Competence is a choice. In the business of real estate brokerage, this is an absolute. Brokers have a duty to their clients to be competent. A duty of competence. How on earth can one act in the best interest of a client if one does not know how to achieve that best interest? Or worse, does not care enough to know? So competence is a character trait and a function of integrity. It is not that brokers choose to be incompetent. But they do choose to focus their attention elsewhere. Competence simply falls by the wayside. Unnoticed and unattended. There is an unwritten rule that we should not criticize our competitors. We all know this rule: It is unprofessional to bad-mouth our competition. It serves no purpose and only makes us look small-minded. But in a book subtitled, Seeking Competence and Integrity in the Real Estate Business, it is important to point out that our purpose here is not to create a good professional impression, nor is it to demonstrate proper business comportment. Rather, the purpose of this book is to help you find and identify competence and integrity in an often murky field. Brokers have two primary jobs: Client Acquisition and Conveying Real Property. These two jobs involve entirely different skill sets. The type of person who is good at either one of these jobs is almost always not the type of person who is good at the other. Many very successful brokers are quite brilliant at client acquisition, but not terribly competent at conveying real property. To be successful in the real estate business, it is vital to have, or to generate, a stream of potential clients. In fact, this is so important that brokers will concentrate their time, effort, & money, on this aspect of the business to the detriment of all others. What you find is that the people who are most adept at this, do best in the business. And this does not go unnoticed by their colleagues. As a consequence, transactional competence suffers industry-wide. Why become a better negotiator when you can make more money prospecting? Why learn basic accounting, why keep up with contract & paperwork changes, the law, building techniques, technology, etc. The whole range of knowledge & expertise that is useful for serving clients. The customer service aspect of brokerage, the hands-on business of conveying real property, requires transactional competence. And most brokers just do not have it. Why? Because it is not important to them. The result is Greham's Law for Real Estate: The incompetent, low integrity brokers drive out the competent, high integrity brokers. Those brokers who focus on client acquisition drive out the brokers who focus on conveying real property. Of course, all brokers proclaim competence and integrity. Our goal is to determine what these qualities look like and how to find them. We cover: Broker motivations & incentives Dual agency Coaches & scripts Best practices Business models Value propositions Marketing myths Negotiation We introduce Rhinestone Cowboys, Gunslingers, and George Baileys This book is for: People who are thinking about entering the market either as buyers or sellers or both. First time buyers or sellers. Or, perhaps you have had a less-than-ideal experience in the past. And now, you are seeking a better experience. People thinking about getting a real estate license, or newly-minted brokers just finding your way. Hopefully you will read this work along side of more conventional material. And you can judge the probity of this work for yourself. Disaffected brokers, who see the business clearly. Perhaps you are dissatisfied with the status quo and are seeking a better way. I hope you will find this work candid and refreshing. Yes, there is an alternative. Come, help me make a difference.