I remember it as though it were yesterday – my first big-boy real estate salesperson instructional pep-talk!
I hadn’t had my license long.  In fact I spent my first year at a very low-profile company that mainly managed its own rental portfolio.  Then I was pushed out of the nest and told to fly on my own.
I landed with a very fashionable real estate company, the broker thereof was one of the original founding father-brokers in my town.  I took care of the paperwork involved with moving my license the first morning I was there, and I sat down to wait for the welcoming speech from the broker who had trained most of the other prominent brokers in town when they were getting their start.  I was certain that the words of wisdom and the amount of knowledge I would receive would get me off to a huge successful career just as the others who had gone before me.
After an excruciatingly long wait, the broker’s secretary came to me , obviously subbing for the broker presently, and began that much anticipated “welcome to real estate, here’s what you do to be hugely successful” speech.
She was good.  Short, concise, pithy, succinct, to-the-point, she had evidently done this so much, she made all the transfer of knowledge look easy.  In fact only fourteen words easy.
“Well, I guess you can use that desk over there if you want to.”  She pointed to a bare, unused desk over in the corner of a room with about six or seven other desks, and walked out.
I waited until about six thirty for the rest of the secret to real estate success training, but by then, I think it had left the building, so I did too.  The subject was never addressed again, except mildly once, when the broker himself asked me something to the effect of, “is THAT what you call selling real estate?”  It seemed to me more like a question I should be asking HIM, and I eventually left his tutelage.
That was the beginning of my search for not only “How-To-Do-Real-Estate,” but also “How-To-TEACH-People-To-Do-RealEstate.”   I learned.  In the Land of the CLUELESS, the one with a CLUE is King!
Yes, I am the Reasonable Realtor, Don Martin, MARTIN PROPERTIES (615) 973-8970. Just make your comments here, or you can reach the Dean of Graduated Realtors at www.FSBO-GUY.com or “like” him at http://www.facebook.com/MartinProps