Mentor and Mentee-the Benefits of Apprenticeship

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Real Estate

Hi!  Welcome back to #FabulousFriday.  If you are a brand new real estate agent--finding an experienced practitioner to mentor you--can be a great career move.  If you are an experienced real estate professional, taking on an apprentice is a great way to hone your own skills and evaluate your business systems.  

Here are some benefits for the apprentice:

*Exposure-Working with an experienced real estate practitioner can provide you with exposure to new opportunities, skills and actual clients--very quickly.

*Experience-The best experiences require a significant amount of hands-on work, which means you will gain a ton of experience in the field in a short period of time.  If you want to learn the real estate business-jumping in and working on actual contracts and with real clients will help you fast track your learning. 

*Practice-Doing actual hands on work (versus theoretical classroom learning) and practicing skills is the only real way to gain expertise.  Doing so under the supervision and guidance of a pro is the best way to learn efficiently while avoiding costly mistakes.

Here are some of the benefits for the mentor:

*Delegation-Having an extra brain and set of hands can be enormously beneficial.  By training your apprentice, you improve your capability to get things done.  The better you train your apprentice, the more capable they are of helping you.  Also, they might want to become a long term member of your team.  It is a way of developing a team of top pros.

*Externalization-As a practicing real estate agent, much of your knowledge is implicit--you know how to do what you do, but you don't consciously know how you know it, or why it's important.  In the process of teaching an apprentice, you put your own process into place, which can then be examined and improved.

*Refactoring-by teaching your process and skills to an apprentice, hidden problems and inefficiencies rise to the surface.  That is a wonderful benefit.  Then, you can improve your systems and skills, so you will get better results with less effort.

The real estate industry offers the versatility and excitement in a work environment that many people crave.  Unlike a salaried position, you are entirely in control of when you want to work and however long you want.  Real estate offers amazing opportunities to be social, make new connections, and help people during major life milestones.  It is an ideal career for anyone who has a passion for giving back.  

If you are interested in apprenticeship or becoming a mentor--check out your options @www.theshafferway.com.  See you next Friday for more tips & tricks of the real estate trade.  Warmly, Susan