Hello, LOs!
"Good people are good because they have come to wisdom through failure," the writer William Saroyan once said. "We get very little wisdom from success."
Today, I would like to talk about the common – and less common – mistakes LOs make, and the value of learning.
I spoke to a veteran LO over the weekend who believes that many LOs err by not understanding the value of time.
"The first mistake LOs make is they're intimidated by realtors and they're willing to bend over backwards for the wrong agents," the veteran retail LO told me. "Actually, they're willing to bend over backwards for any agent and I say that because really good real estate agents, high level professionals, they don't expect their LOs to work for them 24 hours a day. They expect their LOs to be professionals just like they are. So that's the cool thing when you work for a top producer – they don't expect you to be at their open house with them every weekend, they don't expect you to answer the phone at 11 o'clock at night because they're not doing it either."
The West Coast LO said the other big mistake LOs make is that they never take the time to find out how they can add value. "So they don't know how to approach a divorce attorney, they don't know how to approach a financial advisor" or other potential sources of leads, he said. They become overly reliant on several agents who aren't top-producers.
LOs, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject. What are the biggest mistakes you made when you were just starting out? What are your peers consistently doing wrong? What taught you the most? As always, you can email me anonymously at jkleimann@housingwire.com.
P.S. Make sure to check out my story on Rocket Pro TPO's broker business. For the first time in their history, they've opened up the books.
James Kleimann
Managing Editor, HousingWire
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