|
Dear
fellows:
Because it's so easy to get a real estate license, it's generally assumed that we have no body of knowledge behind us (relative to other professionals such as doctors, lawyers, professors, plumbers etc). After all, a few weeks of study and you ARE one of us! Perhaps for this reason, the general public seem to believe there is nothing to "know" about our business. And since we all know that knowledge is POWER—and we are perceived as having little or no knowledge—we have little power in many instances with our clients and members of other professions. This lack of power makes our job far more difficult than it needs to be! To me, this means that we have to try so much harder and be so much better than those professionals who sit in an office with 47 thousand books on the shelves behind them (we only have 10?). To make matters worse, we are encouraged to emulate the belief system of people like attorneys, because they clearly know so much more than we do and because, in so doing, we can cover our behinds as well. Real estate managers seem to think that REAL ESTATE LAW is just about the only discourse helpful to our profession. Two points I would like to make here: first, realtors are not "little lawyers!" We have a valid body of knowledge behind us (even if it is all contained in 10 books!), and we need to respect it. Second, there are many other disciplines and life experiences that each of us brings to the conduct of our everyday business that are at least as valuable as the law. For example, I was a professor of experimental psychology at the University of San Francisco for 12 years, and in that research field, I learned a lot of good stuff that's now quite useful in my job. And any realtor who's done this work for a number of years has grown considerably wiser just from that experience. I remember once when a buyer's agent asked me why I wanted more than $1000 initial deposit on a contract (a few years back) and told me "that's all we ever offer." It is indeed true that agents look to see what their fellows are doing and then do that, without thinking for themselves. This agent said something to me I will never forget: "It doesn't matter whether the initial deposit is $1000 or $10,000—legally it's all the same." Fact is, she was right about the legal part but who cares? As a psychologist I know that a person's attitudes are governed by their prior actions; and as a responsible realtor, I am thinking on my own about how best to take care of my client. So, for my money, where real estate law and experimental psychology dictate different actions, I'll rely on the psychology! In closing, I'll make a pitch for us to take our power back, my colleagues, from the attorneys and anyone else who says we have no worthwhile body of knowledge or experience. Our power can only be taken from us if we allow that to happen ... by either failing to recognize the power game for what it is or by failing to appreciate the enormous learning that informs and supports our everyday contribution to each other and to our clients. Proudly in your corner, I remain, sincerely yours, Lee
Bender, Ph.D. |