Dear Real Estate Professional   
By: Jennifer Allan

A few months ago, I posted a Help Wanted ad for a graphics designer on www.Guru.com. If you've never used Guru - it's a wonderful resource! Basically, it's on online database of freelancers who are looking for work.

Anyway, within 24 hours of posting my ad, I got at least 30 responses. Complete with resumes, pricing estimates and requests for further information about my project. All 30 responders seemed to sincerely want my business and not a one of them lectured, belittled or condescended to me.

Well, duh, you say, they're after your business, why on earth would they be anything but delightful in their first encounter with you?

My thoughts exactly.

Well, last night, one of my readers sent me a link to a thread on Trulia. I'm not familiar with the Trulia forums, but it appears that it's a place where regular people post questions to the real estate community, hoping to get answers. (again, duh).

On this particular thread, the buyer was simply asking for information about a listing she found online. I was stunned at the level of lecturing, belittling and condescension expressed by the responding real estate "professionals." More than half of the responders sternly advised her to speak with a mortgage broker before "bothering" (okay, that's my word, but the message was clear) a real estate agent. Another instructed her to better educate herself on the process before looking at homes, and helpfully provided links (surprisingly, not even to his own material, but stuff from NAR). Only two agents actually offered to show her the home, but even they seemed disinterested in becoming her favorite real estate agent.

I gotta ask... WHY are these agents wasting their precious time on the Trulia forum if all they're going to do is alienate the prospects they're supposedly there to find?

Are graphics designers on guru.com more desperate than real estate agents (HA!) and therefore only grudgingly concede to being polite, enthusiastic and responsive? Whereas we in the real estate industry are so buried under a pile of qualified buyers and motivated sellers to the point where we simply don't have a minute to spare to be polite, enthusiastic and responsive?

Jennifer Allan is a real estate broker, published author, trainer and speaker. Jennifer enjoyed a successful real estate business in Denver, Colorado without relying on cheesy sales-pitches, aggressive closing techniques or making a nuisance out of herself among her social network. She assures like-minded real estate agents that they can succeed without changing who they are or becoming someone they don't recognize.

You can learn more about Jennifer's books and philosophies at www.SellwithSoul.com.

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