Jennifer A. Klein
By Jennifer Klein
I’m a two-year chair of the Placer County Association of REALTORS® Young Professionals Network and I was recently nominated to the 2013 Placer County Association of REALTORS® Board of Directors. In my video below, I share why and how I became involved with the board, as well as the benefits of getting involved in your local association.
Jennifer Klein is a REALTOR® in Northern California who is experienced in short sales, investments, and property management. Connect with Jen at RosevilleAndRocklin.com, JenKlein.com, and @JenKleinSac.
Anand Patel
By Anand Patel
We’ve all been there before: You’re at an important meeting and asked a question that you just can’t seem to formulate the perfect answer to on the spot. But, 30 minutes later, on your way home as you replay the meeting in your mind you come up with numerous things you wish you had said earlier. Now you are kicking yourself thinking, “Why didn’t I say that!?”
What if I told you there is a very inexpensive way to help you develop the skill to think on your feet along with improving your overall communication and leadership skills?
One of the single most important organizations I got involved with a few years ago is my local Toastmasters club. Toastmasters provides a friendly, encouraging environment that helps individuals improve their speaking and leadership skills regardless of their current level – amateur speaker to orator, mail-room clerk to CEO (my club consists of entrepreneurs, professors, artists, IT professionals, military personnel, students and many others). It is a workshop type setting where you learn-by-DOING. If you want to learn more about the history of Toastmasters or how to join, you can visit www.toastmasters.org; but in this post, I want to briefly share with you four ways you will immensely benefit from joining and participating in a local club.
Learning to speak “off the cuff”
One of the most beneficial parts of a Toastmasters meeting is the “Table Topics” section. This is where you are called upon to speak for 1-2 minutes on a topic that someone has just told you about. You have to quickly formulate your ideas in your head and speak “off the cuff.” There are numerous benefits in developing this skill for real estate professionals – from improving your negotiating skills to handling seller objections on a listing presentation.
Developing leadership skills Continue reading »
Brooke Wolford
By Brooke Wolford
I recently had a meeting for the Metro YPN committee of the St. Paul Association of REALTORS®. Ron Covert, chief executive officer, joined us to see what was going on with our newly-revamped YPN.
One of the questions he asked us was, “How do we get the younger generation involved with the association?” Seems like a relatively easy task from my eyes, however, I also remembered my perspective about committee involvement in the past.
Prior to ever getting involved with any committees, I always felt intimidated by the thought. I didn’t think that I could become involved or even how. Thankfully, after I became a blog contributor for the YPN Lounge, I was contacted by our fearless leader, Nobu Hata, asking me to come to a YPN event with the Minneapolis Association of REALTORS®. One thing led to another and I became one of the task force members for that YPN. It was from this involvement that my passion grew for being involved. I now serve on several local and state committees.
If you ever had any doubt about involvement, let me just tell you this: The association WANTS you to be involved. They need different perspectives. Whether you are a rookie or a veteran, getting involved is always within your reach. Your association wants and needs you!
Brooke Wolford is a real estate practitioner with Coldwell Banker Burnet in Woodbury, Minn. Follow her blog at adventuresinrookierealestate.com.
Lynn Minnick
By Lynn Minnick
I was lucky enough to have been picked to participate in NAR’s Leadership 200 and 300 classes this week at my association. I say lucky enough because we’re the largest association in our state and there were only 35 seats open. Last summer I was involved in our two-day strategic planning session, which was a first for me and pretty much blew my mind. (Rumor has it we “younger” members have an in because they’re grooming us to become the future leaders of the association!)
While the courses are definitely aimed at becoming leaders in your association, the information and experience was much more than that, as it should be if you’re going to take an entire day away from showing and listing appointments, right? The classes covered topics such as how meetings are run, Robert’s Rules, strategic and operational planning, conflict resolution, and more.
