June 19, 2009. Bethesda, Md. Interview.

I would love to be able to see into the future, because when I interview a prospective agent who is interested in joining our office, I could prevent many hours of useless efforts by many people trying to teach this person, when it turns out that they are lazy so are ultimately never successful. It is so difficult to determine who will be successful in this business of real estate. I know their are tests but when those test are given to successful agents, very often they fail the tests, so I never trust in their reliability. I have observed that the job is too diverse to be easily measured, so I ignore all those tests. What I do is try to let the prospective agent know all about the expectations of the office, so they can determine if this office would be conducive to their style. Even with all this information, not everyone who joins us ends up being a pillar in the office.

This morning I met with Lana, who has just moved here from Peru along with her husband and daughter. She is an architect by training and is very pleasant and bright. I liked her a lot, but she has two strikes against her success. First is her English, which is adequate. Second is her lack of a shere of influence. On the other hand, she speaks Spanish and Italian and has lived in several countries when her husband worked for the EU. In addition, she had already thought about joining several groups and is now active in their church, so I suspect she will work hard to be successful.

Yesterday I met with Diana, who wants to be an agent too. Two of her three children are at college or graduate school and one son is in high school, so even though she is an attorney by training, she wishes to become a real estate agent. She is very personable and pleasant and has a network that any one would envy. The issue for me would be her work ethic. Certainly, everyone will want her to join their office as an agent as she has all the tools for success. On the other hand, she may be inhibited by the productivity in the office and may not really want to work hard. She has not worked for the past 22 years.

Now, to look into the future, in five years, will Lana and Diana be solid pillars in the office, earning their living as agents here? Both they and me must make that decision, as I never allow commitment at the first interview. Now they are busily reading the agent hand book, trying to determine if they will do their best here or will go to another office with less structure and expectations. And of course, Carole, Ned and I have to make the same decision. Truth be told, only time will tell.