Did you know that 80% of all people who start a career in real estate leave the industry within two years? The main reason for this is a lack of diligence. Agents must have diligence which goes way beyond that held by the average person. As independent contractors, they virtually answer to no one in regards to how much business they generate for themselves. Humans have a tendency toward self comfort and avoiding difficulties. Most careers come equipped with supervisors who can motivate workers to tackle the important difficult tasks. Not so for the real estate agent… that motivation to diligently work on difficult tasks must be supplied by oneself. Most of the small percentage of motivationally, diligent people are born that way, although it can be learned through years of self discipline. Regardless, nine out of ten people don’t have that trait, and that’s the main reason why our industry has a fast food worker turnover.
Agents need to be more diligent about serving their customers than generating business. Agents often fail here too. It is a lot of work to research the latest trends and market forces to keep customers well informed. It takes more work to make sure every detail is taken care of early in the transaction to reduce surprises as the deal moves to closing. I confess that it isn’t my favorite part of the job. I have forced myself to stay on these details, eventually hiring “detail people” to do a better job of it in the transactions that I do. Being diligent about the details leads to happy clients and more business. Diligence isn’t natural, but it is what we expect of ourselves and what our clients expect of us.