Brokerages Refocus on Training, Communication
As the market normalizes, real estate leaders stress foundational skills, proactive communication and value-driven service as essential tools for today’s agents.
WASHINGTON — It’s an interesting time in real estate – a shift from the pandemic-crazed times and the inventory-starved years that followed. It’s a more balanced market that requires a heightened level of customer service and commitment to agent success.
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Navigating that change was at the center of a panel discussion at this year’s RISMedia Power Broker Forum during the Realtors® Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C., featuring Jason Carrier, president of Century 21 New Millennium in Alexandria, Va.; Kymber Lovett-Menkiti, president of Keller Williams Capital Properties in Washington, D.C.; Christina Pappas, president of The Keyes Company, a large independent headquartered in Florida.; and Donny Samson, CEO of Samson Properties in Washington, D.C. John Featherston, founder, president and CEO of RISMedia was the moderator.
A refocus on communication
The market is in a period of transition that requires a level of customer service many newer agents aren’t accustomed to providing, which means many brokers have an opportunity to retrain their agents. Carrier said the days of simply writing contracts are in the past. Today, agents need to communicate effectively and constantly with their sellers.
“Silence is deadly. Even if you don’t have something to update the sellers on, call them anyway,” he said. “Tell them there’s no update but that you’ll be sending a report soon or checking in again next week.”
Sellers need to know what the changing market means for the sale of their home. That means agents need up-to-date, accurate information about their market – not data from 60 days or even 30 days ago – and they need to be able to communicate it at the forefront of the process. “Knowledge is so important right now,” Carrier said, “and the minute we stop communication, that’s when they’re going to question our value.”
Skills training
The “back to basics” approach that comes with any market shift suggests that agents must call on skills they haven’t used in many years, such as the ability to discuss potential price reductions, prospect for sellers and buyers, make listings stand out, and overcome obstacles to the sale. Agents who’ve entered the business since the pandemic may have never put those skills to the test, Pappas pointed out.
In Florida, from 2021 through a good portion of 2023, agents were simply trying to keep up, writing contracts often as soon as houses were listed. That’s not the case anymore, and many agents don’t know how to move forward in their businesses.
“You can’t go back [to basics] if you’ve never had them, so we focus on building the foundation,” Pappas said.
Since its inception nearly 100 years ago, her brokerage has had rigorous, regular training, she said. Now, the company has a five-week boot camp called “Making Business Attainable” in which Keyes Company agents participate in two hours of training a day, four days a week. At first, she said, there was some pushback on the time commitment, but the trainer in charge of the program said consistency and duration were necessary.
“If we can teach agents to work on their business for two hours a day, every day,” Pappas said, “then we’re building the habit.”
Part of skills training is making sure agents know how to use the tools offered by the brokerage and understand the value of those tools to their business. Pappas said her brokerage invests time and resources into finding the right partners and tools to help agents succeed. To ease adoption, training on those tools and partners is as important as having the right ones.
In addition to implementing basic training, Pappas organizes quarterly “mastermind” meetings, purposefully bringing together agents who are likely to learn from one another. “If you put $10 million agents in a room with a $100 million agent, they’re not going to learn anything because they won’t feel like $100 million is achievable.”
Do the work up front
Modeling is an important learning tool for helping agents understand the work they need to do to provide excellent service and get a transaction over the finish line, said Carrier. He said he makes sure those in leadership positions are walking the walk before they train agents. “If I’m not willing to pick up the phone or lead a listing presentation, then how can I set that example?”
One of the main ways agents demonstrate value is by doing the work up front to get the listing right, said Samson. He trains agents to deliver research and knowledge confidently – and with context.
That’s because data doesn’t necessarily keep up, he noted. Data from May may be irrelevant by mid-June, especially since deals closed in May were written at least a month earlier. Agents must get comfortable using the MLS for the most up-to-date information on the market and get granular on the details when communicating that information to buyers and sellers.
Another focus for Samson: getting information about “coming soon” homes online quickly and using the feedback from online buzz, or lack thereof, as “predictive analytics.” He says interest in the home can tell an agent a lot about whether the price, photos, market and staging are right, allowing the agent to pivot before the listing is officially live.
[Editor’s note: The National Association of Realtors® has no policy on “coming soon” listings, and the use of “coming soon” varies from market to market, so brokers and agents should check their MLS rules for availability, terms and conditions. It’s also important to know how your MLS defines what constitutes a property being “in the market” and active.]
Compared with three years ago, now is a much more favorable time to be a buyer’s agent, Samson noted, and it’s up to brokers to make sure agents interested in that niche are prepared and ready to serve.
Balance at the office
After the pandemic, many brokers wanted their agents back in the office full time but found agents were perfectly happy working from home. The push for a return to full time has waned, said Kymber Lovett-Menkiti, president of Keller Williams Capital Properties in Washington, D.C.
“Now it’s about getting them back in the office in a productive way but realizing that if they’re in the office, then that means they’re not in the field.”
Her office offers training and lunch on specified days and times. That way, agents can schedule it and plan on it. She says part of that training is learning how to effectively apply what they’ve learned in the field, and the effort has been successful.
The office offers a space for camaraderie, and that’s what Samson wants his agents to feel when they come in. Real estate can be lonely for agents working as independent contractors, especially if things aren’t going well. “You have to pull them back in and help them get excited about the business again,” Samson said. “It’s our responsibility to pull our agents along and help them improve.”
Realize that value is subjective
When it comes to communicating value, Pappas noted that understanding the client’s perspective is fundamental. Value means different things to different people. Agents who succeed understand how to articulate what’s important to their individual clients rather than delivering a stump speech on value.
That starts with listening and conveying how you’ll help clients meet their specific needs and goals. “What’s important to the client?” Pappas asked. “Did we listen and ask questions? Did we diagnose the problem?”
By the same token, brokers need to understand the individual needs and goals of their agents. Carrier noted that his office recently affiliated a long-standing, top-performing team from a virtual brokerage. When he asked the team lead why they wanted to transition back to a brick-and-mortar brokerage, the agent answered that it was about collaboration, he said, adding: “Our office space allows us to deliver a service to our agents.”
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