Are you experiencing a real estate generation gap in your business and if so what is its impact on your agents and their productivity?
As a professional real estate trainer for nearly 25 years, I have the opportunity to come face to face with agents across the spectrum of professionals in our industry – an industry that has become largely diverse in both agent population and its approach to networking, productivity and long-term relationships.
As we look toward the future of our industry and the future professionals, we see promising, young and perhaps, virtual agents using the latest and greatest advanced methods of communications for inquiry generation and production (e.g. video, blogs, social networks, etc.). Yet, when we examine our current agent population, we have a majority of veteran professionals with ten or more years of tenure, production, and relationships that were built on handshakes, face to face conversations, and handwritten notes.
In fact, according to the NAR 2009 REALTOR® Technology Survey, a total of 16{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of the respondents were between the ages of 25 and 35, collectively 33{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} were between 36 and 45, 41{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} between 46 and 55; and 34{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of respondents accounted for agents 56 years and older.
And where the survey notes the ages of respondents, there is no correlation made between age and use of technology in networking and building business.
Further examination of the survey clearly indicates a combination of networking techniques is still needed for success. This brings several questions to mind:
- To what degree does each form of networking contribute to a REALTOR®’s success?
- How do we move our echo boomers, a generation raised on technological communication and hungry to tap into the benefits of the independent contractor status, toward reaping the benefits of one-on-one communication?
- How do we coach our baby boomer population toward proficiency in the use of tools that are instrumental in our business today?
Clearly the real estate industry today indicates that we have migrated to a hybrid model that can be as volatile as it can be rewarding. Here are a few suggestions to produce a harmonious group:
- Poll your agents to determine their level of knowledge, expertise, and use of networking and inquiry generation methods.
- Provide training in all areas of inquiry generation and business building.
- Coach agents one-on-one to develop personally.
- Buddy agents for peer training and learning.
How are you bridging the generation gap in your office?
