Learn to ask “¿Cómo se dice?”
Have you ever traveled outside of your country? Your language?
Starting in real estate is like traveling to a foreign country. Don’t believe me?
Keep reading.
In my former life I traveled all over. Many times I was able to get by with my English and some sign language but it was hard. I didn’t know the language. My first experience with this was at 16 years old, traveling to Saltillo, Mexico to spend part of my summer learning Spanish.
Frankly I was more interested in exploring the city with my best friend than sitting in a classroom or struggling with a tutor so I didn’t learn all I could have. I had the pleasure of going back when I was about 30 something to work at the GM plant in the same city and I learned better that time.
The most valuable phrase I learned was “¿Cómo se dice?”.
It is how you ask ‘how do you say…’ and then point to the object or say the word you want to translate in English. If I say ‘”¿Cómo se dice?” and point to my head I’ll learn the word ‘cabeza’. My goal on my later trips to Mexico was to learn how to speak Spanish and on a couple of the jobs I went on I intentionally stayed in areas where English was not spoken commonly. It was painful but it worked. My Spanish never got to ‘fluent’ but I could understand and respond ‘mas o menos’ toward the end. (It means ‘more or less’)
Until I got better at the language spoken around me I found myself isolating, being exhausted and mostly misunderstood and confused.
Now does that sound like starting in real estate? Misunderstood. Confused. Exhausted.
Culture shock is a real thing. Webster defines it as “the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.” That’s when traveling to a new place or starting a new career.
For most agents, they came from the employee culture and one day woke up in the completely strange land of real estate. You spend 75-100 hours learning how not to go to jail in your classes, passed the test and then you started asking questions. The problem is you don’t know what to ask. You don’t know where to start and EVERYONE has an opinion to share with you.
It’s confusing, to say the least. There are lots of ways to do this business and likely you have a friend who is trying to help you but if you don’t speak the same language yet, it’s hard to understand what to do.
I have spent a few years mentoring new agents to help them get started on the right track. I teach them the equivalent of “¿Cómo se dice?” in ‘real estate speak’ and how to figure out what to do. It’s not just scripts or how to advertise on Facebook. Those are tactics.
I teach principles.
I’m not a coach nor do I want to be but I do want to help those agents who really want to make it in this business. I teach how to work by referral and get 20-30 deals out of a 100 person database. This is first and most important so you can stay in business to learn the other lessons. Without clients you can’t make it here. If you want to see a class I taught recently you can follow this link and sign up. You’ll get 3 videos (about 20 min each) on how to work relationally and get more from your database. We’ll stay in touch and share more info and videos as time goes by.
I teach negotiation and contracts strategy. I teach the basics of finances for entrepreneurs (that’s you if you’re an agent). It’s not really complicated but all the noise and distractions make it harder to focus. There are a few things, if done from the early days, make this business a real pleasure. It’s still hard work and you will want to quit some days but if you get this right, those days are few and far between.
I don’t know if this resonates with you but if it does then I’d encourage you to sign up below or if you’re already a part of this gang then share this post with others in your office who would like to know how this works.
What I do is free, posted on the blog for all to see and if you sign up you get special access to me and the tips and tools I use everyday and teach in my own office.
I’m still a practicing associate broker who makes his living selling real estate. I maintain my business by referral and close between 20-30 deals each year by referral. My database is about 100 people I stay in close contact with a few more who only hear from my by email. No cold calling, no door knocking, no ads spend.
I’m here to help if you want it. Check out the blog at www.JerryRobertson.me and see if it helps.