Real Conversations Kelley Skar Interviews Kevin Kauffman

Quotes 

 

Coaching companies have become so prevalent in our industry because of the abdication by the broker of the training of the people in their organizations. -Kelley Skar  

 

Even though real estate is a hyper-local business, you have to have a world view, unless you’re in it for the short run. -Kevin Kauffman 

Key Points 

 

The competitive advantage of leading with value 

Teaching and being of value in our industry can be a competitive advantage in the market. Instead of having the scarcity mindset that we might be training our competition, we need to focus on giving without an expectation of what will and won’t happen. 

 

Focus on the right numbers

Many top teams aren’t making as much money as we think because their overhead is too high. Teams often grow so rapidly and uncontrollably that they end up losing money. In our industry, we make the mistake of highlighting the top line number instead of the amount of money we’re actually keeping.  

 

The issue with many coaching programs in our business 

One of the biggest problems in our industry is the fact that the people and the institutions that have a platform are trying to sell something or get into our pockets. There’s nothing wrong with selling, but when everything we do is about getting people to swipe their credit cards, we’re missing out on the opportunity to truly impact lives and empower people. 

 

Disruption can be good for agents 

The disruption in our industry by companies like Zillow is good because it’s forcing people to up their game at the highest level. If agents want to remain relevant, they can’t be complacent, they have to figure out how to keep up and adapt. 

What real estate will look like in the future 

The real estate agent will still be necessary in the future, but what’s still to be determined is the level and capacity. There’ll be fewer agents, and through technology we’ll be able to process a lot more transactions, a lot easier and faster with a lot less BS in the transactional part. But this future only exists for agents who put the right pieces in place to remain relevant. 

 

The biggest indicator of the future of real estate 

Consumer buying behavior is one of the greatest indicators of the direction our industry is taking. The generation of people who are going to be buying homes in 2020 years are digital natives. The capacity that we’re going to exist in is going to be dictated by the service the consumer is going to expect. 

 

How agents are becoming more empowered 

The brokerage world is antiquated and still only exists because of the laws that are in place and the way the legalities of this industry work. But agents on the front lines are realizing their power and forcing disruption into the model. We’re responsible for the revenue of this industry and that means we have a voice that can create change if we use it.