The Shiny Penny

If you were to offer a child a shiny new penny or a worn discolored dime; which do you believe they would take? Without understanding value, they typically would choose the penny because it was new and larger than the dime, so it obviously would have a greater value, in their mind. Many new real estate agents entering the business do the same exact thing because they do not understand value. The shiny penny gets all the attention with the brilliant office and the smiling face that exudes wealth. Newly licensed agents are promised opportunities from long-standing companies with the reputation of housing top producers or having market share. They promise training and the ability to shadow top producing agents and learn how to become a top producer themselves. Oh yes, their commissions are lower than other firms, but they offer their reputation and services, unlike other firms. They will be among several newly licensed agents which they will all learn along the way and become part of the company team.

The training begins with scripts for calling expired listings and “for sale by owners”, and the role playing begins until they have their scripts down pact, and the phone calls begin, alongside other agents. After many hang-ups and disgruntled persons on the other end of the call, they create an opportunity to make a listing presentation and take on an over-priced listing that will linger once again because of an owner’s preconceived idea of the value of their home, and later expires, again.

The shadowing of top producers becomes stuffing envelopes or applying stamps to postcards and attending closings where they witness large commission checks the top producer receive and their excitement builds once again as the newly licensed agent makes a cash advance on their credit card to make it through another month without income.

Very soon the shiny penny isn’t as exciting as it once was. The newly licensed agent must take on another job to fulfill their financial obligations, often to the dismay of the shiny real estate brokerage. The training fades and very soon the newly licensed agent is cast into the heap of other fledgling agents and the shiny penny becomes a tarnished albatross around the neck of the newly licensed agent as they become tarnished with the real estate industry. If only they had only knew the right questions to ask and were able to look past the shiny penny.

 What many newly licensed agents don’t understand is, they are in business for themselves and they need to understand what tools they must invest into to go along with the training. They need to understand that the market share of the firm is not theirs, a shiny office is to impress the public’s opinion, not theirs. They need to know what other opportunities will available for them to create cash flow and build a database other than working with buyers and sellers? They need to understand, they are building "their" business and not just for the reputation or create a larger market share for the shiny penny.

The old dime is there, long after many agents have been cast into a pile for their tiny piece of market share. There are many opportunities with the old dime that will be bypassed by those who don’t understand the value or what questions to ask. Let's start the conversation.

When Leaders Fail

I was recently talking with the mother of a young soldier who is losing his interest and faith of the Army. She told me his dream of a lifetime was to become a soldier, train and serve his country. His recruiter kept him excited through his last year of high school, explaining of the quality training he was going to receive, all while serving his country. A few weeks after graduation, he shipped off to basic training and fell in love with the Army. He got his first choice of duty stations and soon upon arriving, his unit went to the field and his excitement grew even stronger. Then reality set in after returning from the field, doing maintenance on the equipment and then nothing else happened. Winter set in and it seems the training stopped, and the long days of boredom have set in. I have seen this all before from units I have served in. Training schedules posted and not followed, NCO’s sitting around in B.S. meetings, telling war stories or hiding at home between formations, all while their soldiers sit around in the day room playing video games or watching movies. We spend thousands of dollars recruiting young people into our ranks, spend thousands of dollars molding and training them just to send them to units where lazy NCO’s fail to do their jobs of taking care of their soldiers. There are no reasons soldiers should be bored or idle during the duty day. The job of the NCO is making sure their soldiers are trained and given meaningful tasks for their future development, counseled on what they need to be doing to gain the next rank and develop points to become an NCO. The problem is, they do not want to become like their NCO. Leadership is about setting the example, giving guidance and developing our next generation of leaders. My next step is going to be writing a letter to the young soldier and giving him the advice he needs to hear and not follow in the footsteps of the typical barracks rat private. I will give him guidance about the educational opportunities awaiting him and how he can use his idle time to gain college credits and a future degree he is going to need when he ETS’s. If he continues at his current rate, chances are he will spend four years serving our country in a job he now hates, with limited skills and four years behind his peers back home. My advice for those NCO’s; do your damn job so I don’t have to do it for you. Be the leader and take care of your soldiers, train them, give them guidance and above all; get off your butt and do your job!   

Debt, the Real Killer

During an early morning drive to Orlando for a speaking engagement, while listening to some mindless radio chatter, an advertisement blasted out from a young man, with poor credit, was able to get a car loan from a local credit union, using his car as collateral to pay off some accumulated bills and put some cash in his pocket. My thoughts were; if you have poor credit, why would you borrow more money to extend yourself into debt and put additional borrowed spending cash into your pocket? As the radio signal faded, I changed stations and another commercial blared out the ability to pay-off those holiday credit cards with a home equity line of credit and have additional cash for the Spring get-away vacation. I had to ponder on that one for a moment; let’s see, you spend money you don’t have to make other people happy during the holidays, just to make yourself happy, only to get upset with yourself for creating a financial burden which now you will borrow more money to pay off the debt and then take a vacation you can’t afford using the equity in your home, as an ATM. I asked myself this question; how does that make any sense with anyone? The truth of the matter, that is exactly how a large portion of our society lives today. They use what equity they have built in their home and car to pay off credit cards to lower their interest rate on the borrowed money only to once again make purchases with their credit cards with high interest rates and make minimum payments until the card limits out and the cycle returns for a re-finance of their home mortgage or trade-in their used car for extended financing. Debt is the real killer of our economy, households and relationships. Debt leads to stress, which leads to anxiety, overeating and drinking, which leads to additional health problems. Debt is the real killer in our community. Money management needs to be part of the “Public Service” advertisements on radio and television. Money management needs to be taught starting in elementary school and advanced in middle and high school. Our college graduates are drowning in debt, our nation’s families credit card debt is over one and half trillion dollars and the banks and lending institutions are not helping, they’re enabling. Before you decide to extend your credit card spending limit, re-finance your car or get a home equity line of credit, sit down and create a real savings and spending budget. If you find yourself digging yourself deeper into debt, stop digging! Find an organization who will assist you with your debt, talk with your lenders and stop going down the path of financial ruin. Think about the future and the cash you will need in case of an emergency or your retirement that is quickly catching up with you. Don’t let debt be the killer of you!