RECR's Blog: I Don't Care if You're Fighting With Your Wife or Real Estate Agents

Okay, I've had enough.

Are real estate agents adults or just children? Or maybe they've become ruthless creatures that are forced to have their ego stroked at every turn?

2010 is off to a rousing start on the "snarky" factor and may very well unseat 2007.

I've been (relatively) quietly watching the events unfold the past week and it is time for me to put on my "big-boy pants" and say "enough is enough."

I'm not going to call out any of the "offenders" our or even give them the honor of being listed here. Who is doing it today (or last week) isn't the point. The point is to reflect upon the mistakes that have been made and use them to improve the future. In the words of every history teacher I've ever had, "if we don't learn history, we are doomed to repeat it."

I know I'm not the only one that is getting tired of watching people give our industry - and themselves - a bad name with this childish behavior. So I'm going to give you a few tips, which most of you have learned a long-long time ago. But it seems we need a little reminder.

• The Miranda Rights. Everything you say can and will be used against you in the future. Used to be only used when you were arrested (not that I'd personally know this ... but I've heard) but now with the almighty power of Google everything is open for discussion. Deleting a comment, post, or twit doesn't make it go away. It simply makes you look like your trying to cover something up when you get busted.
• One Thing Travels Faster Than Speed of Light: Scandalous News. It is the only thing proven to travel faster than the speed of light. Okay, so I made that up. But how long did it take for the world of Twitter to grab onto a recent Agent Genius video? It exploded throughout the "world". How many agents in the agent's competitive market were retweeting this video? How many agents that are competing with "x" will send that to the potential customer with the heading "do you want him to do this to you if things don't go his way?" Is it dirty on the agent's part? Maybe, but in the new world of the Web it is all about controlling your reputation. Didn't we learn anything from basketball coaches having pictures posted of them drinking with students?
• Pick Up the Damn Phone. I love the Web and am a techie. But the most powerful invention of the past 200 years is simply the telephone. It is the best way to resolve all these issues. I remember when I was a sports information director, a men's basketball coach sent me an e-mail about how horrible job I did on getting information out to the paper and lots of other unrepeatable words. My initial response was to hit "reply" and simply type "if your team could win a game it would be a little easier (they were 3-10 at this point)." I stopped. Left it in my draft box and went for a walk. Calmed down and went into the coach's office and asked where that e-mail came from. We resolved it in 20 minutes, no hard feelings. However, had I sent that e-mail we both end up sitting in front of the president with our vice presidents involved and I probably end up losing my job - he'd been there 30 years, I'd been there three. While I was about 100-yards from the coach's office and could just walk over, most of the time we aren't that lucky. Take a moment and pick up the phone and talk to them. You'll work out these "issues" and not be stuck making an apology online.
• Respect Each Other. This seems so easy. I grew up in a quiet rural town where a lot of people didn't have much money. We were fortunate, but maybe that experience gave me a different view. I don't care how "successful" you are I simply want to know how good a person you are. How you respond to adversity will define that. Remember that, your clients will.

Basically, all I want you to do is to remember that everything you say on the ‘Net can and will be shared with others. The RE.net is a huge sandbox and there is plenty of room in it for everyone. So just relax and have a good time - and if you have issue with someone handle it in private.

I don't want to know when you are fighting with your wife, what makes you think I want to know when you are fighting with other RE.net folks?