gave up and developed my own course (www.AgentSkills.com).
Whether they take my course or not, genuinely great REALTORS® need to develop a deep chest of information that they can draw upon. And their learning should never stop. It certainly doesn’t for me.
Skills – “I can.”
Knowledge and integrity are good, but putting it all together to produce the best possible results for your clients? That takes serious skills; hard-fought, well-earned skills.
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Are there agents with deep knowledge and highly-refined skills but low integrity?
Of course! This is no different than any other industry. In Real Estate, the low-integrity salesy slicksters all have one thing in common:
They need a massive advertising budget to keep the phone ringing.
Otherwise, despite the constant bragging and bravado, they’re not nearly as successful as they pretend to be.
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What about high-integrity agents with a deep chest of accumulated knowledge but who are lacking in skills?
They know what to do, but somehow they’re never quite able to execute.
These agents genuinely care about their clients, and they’ve got the deep knowledge required to achieve the desired result. And yet, they often become frustrated and disillusioned with their careers because they lack a few basic skills.
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How about agents with super high integrity and finely-tuned skills but lacking deep knowledge?
These agents have skills, but they lack the core knowledge that those skills should be built upon. As a result, they tend to make an excessive number of mistakes, and they often quit the industry out of sheer frustration (because they have high integrity).
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Integrity, knowledge, skills.
To become a great agent, you need all three!
“I care, I know, I can.” Actually, I believe this to be true for most professions. What do you think, Marla?
Ted