Changes and Owning Mistakes in Real Estate

Changes and Owning Mistakes in Real Estate

I was talking to an agent the other day who had some questions about the new commission/client representation world. They expressed concerns/unease about things as they are developing and asked what I thought about it. Y’all know I work and relate to the world through stories. I told them about one of my early sort of mentors, who said that an agent doing less than 10 transactions a year was not qualified to represent clients.

He said, “if you’re not doing enough business, you’re not screwing up enough to get better at what you do.” He was right. When the lawsuits and changes landed, Nest was ready, and educated our agents better than, I’d argue, most other brokerages.

And yet.

It’s one thing to learn in office meetings and hearing fellow agents’ anecdotes. It’s another matter to be writing an offer and incorporating new to you changes. And even more of a new thing to be writing that thing, and explaining it to the client and often the other agent. As I’d imagine is the case with any profession or sport, competence and proficiency come with reps. The more you do, the more you learn, and the more mistakes you make, and the more corrections you make. And the better to get at what you do. (hopefully)

Someone was supposed to have done something for me a few weeks ago. He screwed up, and he apologized.

I wrote in 2015, making mistakes is normal. How you deal with the mistake matters.

Owning it

The appraiser.I got a panicked call recently from an appraiser who needed to get into a house “today;” as in, “in about an hour.” Normally, my first reaction would be “Really?” But here’s the thing – the appraiser forgot about the appraisal. And owned it. She led with, “I’m really sorry; this one slipped through the cracks, and I need to get this done today.”

Easy. I’ll help out almost anyone if they make a mistake, own it, and apologize.

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