Finally, real estate brokers get their own E-Myth.
No, I’m not talking about some sort of internet rumor or online fairy tale. I mean that business writer Michael Gerber has made real estate brokerages the eighth stop on his planned 310-industry tour to “transform the state of small business.”
Gerber has a potent idea to sell. The “E” refers to entrepreneur; his first book was aimed at small business owners. He then branched out to offer advice to industries that tend to operate like small businesses. As one might imagine with such a commoditized approach, Gerber tends to paint with something of a broad brush in promotional materials. For example, in describing his E-Myth books here, he repeats seven out of the eight times that the industries highlighted in his books are each “a juggling act.”
It’s clear he needs a little help from his friends. Thankfully, he knows that. Each of his books features writing from an established industry leader. And thankfully for brokers, he chose Rich Rector to co-author The E-Myth Real Estate Brokerage: Why Most Real Estate Brokerage Firms Don’t Work and What to Do About It (Prodigy Business Books, 2012).
Rector has served as chairman, president and CEO of Realty Executives International since 1984. After purchasing Realty Executives Phoenix from his father in 1980, Rector led an aggressive international franchise expansion, growing the company to 800 franchises in 10 countries.
Rector composes every other chapter in the book, giving a real-life, down-to-earth feeling to what might have otherwise been a dry business tome. For example, Gerber’s chapter titled, “On the Subject of Pricing” is followed by Rector’s much more vernacular “What to Charge?” chapter. The every-other chapter concept gives the work a more conversational tone, as if you’re sitting down to coffee with these two entrepreneurial heavyweights. Continue reading »
By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
If you’ve gotten past the title of this post, you may be thinking: This guy wrote about a basketball book for a real estate blog? How self-indulgent is that? The answer: very self-indulgent. I admit it. But let me say two things in my defense. First, I didn’t start this book with the intention of covering it in The Weekly Book Scan. It’s something I’m reading in my free time, just for fun.
Second, although he didn’t intend to do it in The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy, ESPN columnist Bill Simmons inadvertently delineates the conditions for a cohesive, high-performing real estate brokerage. He does this in the course of his discussion of the characteristics of great basketball players and teams, which are, as it turns out, very transferable to brokerages and the associates who work for them.
According to Simmons, professional basketball is today afflicted by an obsession with numbers. Too many team managers, coaches, journalists, and players have an unhealthy fixation on individual statistics, and don’t pay enough attention to the most important stats of all: team wins and championships. For instance, Allen Iverson led the NBA in scoring four times, while Tim Duncan led the San Antonio Spurs to four NBA championships. So who’s the better player? Iverson, on paper. On the court, where the game is actually played, it’s Duncan.
Similarly, in a brokerage, several associates may have good individual numbers, but if you don’t have the right mix of personalities, experience, drive, and specialization, any success you have may be short-lived. Effective broker-owners — and basketball managers and coaches — should aim to build a great team, not just a haphazard assemblage of talent. Continue reading »
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