By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Do you have a rival (or rivals) in your business? Either friendly competitors or professional adversaries who, if you don’t top them in a cutthroat battle for greater annual sales volume, will make you lose sleep for the next few months? Does that rivalry make your performance better or worse?
LeBron James (Flickr Creative Commons)
I’ve been thinking about this in the wake of “The Decision,” the televised announcement of NBA top dog LeBron James’ choice to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers play for the Miami Heat a few weeks ago along with fellow superstars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He explained that he made the move to win an NBA title that he wasn’t able to get during the previous seven seasons in Cleveland. (For those of you who don’t follow sports at all, these three players would make anyone’s top 10 list — and a lot of top fives — of the best in basketball today. To put it another way, it would be something like Eric Clapton and Keith Moon leaving their bands to join The Beatles in 1968.)
Shortly after “The Decision,” Michael Jordan, widely acknowledged as the greatest basketball player of all time (and possibly the most intense competitor in the history of pro sports), said that during his playing days, he wouldn’t have “called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson], and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team.’ … I was trying to beat those guys.” Additionally, former player and current basketball TV analyst Charles Barkley said LeBron will “never be Jordan. This clearly takes him out of the conversation.”
Michael Jordan (Flickr Creative Commons)
Now, take your mind back to that rival (assuming you have one) I asked you to think about in the opening paragraph. Would you ever consider working collaboratively with this person? How would that affect your performance? Would it change your colleagues or consumers’ view of you? For better or worse?
I’ve written before about building great real estate teams — incidentally, in the context of basketball. (This also isn’t the first time Lebron’s popped up in one of my blog posts.) But real estate has always been, fundamentally, a highly competitive industry, not a collaborative one. And a tough market, such as the one we’ve been going through for the past couple of years, tends to heighten competition among practitioners.
At the same time, from the NAR vantage, we see REALTORS® working together all the time to influence policy, share best practices, and improve the industry, which we believe is a good thing. Moreover, the younger real estate professionals I’ve interacted with seem to be much more cooperative and open in their approach to the business than their predecessors.
I’d like to get perspectives on this from real estate pros. Do you think there are generational differences in competitiveness? Do you think real estate is becoming, like the NBA, less competitive overall? Would an emphasis on teamwork and collective success over individual achievement be good or bad for the industry?
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I started in Real Estate when I was 21, and in my first 8 years, I have definitely noticed a difference in working with younger agents. Most young Realtors I’ve worked with that are serious about the business, have been extremely collobrative to work with…and very aware of the fact that we we will be working with each other in the same community for MANY years to come! I have never had a younger Realtor -step on my toes, or go after my clients or anything. I had one respected younger agent even call and apologize to me for calling my expired listing, once he realized it was mine
. I know for me, I have found that if you are genuine and respectful of other agents, especially the top producers, it does nothing but benefit your business.
I think most Realtors of all ages feel this way, but certainly with the younger generation, even more so… It is really just a couple of “old school” agents you’ll find in most offices that don’t fit this category.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences, Paul!
I think in terms of working together it benefits everyone! I have been in the real estate industry since I was 17-years-old (and received my license at 19-years-old) and I am now 22. From my prospective if, I did not try to work with agents, clients, brokers, and ECT…. I would be lost in translation not knowing what to do and what is expected. I have come across people who did not help with the transaction and it just complicates things and makes it that much harder. But I also agree with what Jordan said, “I was trying to beat those guys” (referring to calling up Larry Bird & Magic Johnson) I believe if there is a merger of all the big firms out there it would be too uniformed and there wouldn’t be that PUSH to be better, work harder, or smarter than the next agent. I guess what I am trying to say is that there would be no growth.
FredoBestRealty@gmail.com
Interesting take on the Labron James situation, I for one don’t believe that agents are as competitive as the NBA thats why we offer to split commisions with other agents who find buyers for our listings we work together for the best interest of our clients