Agent Testimonial

Hi, I'm John Crowe. I'm a Broker Associate with Spyglass Realty.

I want to talk a little bit about your real estate career. Your take on real estate rather. So, you know, with the ABoR event, I made the observation that I took from another conference that most the I think the dropout rate in the first five years of real estate is 87%. Why do you feel like most real estate agents drop out?

Most folks drop out in the first three years because they're actually not prepared for the work that it takes to be successful? I think a lot of folks I remember when I first got into real estate, I heard people say, if I don't get a deal done, I'm have to find a real job and it used to drive me crazy because I thought what the heck is this? It is a real job. It's a profession. That's why there are so many wonderful people that do it but I think most people drop out because they anticipate is going to be easy. Maybe they got into it because a friend or family member gave them that first deal, and another one or two came behind it and they thought here we go, this is it, I'll be rolling in it pretty quick and didn't realize you actually have to pick up the phone, call people, you have to do a lot of things to be successful.

You've actually got to study and practice and research in order to talk about properties, you can do an evaluation of a home, if you're going to come up with a value for that, if you're going to advise clients the right way, you have to know contracts and other documents. So it's not an easy, easy job. It just there's some perception that it is. Anyway, I think that's the reason why most people drop out is just not prepared for the work.

We talked about investment properties. You know, we talked about that actually talked to a young lady today about that, you know, don't get pigeonholed into investment. I love investment property, you love investment property, but what I was, I was completely 100% investment property. And when the bust hit no one had any money, right? You're not working with investors. I mean, I'm working with some find a whole new set of investors that waited right, but I didn't have any income. I had five great properties that I bought before the previous boss when I first started and luckily, we were able to sell I think four of those and that got me through that first year of recession. That's what led me to be more in residential and not be, pushed into that one lane. So you went through our accountability group at Spyglass Realty. What was that experience like?

I have been through a number of accountability groups in my career, and this one was far and away the best because it's really simple. You come up with a handful of things you can focus on, you don't overdo it, I have a tendency to overdo things. So if someone says create a list of 10 things on my list before I start hearing stop, this is nice because you focus on three, maybe four things are going to accomplish in a week.

You're paired up with someone which is what I've done in the past and you have an opportunity to talk about your successes, or why you've maybe struggled, but it's really gotten me into a position where my routine is much better. It's much stronger and where I commit to blocking out my time in the morning is something I've struggled with for the dozen years, 13 years I've been in this profession.

So you changed brokerages last year. What was the deciding factor of choosing Spyglass Realty?

Spyglass Realty, I've known Ryan for 12 or 13 years and he's always been a good friend and I watched him from when he was with another brokerage to where he built his up and always respected that great guy and had a wonderful professional relationship and personal relationship with him throughout that time. I got to know him more when I was on the Board of Directors with the Austin Board of Realtors and this was 2017 when we really kind of dove in deep on that one. At that time I had just transitioned over to another smaller boutique, brokerage and realize that was a much better fit for me from a larger brokerage had a great experience at the previous stop. I just needed something small and focused. Unfortunately, that company decided that they were going to join a much larger one with an acquisition.

I think the process people use to decide where they're going to go is probably really similar to what I suggest to clients when we talk and that's when you want to look at skills in this case, the skills of a brokerage are what systems and tools they have in place to support agents. What are who are the people they have behind them to support them? What are they doing? You know, are they putting money just into growing their business for the sake of growing their business? Are they doing the right way of bringing in the right personalities in culture. The second part touches on that culture. I think of this one client's chemistry, there's an intimate process and working with a client, helping them sell a home helping them buy a home. The same thing applies here in a brokerage, you want that culture to be a fit.

Too many agents make the decision based on a commission structure and that's a wrong way to do it. If you focus on the commission structure, you're going to be disappointed because I've always looked at it if someone can help me earn $10 and I have to pay them $2 or somebody can help me earn $30 and have to pay them $5, what's the better structure? I'd rather make more money and spend a little more to accomplish that goal than the other way around. So too many people get focused on that.

They don't look at it and say, okay, what systems and tools are in place that can help me be very successful and grow my business? And what is the culture like? Not mashing people together but finding people with similar thoughts, similar approach, who are good at their job, good at the craft, and also fun to be around. I think that's, that's what's important when you're deciding where you're going to land.