What brokerages support consulting?

Hi GB,

It's good to hear from you and welcome to MA. I am frankly very surprised that a KW office is giving you any resistance - Gary Keller wrote a testimonial for my book, Ripping the Roof off Real Estate and KW tends to be much more accepting of innovation.

However, what we have found is that usually pushback comes because someone doesn't understand what true consulting is or confuses it with discounting schemes.

In fact, in the last two years, TRUE real estate consulting has followed the example of buyer agency in the 90's - lots of push back at the beginning but because it was consumer driven, inevitable as the way business is done. Today, with the growth of technology taking over so many administrative level tasks, the future for real estate IS consulting because providing trained counsel is the one thing that technology can never do and what consumers are willing (and even anxious) to pay for.

I would recommend three things:

Check out Introduction to Consulting for Real Estate Professionals. This is a 4-part video series just for real estate professionals. Forward this link to the team leader at your local KW. Each video in the series is less than 10 minutes long and should go a long way toward clearing up misconceptions about what a trained consultant is and does.

Check out The Consulting Times, specifically the ACRE® Locator to see how we have grown and then show it to this team leader. Consulting is no longer a far-fetched idea but a fast growing methedology.

My local team leader, Kathleen Goneau, is an ACRE® and I am sure she would be willing to talk with this team leader and explain what consulting is all about.
Frankly, if the team leader is unwilling or unable to see the light after these steps, I cannot imagine you would be happy working with such a person.

Following is an excerpt from one of the videos in Intro Series which I think really helps us see in the crystal ball for real estate:

Financial Services as a Model for Real Estate

Real estate might want to look at the financial industry as an example of how an industry can evolve. In the early 1980's, "financial planners" were, for the most part, stockbrokers and other salespeople that provided "free" consultations and made their money by selling financial products. Like real estate salespeople today that call themselves "consultants" because it sounds better, financial salespeople then would often call themselves "financial planners". However, as the 1980's wore on, consumers who wanted truly objective advice (and were willing to pay for it) demanded a choice, and from this consumer demand, the CFP® (the Certified Financial Planner) was born.

Now, the tremendous growth of the CFP® designation over the last two decades doesn't mean that there are no longer financial salespeople. There certainly are, but there is a clear line of demarcation between financial salespeople who are paid to sell products, and CFP®'s who are paid to provide objective counsel and guidance to their clients. In the same way, there will probably always be a niche for real estate salespeople whose primary job is moving the inventory, but there is no question that there will be a larger and ever increasing demand for trained real estate consultants whose focus is not to move the product, but rather to act as an advisor and advocate for their clients. It is our goal to see the Accredited Consultants in Real Estate® certification develop into the same symbol for professional, objective counsel in real estate as the CFP® does in financial services.

In any event, I would certainly pursue consulting in the meantime. Our coaching program provides a lot of support in getting brokers, managers and other agents to come around. Let us know if we can be of further help.