When you think about the other real estate agents you know, how many of them work in your own office? My guess is that most of them do. They’re the people you see regularly, talk with about what’s happening in the market, and turn to when you have a question or need another opinion.
You may work for a brokerage with hundreds of agents throughout New York City, but your professional world is probably much smaller. If there are forty agents in your office, those forty people are likely to make up most of your day-to-day professional relationships.
There’s nothing unusual about that. It’s simply how the business works. You develop relationships with the people around you, and over time those relationships become an important part of your professional life.
The People You See Every Day
One of the real advantages of working in a real estate office is having other agents nearby who understand the business you’re in. You can talk about a difficult buyer, discuss a pricing problem, or ask whether anyone has experience with a particular co-op building.
Sometimes those conversations take place in a scheduled office meeting, but more often they happen informally. You stop by someone’s desk, have a conversation over coffee, or ask a question while you’re both preparing for appointments.
I’ve always thought these informal exchanges were among the most valuable parts of working in a brokerage office. You learn from the experiences of other agents, and they learn from yours. Over time, you begin to recognize who has particular knowledge or experience and whose judgment you respect.
These relationships can become friendships as well as professional connections. They’re built through the everyday experience of working together.
But, an agent who has spent years selling Manhattan co-ops may know relatively little about Brooklyn townhouses. Someone who works primarily with buyers may have less experience advising sellers. And even agents with considerable knowledge have their own clients and businesses to manage.
That’s the reality of working in a brokerage office. You have access to the people around you, but the collective knowledge and experience available to you is limited by the size and composition of that group.
Your Professional Development Needs More
Over the course of a real estate career, you’ll encounter situations you haven’t experienced before. Some will involve the mechanics of a transaction, while others will require a better understanding of people, relationships, negotiations, or the business itself.
Much of the judgment needed to handle these situations develops through experience. You learn from the deals you’ve completed, the mistakes you’ve made, the problems you’ve solved, and the people you’ve worked with.
But gaining that experience takes time. And waiting until you’ve personally encountered every possible situation isn’t a particularly efficient way to develop your business.
This is one of the reasons I created Streets365. I wanted to make the knowledge and judgment developed through years of NYC residential real estate experience available to agents who are still building their own practices.
Streets365 Weekly provides a regular look at the Manhattan market and developments in NYC real estate that may affect your business. It helps you maintain a broader perspective on what’s happening beyond the deals you’re currently working on.
Each Wednesday, Streets365 Field Notes explores a particular aspect of building and managing a successful real estate practice. Through Inside Agent Field Notes, we go further into the decisions, strategies, and professional judgment involved in handling real situations.
And when you have a question or encounter a problem that would benefit from another perspective, The Agent Roundtable provides a place to discuss it with other NYC agents, share experiences, and consider different approaches.
Together, these resources give you access to a much broader range of professional knowledge and experience than you might ordinarily encounter within your own office.
Relationships That Travel With You
There’s another benefit to expanding your professional world beyond your brokerage office.
Over the course of your career, there’s a good chance you’ll change firms or move to another office. When that happens, you’ll develop new relationships with the agents around you, just as you did in your previous office.
You’ll probably stay in touch with some former colleagues, particularly those who have become friends. But the daily conversations and informal exchanges that helped build those relationships will naturally become less frequent.
By participating in a professional community that extends across brokerage boundaries, you have an opportunity to develop relationships that aren’t dependent on where you happen to work.
The Agent Roundtable is intended to make those connections possible. As members share their experiences, ask questions, and contribute their knowledge, they have opportunities to become familiar with one another’s thinking and professional judgment. Over time, some of those connections may develop into lasting relationships.
Think Beyond Your Office
The agents in your office will always be an important part of your professional life. They’re the people you see regularly, share experiences with, and turn to when you need help. Those relationships are worth developing and maintaining.
But there are thousands of other residential real estate agents throughout New York City, each with experiences and knowledge that may be different from your own.
The more opportunities you have to benefit from that collective experience, the better prepared you’ll be to handle the situations you encounter and build the kind of business you want.
Your office is an important part of your professional world. Streets365 is designed to help you make that world larger.
George
Streets365 - Think Beyond The Deal