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Cutting Education Does Not Make Sense

Recently I have heard of a few organizations that have cut their training departments. These organizations have had training departments for well over a decade and with the recent "correction" have not been able to justify the "Training Department".

Now think about this ... during the boom money was thrown into recruiting anyone that wanted to be in real estate and offices became huge. These agents may or may not have any ability to work in a normal or correcting market. Many organizations added new buildings to house the new agents. Now that the market is correcting in many areas these organizations are faced with the following dilemma ... Pay to get OUT of the lease or Cut Costs.

Apparently many have decided to cut cost or cannot get out of their lease. With this said, why cut the one department that would be able to help you GROW out of the problem?

I think this is the answer:

The agents that are still in this business are the stronger agents that have treated real estate like a business and have solid systems in place for marketing to their sphere etc. and do not need a lot of training. The agents that really need training are really not committed to real estate "Unless it is easy I am not going to work it." and therefore would rather leave than work.

"Not a surprising end to the boom since the industry seemed hell-bent to hire anyone versus serious business people.

Posted by Allen Wright CNS, AHS, REPS on 10/30/2007 03:49 PM

Comments (6)

education, training

6 Comments on Cutting Education Does Not Make Sense

I agree! Although I am a young hard working Realtor I see a lot of people who do not want to do the business if it presents these new challenges. I think the industry is better off without those people.

10/30/2007 04:13 PM

by Michael Davenport Charlotte Real Estate Broker (Hot Properties)

I am always surprised by how few agents take advantage of all the excellent education opportunities which exist for us. Many for free! Or even the ones we pay for with our fees! I just watched a seminar on RSN (that is the internal RE/MAX thing for education) by Richard Robbins and it was phenomenal! It was exactly what i needed to hear about my focus and goals and planning and cutting right to the marrow of the problems I am personally having in business. It wasn't required. I just had to sit down for 90 minutes and now I have some concrete things I can do to improve my business.

10/30/2007 04:32 PM

by Sarah Nopp, REALTOR(R), CRS. RE/MAX Four Seasons, Olympia WA (RE/MAX Four Seasons)

More education good. Less education bad. But shortsided companies will cut the first piece of overhead they can instead of realizing the long term benefit of more confident and trained agents.

10/30/2007 04:42 PM

by Cindy Jones-Northern Virginia Real Estate & Military Relocation Services (RE/MAX Allegiance #1 RE/MAX Company in the World)

Excellent Point Sarah ... there is a lot of education that is available and it is up to Brokers and Agents to seek-out and learn

10/30/2007 04:58 PM

by Allen Wright CNS, AHS, REPS (RealtyU)

Education and training in all industries seems to get cut when times are tough. To me, it should always be ongoing and be a fixed percentage of revenue. Very short sighted on the leader's part.

11/03/2007 11:46 AM

by Gary Woltal - REALTOR® Dallas Ft. Worth (Keller Williams Realty)

It is sad to see that education gets cut so quickly.

Thanks for all the comments

11/03/2007 01:00 PM

by Allen Wright CNS, AHS, REPS (RealtyU)

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