These are the messages that resounded with me:
1. Always keep your association’s strategic plan at the top of your mind in committee meetings. For those who are serving on association committees, how is what you’re doing going to advance your association’s strategic plan? If it isn’t, it shouldn’t be on the agenda at all. Shouldn’t we be keeping that same focus in our own personal work agendas? Also, do we have the metrics in place to track our progress?
2. Plan more, worry less. Continue reading »
Brooke Wolford
By Brooke Wolford
This year was truly amazing for my fellow YPN’ers. I don’t think I have ever been so proud to be a part of YPN. The Young Professionals Network has grown so much and our presence has become very well known. Nobody can deny the fact that we are leaders in the real estate world.
I remember when I first got involved with YPN and having to explain to people what it was all about. Well, that’s no longer the case. Now anytime I mention YPN, I get this sort of celebrity-like feeling. People get excited about it. It’s inspiring what we have become.
We are actively involved in our industry. We’re rounding out the year with 227 YPN networks nationwide – that includes nearly 100 new groups formed in 2011. There are more YPN’ers involved in their local and national associations than ever. The leadership is amazing. We have this influence in the world and we are recognized for being able to share, mentor, and motivate people. We are the definition of what leaders should be.
I can honestly say that in 2012, we will be unstoppable. We have a lot of potential. Not to sound cliché but the sky is the limit. We are the elite. Congrats to all on another fantastic year! Cheers and let’s rock 2012!
Brooke Wolford is a real estate practitioner with Coldwell Banker Burnet in Woodbury, Minn. Follow her blog at adventuresinrookierealestate.com.
Chris Nichols
By Chris Nichols
Monday night on my flight home from the National Association of REALTORS® Midyear meetings in Washington, D.C., I noticed that the flight was offering free satellite TV and it just so happened one of my favorite shows was on – Survivor. I have been a fan of the show for all of its 22 seasons, and every season ends up practically the same, with the finalists sitting in front of the jury (aka: losers) enduring all sorts of attacks and personal jabs from those who wish they were sitting in the finalist’s position.
This led me to recall recent events in game 4 of the NBA Conference Semifinals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers were just 2 minutes away from being swept in the series when frustration took over and Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom committed two of the most flagrant and classless fouls in the history of the NBA, leaving an indelible mar on the coaching career of Phil Jackson, not to mention a bad taste in fan’s mouths across the country.
Both of these events then reminded me of the meeting I had just attended, where the Board of Directors for the National Association of REALTORS® had just passed a $40 dues increase to fund a Political Survival Initiative. The tweets and social media comments that sprung up as a result of this vote passing were much like the jury on Survivor and the frustrated Lakers, full of animosity, name calling and all around unprofessionalism.
So this raises the question – have we lost the art of losing? Continue reading »
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
At the recent REtechSouth conference in Atlanta I had the chance to see Robert Hahn of 7DS Associates speak on a subject he titled, “A Time for Greatness.” This presentation was geared to association execs and REALTORS® who are leaders within their organizations – a group well represented in the RETSO crowd. Since YPN has given me the opportunity to be a leader in my own state I felt compelled to attend and scribbled mad notes throughout the two-part session.
Let me say two things right away…
1.) Rob and I are not related.
2.) This is my interpretation of the presentation based solely on my notes. If you want a deeper look, read Rob’s post-event blog post or talk to him directly – he likes to engage with others in this field.
The first thing I noticed is that Rob has little hope for our generation if things don’t change – not fatalistic, but just not hopeful. The other thing I noticed is that Rob is really smart. Combine those two things (little hope and big brains) and I knew this was something that had to be shared and something we could work on.
Rather than focus on the industry issues many of us already know exist (and during his talk he covered all the favorites including low industry standards, high turn-over rates, and public perception) I think we should use Rob’s talk as a clarion call to think about possible solutions. That is what I have chosen to do. I know others are too – in fact many associations are already considering new directions – but in this case perhaps doing it from a YPN perspective makes sense.
