Real Estate Might Be Your Second Career for POPs

In 1992 I attended a real estate franchise conference in Las Vegas. I was 33 years old and in my fourth year as a Realtor. At 8:30 AM I exited the elevator at the lobby where I waded into a sea of thousands of my peers. Their excitement for the company and industry hoopla was scary intense. It was early and Las Vegas. I wasn't ready for this.  The crowd started moving toward the main hall for the welcome and keynote address. I was swept along in the heavily perfumed, blue haired, business suited, gold and diamond laden, wave of ladies with high heels, and higher pitched voices.... all speaking at once. Like a  10 year old boy in a church full of nuns, I looked for a way out. If there were  men, young or otherwise,  in the group, I didn't see them.  I grabbed the first elevator back to my room. Any one of those Realtors were probably more productive in sales than me. Their talent wasn't what I fled from. I didn't fit in their group.

Twenty years later, I'm a 52 or 53 year old gray haired broker, in an industry where the median age of brokers is 57 according to the NAR 2011 member profile. In the last few years 22% of the Realtors have left the National Association of Realtors (source) . The doors are wide open for new Realtors and I think we will see business skilled, well connected, savvy people who are at home with technology, take the place of those recently departed.

 Flexibility, support, professional associations, potential for a better than modest income are all available to the person who is willing to apply their skills to this field. Smart people, leaving careers and coming into real estate might look to the established agents and find ways to form Process Oriented Partnerships. (POPs). These are not Teams in the sense that we know them in the real estate business. A POP is a formal business agreement, prepared by an attorney with the input of the partners, to combine the different talents of the partners to achieve outcome goals. Goals can be financial, flexibility, travel opportunities, education, leadership, ... A POP allows the parties to combine their spheres of influence, apply  their systems to the process of real estate service, and by accountability standards, each party puts the effort of their talents and skills into accomplishing the goals.

In challenging times, merging agents into POPs makes sense. New agents have plenty to offer, even if the most they can offer is a wider sphere of influence. Some business to work on is better than no business. Some income is better than no income. That's true for the new agent and the seasoned professional.