Mike Browning

Tag: Real Estate Expertise

  • Just Smart Enough To Get You In Trouble

    Just Smart Enough To Get You In Trouble

    What sounds reasonable in conversation can get you in trouble in the real world.

    I just renewed my real estate license.

    I wasn’t looking forward to the mandatory continuing education classes. Thankfully it turned out I wasn’t due to take any this time.

    But it did get me thinking about all the classes I’ve taken in the past.

    I’m old enough that when I started in this business, the internet technically existed but wasn’t really part of everyday life yet. So the classes were in person.

    A memory from one of them came back to me after writing last week about staying in your lane.

    The thing about real estate licensing classes is they are designed for the average agent. And since most agents end up working in residential, that’s what almost everything revolves around.

    Most of the coursework is designed to teach you what not to say so you don’t get sued later.

    Which is useful as far as it goes.

    As for learning how to become a successful broker, I’d say the value is more questionable. You’d probably learn at least as much reading this blog for a few months.

    Especially if you understand the importance of reading between the lines.

    But anyway.

    Almost the entire course was geared toward houses.

    Contracts, disclosures, house valuations, common residential problems. Pretty boring if you already know that’s not the business you’re going to be in.

    Out of about thirty hours they spent maybe fifteen minutes one day touching on land and commercial property.

    Which was entertaining, although probably not for the reason they intended. Pretty much everything they said was backwards.

    Maybe not backwards in a technical sense. More like simplified to the point that it stopped being true in the real world.

    To a normal person, it would sound smart enough in conversation.

    But if you actually applied it the way they described, you could get yourself or your client in trouble pretty quickly.

    Luckily almost nobody else in that room was ever going to deal with serious land or commercial transactions anyway.

    So no real harm done.

    Did I say anything?

    No.

    It wasn’t worth turning a continuing education class into a debate. And I didn’t particularly feel like helping introduce the word “mansplaining” into the culture twenty years early.

    But I remember thinking even then that it was another example of why specialization matters.

    People assume broad familiarity is the same thing as expertise.

    Usually it isn’t.

    Especially in businesses where nuance is what keeps small mistakes from becoming expensive ones.

    PS- Most landowners are not planning to sell today.

    But things change. Markets change. Development pressure changes too.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for.

    It looks at nearby sales, current competition, market direction, and the details affecting value that are easy to miss if you don’t spend time in the land business every day.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Check It Out Here.

    PPS- If you’re not ready for a Land Reality Check but enjoy reading about land, negotiation, markets, and how business actually works in the real world, you can sign up below and get future posts in your inbox.

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  • You Owe It To Yourself To Work With An Expert

    You Owe It To Yourself To Work With An Expert

    And I owe it to you to let you know when it’s not me.

    One of the people I did a MBR Land Reality Check for reached out to me recently. They had a rental house coming available and asked if I’d like to handle it for them.

    Which is sort of how I always talk about this business working.

    Most people are not looking to do a real estate deal today.

    But eventually, many of them will.

    The idea is not to pressure somebody into moving before they’re ready. It’s to already be there when the time comes.

    You don’t know who, when, or what the situation will be. But if you position yourself correctly over time, opportunities tend to show up.

    At least that’s the idea.

    This probably would have been fairly easy money.

    My license allows me to handle residential leasing. I could have figured out a reasonable rent pretty quickly. Probably could have helped coordinate repairs too.

    But then you start getting into the details.

    Which upgrades actually increase rent versus just costing money? Which repairs matter most? What corners can safely be cut, and which ones become expensive later?

    That’s where specialization starts mattering. And I’m not a residential leasing guy.

    A good leasing agent already knows which improvements tenants say they want versus what they’ll actually pay extra for. They know what tends to lease quickly, what creates problems later, and which contractors consistently do solid work.

    I don’t know those things the way they do.

    And that matters.

    If I had taken the listing, I’d estimate there was probably a 90% chance everything goes smoothly and nobody ever notices the difference.

    But what about the other 10%?

    When something unusual happens, experience starts compounding very quickly. The person who has already seen that exact situation three times operates differently than the person figuring it out in real time.

    So I passed on it.

    I appreciated the opportunity. I offered to help them find somebody who focuses on residential leasing instead, and we’ll see what happens.

    I think that was the right decision.

    And not just for them, for me too.

    I’ve said before that everybody has the same amount of time. Every hour spent doing something outside your core competency is an hour not spent getting sharper at the thing you actually specialize in.

    A lot of people in this business try to be everything at once. Residential. Commercial. Land. Leasing. Investment sales. Farm and ranch. Property management.

    Sometimes they can pull it off.

    There’s usually a reason the best people narrow their focus over time.

    You owe it to yourself to work with somebody who already lives in the world you’re stepping into.

    Not somebody hoping they can figure it out as they go.

    PS – Most landowners are not planning to sell today.

    But situations change. Markets change. Development pressure changes too.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for.

    It looks at nearby sales, current competition, market direction, and the details affecting value that are easy to miss if you don’t spend time in the land business every day.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Check It Out Here.

    PPS – If you’re not ready for a Land Reality Check but enjoy reading about land, negotiation, and how markets actually work, you can sign up for the blog below and get future posts in your inbox.

    Register to Receive Posts Via Email!

    By submitting, I understand I will receive marketing emails and blog posts from Mike Browning Realty and/or associated companies. Unsubscribe at any time.