News You Can Use – Real Estate is a Business

by Kris Berg

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

When I want the news I can use, I head straight for the San Diego Union Tribune. From yesterday’s Currents section, in an article addressing the health benefits of swimming as exercise, they gave us this bit of sage advice:

Who is swimming not good for?

Swimming is not a good activity for someone who doesn’t know how to swim.

I think this should be an ongoing feature series. “Piloting a jetliner is not a good activity for someone who doesn’t know how to fly”, “Skydiving is not a good activity for someone who doesn’t have access to a parachute”, and “Attending a Barry Manilow concert is not a good activity for someone who…” – Well, that last one is just plain wrong.

Do you know what else is just plain wrong? Attempting to grow a successful business is not a good activity for someone who lacks the ability or willingness to think like an entrepreneur, to constantly evolve, to continually strive for excellence and to establish their brand as superior to that of the competition.

I suggest that rather than the Broker’s new-hire training beginning and ending with lessons in the fine art of bulk-mailing, working your sphere, passing out pumpkins on Halloween and flags on the 4th of July, and sitting open houses, the first lesson should be a boot camp on business basics.

New agents, and even the veteran hangers-on who are feeling stalled and challenged, would do well to start thinking like the self-employed business owner they are. Once licensed, it is not your divine right to make a living in real estate. It is not preordained that, once assigned a cubicle and a business card, you will enjoy untold riches or even eat. There are tens of thousands just like you. Only when you reach the point where they are NOT just like you and your customer knows it will you realize any consistent success.

Keep Inventing

The minute your product is finished, so are you.

Years ago, I had one of the first “car phones”. In those days, it was cutting edge, truly a thing of envy. It was hard-mounted to my dash, had the little curly cord of yesteryear, and only worked when the engine was running. It doubled my gas bill, because the unit itself weighed more than my car. I was charged, like, a hundred dollars a minute for airtime, and I was glad to pay it, because I perceived value. My car phone represented cutting edge technology; there was no better alternative to mobile calling.

Of course, technology advanced, and my car phone became first antiquated and then obsolete. It was replaced by its fancy wireless cousins, still outweighing Ruben Studdard, and then lighter weight versions. Airtime got cheaper, even downright affordable, and then came flip phones and PDA’s and Bluetooth.

As a consumer, I still wanted a mobile phone, still needed one, but I took my business to the companies that offered more and better. Do you think your customer might be doing the same?

Sometimes the Packaging Just Isn’t Enough

Have you bought ketchup lately? The choices of pretty red containers on the condiments aisle can overwhelm.

Now, I started my ketchup buying days reaching for the Heinz. My mother always used Heinz, as did her mother, so it was all I knew. I recognized the brand, and their product placement was clearly superior, positioned at eye level on the grocery shelf, no stooping or reaching or rational thought required.

As time went on, everybody was bottling ketchup. Some were less expensive, some had more attractive labels, but they were all ketchup. More choices, but essentially the same product. Now I buy the generic. Until I find a ketchup that is unlike the others, one that delivers a more satisfying burger, what’s the point of not picking the cheapest one on the shelf?

So, let’s mix our metaphors. It’s when the products offer true variety that free-enterprise is at it’s best. Take Cracker Jacks.

I hate Cracker Jacks – Always have, always will. As a child, I begged for them, but all I wanted was the toy, and I submit that without the promise of a free prize, Cracker Jacks would never have been a success. As time went on however, no doubt due to increased costs of doing business or to a desire to improve profit margins, the toys got cheaper until it just wasn’t enough to compel me to open the box. And, it wasn’t the caramel corn I objected to, but all those stupid nuts.

Some people will always buy Cracker Jacks, nuts and all, for the cheesy prize, as they enjoy the feeling that they got something “for free”. For me, I’ll take the Kettle Corn. A little more costly, and no prize, but a much more satisfying reward (superior taste, no overdone sugar coating which only masks the real product, and no nuts). Neither popped corn product will ever enjoy 100% market share, but there is a place for both. The good entrepreneur will determine which product he can stand behind and promote it like a professional.

A Better Delivery System

You may have the shiniest package on the shelf, and it may contain the most superior product available, but you have to get it to market. Your consumers used to expect you to come to them, but now they want to come to you.

Many of you may remember, as I do, the milkman. Each day, full bottles were delivered to our doorstep and the empties retrieved. What killed the milkman?

It was economics and technological advancement, really. Larger dairies and better distribution systems made it more practical and profitable to put the milk on the grocery shelf. Plastic bottles, pasteurization and better refrigeration in transit rendered the daily home delivery obsolete.

Sound familiar? Any new agent who steps foot in the Broker’s door without basic technology skills or a strong desire to learn and embrace technology, should ahead of anything else be given a 2.0 crash course. A canned, unmanned page on your Broker’s site is not good enough; yourname@aol.com is not good enough. What they need to teach and you need to possess is a commitment to continuing education and an aching hunger to understand as much as you possibly can about the countless technological tools at your disposal in the big, wide world out there. Your business depends on it. Eighty-six your planned recipe card mailer, and reallocate that money and time to establishing and growing an online, relevant presence. Remember the milkman.

Mobile phones, snack foods, dairy products and real estate. All require a basic grasp of manufacturing fundamentals. For the CEO’s of any of these companies to achieve long-term success, however, requires a plan, a budget, and an ongoing commitment to product development, in other words, business acumen. If you don’t walk through the door with some of that, that should be your first order of business.