San Antonio's Rockstar Turned Realtor®

I'm happy for your success.

I love knowing when people around me, people I like, are being successful.  I love a good rags to riches success story.  I love the triumph of a person who sets their sights on success and reaches (and often surpasses) their goals.

ActiveRain success stories are always great and I've written them myself.  Recently though, I've found myself struggling with the thought of the success stories being posted on the main page.  Each story is accompanied by a smiling agent holding the check they received after their success story wrapped up.  There's everything from referral stories to blog success stories to members touting how ActiveRain expanded their business.

It's not the success that I struggle with.  It's the check.  In one photograph, an entire successful transaction is boiled down to a simple string of numbers with a dollar sign attached to it.  The entire client relationship and work put into the transaction put into dollars and sense.  ROI.  Quantified and filed away into a database.  Stamped with a "PAID" marker and cashed, deposited, invested, or spent.  I am not a number.

Now before you argue that we don't work for free...hear me out.

ActiveRain

ActiveRain is a business.  Their job is to get people to sign up and generate income for their company by selling the product and service that is ActiveRain.  In doing so, they need to show value.  A check in an agent's hand definitely holds a certain value to them as a company.  It's proof positive that there is value to spending time on ActiveRain.  Fair enough.

Here's where my thinking deviates.  ActiveRain - is it for our industry or for the consumer?  We all know there's value on both sides - or if we don't, we've at least heard the argument for one or the other or both.  So let's break it down into two sides...

...for our industry.

There's an obvious advantage to the network of real estate industry professionals here at ActiveRain.  As one of them, I look at the success stories and it compels me to continue writing, creating relationships, and building a referral base which I know I can always rely on to help my clients and perhaps send me business.  The check is the value.  It says "if you join ActiveRain, you can get business."  I like business.  I like it a lot.

...for the consumer.

To view ActiveRain from a consumer's viewpoint isn't always easy.  I'm too close to it.  I'm involved.  One of my driving forces is to look at everything in our industry from the consumer's view.  I'm not always perfect at it, but I do work hard to keep it at the forefront of everything I think and do.  So I'm a consumer looking for local information - I google away and find some great blog posts on a site (ActiveRain) I've never heard of.  What's the first thing I do?  Go to the main page.  What greets me and catches my attention first?  A photo of a smiling agent who is flashing the cash.  I'm no dummy, I know that agents get paid and don't work for free...but the first impression I have is an agent waving their check that they just earned.  Do I read the success story and see why they're holding the check?  Maybe, maybe not.

Perception as truth.

In an industry that it constantly battling with consumer opinion and public perception, the check represents everything wrong with our industry if you're already on the edge of deciding whether to place us above or below lawyers in your list of people you like least (sorry to my lawyer friends, but you have the same problems).

I know my clients are always thrilled when we close a transaction and (something I never thought would matter to them) they often ask, "hey, did you get your check yet" when we speak after closing.  They actually want to be sure I got paid.  They do want me to make money.  The difference?  They are clients.  We've built a friendship, a relationship, a trust...we are connected.

If I were a stranger, looking for an agent (and this is my personal thought) and I saw a photo of you smiling like a lottery winner, I would pass right by you.  In fact, I'd probably perceive you to be what I don't like about real estate agents.  I know from personal conversations (as an agent) that some of the agents I've seen in the success story column are good people who care for their clients.  As a consumer though?  I wouldn't give you a second thought.  The truth is they are good people and excellent agents.  The perception doesn't necessarily align with those thoughts.

But perception is truth...until it is given time to conform to the real truth.  That times time, trust, and connection.  Something you don't get with a picture of an agent holding a check.

photo curtest of Daquella manera

Please note: I'm all for celebrating our successes and don't deny that without those checks, we wouldn't be agents.  I lived in the world of rock and roll where I was expected to do everything for free (post-Napster) and although I had a passion for what I did, the truth was it had to put dinner on the table and gas in the car or it wasn't possible.  Money may not be everything or bring happiness or whatever cliched phrase you want to use, but let's face it - we need that money to continue to do what we do, passionate or not.

Previously, on ActiveRain...

I wish I had thrown a date in the ActiveRain Success Story (quoted below) that I wrote.  It seems like I wrote it about fifty years ago (I haven't even been alive that long, despite what you may think), but I'm guessing it was somewhere around a year ago, maybe more.  My time at ActiveRain has been fruitful; bringing me clients, friends, and contact with all sorts of influential people in the real estate industry.  It's garnered me recognition, both as a Realtor® and a blogger/tech-geek.  It's made me money and cost me nothing (other than a few sleepless nights when I just had to get an idea written out).  I have to repeat myself - it's been great.

My time on ActiveRain has been great.  I started here with the intention of "cutting my blogging teeth" so to speak and its done wonders for me.  I've been able to learn what I like and don't like in blogs and find my style as I write more and more.  Its opened up networking opportunities (my referral network reaches far and wide now), taught me a thing or two that I didn't know, and allowed me to make friends with people I might not otherwise know.  I've learned more than I can imagine right here on these pages - from technology to changes in the laws affecting real estate to negotiating tips to staging advice to new products.  It's like a giant online classroom - with a sense of fun and humor to it as well.  Many people might gauge their success on ActiveRain in dollars and cents, but I gauge it in what its done for me...the dollars and cents will follow.  I look forward to reading this in a year's time and seeing what I have to say about it then.

But times do change...

Through my time here on ActiveRain, real estate has changed and so have I.  You've probably changed a bit to since we first met.  We all do.  Time brings about change, no matter how much we try to stop it.  I blog a little less here at ActiveRain now and my focus has shifted a bit from being all about local real estate to covering much broader topics and focusing a bit more on giving back of my experiences and thoughts.  I spend more time here talking about the real estate industry and ideas about how to do this or that.  I guess in a way, I've moved into a more educational role here at ActiveRain, but instead of educating buyers and sellers (I do plenty of that at RErockstar.com) I tend to focus on the people around me, the members of ActiveRain and other real estate bloggers.  One of the facts you may not know about me is that I once wanted to be a teacher - I have a strong desire to help others through education and the sharing of knowledge.

So with that said, I write my next ActiveRain Success Story...

As an ActiveRain Ambassador, I've been given the opportunity to talk to many new (and not so new) members and share my tech-geekiness and love of real estate technology/blogging with many of them.  I've been able to connect with consumers (and generate business), expand my referral network, and speak with many influential people in the real estate industry.  As my recognition as a Realtor® and blogger has grown, I have been able to share my experiences and knowledge with the ActiveRain network - helping them as they once helped me.  My success comes in many flavors, but it has recently shifted into the education side of real estate, something I had an interest in, and ActiveRain has allowed me to expand that side of things.  As I continue to blog here at ActiveRain, you can expect to see much more information geared towards expanding the community's use and understanding of many of the tools and technology that we have access to.

So, who thought I was leaving after they read the first few lines of this post?

photo courtesy of David Reece