Kirk
Kessel a broker/owner (and agent) in Melbourne, may be the extreme example. "I
had an assistant from the time I started," Kessel said. "No
one told me I wasn't supposed to do that. Since my second year I've been
the top seller in my board of realtors."Kessel today has seven employees: a call coordinator, a listing coordinator,
a pendings coordinator, a relocation specialist/office manager who also handles
corporate relocations, a specialist in telemarketing, and two showing agents.
Hiring
a PA can be traumatic for the agent accustomed to hands-on work. R.E. "Rick" Miller,
with Smith & Associates in Tampa, says "I just don't like
to delegate much workload. We have a lot of responsibility as licensees." Miller
did finally hire a PA, then lost her, now admits to feeling a little
frustrated, and will hire another when the opportunity presents itself. "I'm
in limbo right now," Miller says.
" It's a scary
thing to say o.k., you take over," says Nikki Ubaldini who, with
husband Gary, operates a mini-company within the RE/MAX Mutual Realty
office in Clearwater. "If
you're scared (about hiring someone), start with one part-time. Get
a feel for it. Learn to delegate. Give them some small duties, those
things that are time-consuming but important to our business."
There were glitches,
poor employees, even PAs who took the training and left to become competing
realtors, but all the realtors we spoke to were pleased, overall, with
their PA experience.
" I was tired
of working seven days a week, 10 hours a day," said Fran Strawn,
with Ann Cross Inc. Realtors in Winter Park. "I had been in real
estate for fifteen years and I finally decided, three years ago, to
start working smart."
Even then, Strawn
looked for almost one year for the perfect PA. "She's wonderful.
She does all the research, puts together my buyer's packages helps
with open houses, writes all my ads. She keeps me focused on the things
that need to be accomplished in any given day."
Gary and Nikki Ubaldini
do their own ads, but agree with Strawn that having a PA is liberating.
" Family time is very important to me,' Nikki Ubaldini said. "But its
also important to keep up the quality of service. This allows us to balance our
time better."
" I put my emphasis
on transaction processing because that's where the money is," says
Courtney. "But I do have a licensed realtor to assist. I'm very
comfortable handing her the transaction once we have a written contract
and then she takes it through to closing for me. I go to the closing
but she does it."
Client opinion of
the personal assistant concept seems to be a non-issue. John Eynon
says, "I tell the clients what the functions of each personal
assistant are, and that if they need to talk to me I'll call them back.
They get treated better, probably, by my assistants than they would
if they talked to me."
" Clients expect
what you tell them to expect," Courtney says. "Educate them
to the fact that you're set up just like a doctor's office or a lawyer's
office, with a staff of specialists. Do that, and that's what they
will expect."
But there's another
person in this equation: the broker. How do brokers feel abut PAs,
and how do they feel about certain legal issues relating to their use
by agents?
Courtney says, "The enlightened broker realizes that the person with the
assistant will be able to produce more and so that will bring more money to
the broker. So the enlightened broker is thrilled."
Bob Glaser, president
of Tampa-based Smith & Associates likes PAs even though he feels
they're superfluous in his office.
" We have in-house
staff for all those functions, for all of the listings," Glaser
says. "But top agents have PAs that work on other marketing things
that just fall off the menu. Special caravans, or things of that nature
that would not be the day-to day work for the office staff."
Nancy Hogan, with The Prudential Florida Realty in Miami, says, "I don't
think they (top producers) would want to just turn over their file to an independent
person who's providing the same service to everyone in the office. They want
to do one step better, top provide a service that nobody else did."
" Liability
is a big bugaboo," says Steve David at Century 21 Tri City Realty
Inc., Ft. Lauderdale. "Offices are finding it's a case of the
tail wagging the dog. They've got this big producer, and they'll do
whatever it takes to make that producer succeed. In reality, there's
a whole bunch of liability because the line is very narrow as to what
is and isn't a licensed activity. From what I have seen there are PAs
that violate that line every day of the week."
" It's a reality
for us," says Michael Good, president of Coldwell Banker Residential
Real Estate Inc., West Central Florida office. "It's our job to
make (PAs) a benefit for the brokerage. We encourage our top people
to continue to develop their business through use of PA training and
in selection."
Despite the problems
that arise&emdash;and problems do sometimes arise&emdash;the
bottom line is that PAs are here to stay, that top producers and those
who intend to be top producers are going to use them, and that realtors
who successfully use them will look back at the time when they didn't
have a PA and wonder how they got by.
" I know how
scary it is to have to hire one," says Nikki Ubaldini. "But
you've got to do it if you want to increase your numbers&emdash;and
have some sanity left."
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