One of the first suggestions Rob made was to reform governance within the REALTOR® associations. Perhaps organizations don’t need all these people to make decisions. This one hits close to home, of course, since I just managed to earn a seat on my state board of directors. I must agree with Rob though that many associations should consider whether longer terms are necessary (after all, just how much can you accomplish knowing you have just 365 days to get it done) and should give more thought to whether direct elections are the way to go. Certainly from a YPN perspective, knowing you can “be a part of the process” from the outset may encourage more direct involvement. Continue reading »
Brian Copeland
By Brian Copeland
I recently had a lively discussion with one of my Baby Boomer, dearest real estate friends on the phone. Of course, it was on the phone, that’s what Baby Boomers do. They want to meet and talk on the phone all the time. I had asked her if we could just e-mail, but she insisted on a phone call.
This phone call went into a long talk about what young, professional REALTORS® and our organization are in motion to do. I can always best sum this up in one word…availability.
Availability tears down walls of confusion. Availability creates strong bonds and ties across generational lines. Availability facilitates amazing, reciprocal relationships. In fact, in November alone, I had two association executives come to me and say virtually the same statement.
“Thank goodness for YPN. Had we not had our YPN committee, we would’ve never known that <insert name here> was even part of our organization. We put her in this association membership position and she was the shining star. We now have a new leader thanks to YPN!”
As Mickey Mouse-cheesy as it sounds, it’s true. Your availability as a young professional is truly making our real estate industry stronger, more diverse and salient to those who have us on their radar. Continue reading »
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
In an interesting change of pace, I am writing this post from our state REALTOR® Association meetings.
I wish you were here. No…I really wish you were here.
According to the National Association of REALTORS® 2009 Member Profile, 15 percent of our industry is age 40 or under. At these meetings, there aren’t even 15 people who fit that bill. These meetings (and I suspect those of many other states around the country) are demographically less diverse than a Friday night bridge game – and the decisions being made are going to impact our businesses for quite some time.
If you haven’t already, stop what you are doing and find out more about getting involved. Open a new browser tab and search for your local REALTOR® Association. Find out what committees they have and offer to help with one. I can tell you from my experience here that every committee wants to learn more about the millennial generation and how to communicate with us. They are eager to reach out to people like me and to share the benefits that come from being a part of one of the nation’s best industry groups.
I started attending these meetings to promote my newly created YPN chapter. For me, the hardest part was getting past the intimidation of the meetings themselves. Quite a few of my state’s real estate heavyweights lead committees here – and being the “new kid” was a bit daunting. As it turned out, they were happy to have someone like me around, and when I was able to help them with a few of the tech-tastic things that I know, they welcomed me in with open arms. Combined with the excitement generated over the growth of YPN, and the support it is getting from NAR, my involvement in these meetings has only become more exciting and fun. Continue reading »
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
As I flew home from the Midyear Meetings, quite a few things were rolling through my head.
Like, why did the engines just get really quiet? I apologize, self-preservation mode there for a second. Now back to our originally scheduled programming.
This year’s Midyear was my induction into a national event — and I must say, I’m quite impressed. A lot of the preconceived notions were born out to be untrue.
1. Erica Christoffer — the wonderful person behind this site — does exist. I had begun to think she was a computer. But, I met her and hugged her so she is real — though I didn’t check her neck so a cyborg isn’t out of the realm.
2. NAR is out to get me. I know, I know, all the conspiracy theorists out there are going to hate me. There has been a lot of “us vs. them” talk amongst agents when it comes to NAR. I found it to blatantly not be true. Every staffer I spoke with was open honest and truly out to do the best for the REALTOR(R) Party.
3. NAR will never change. An organization the size of NAR takes time to move and change course. However, you are going to be hearing a lot about fair-housing and the inclusion of sexual orientation to the list. We are leading the charge and I know at least one agent has been called back to D.C. next week to make this change at the federal government. Continue reading »
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