Being a Mentor, Day 10

My mentee got her official license as of 2 days ago! Yay! That means she is listed on the Colorado Division of Real Estate. All Colorado real estate licensees can be found by searching here: http://eservices.psiexams.com/crec/search.jsp 

She is getting her photo taken for her business cards, website, Bray’s list of agents, etc., This photo will be seen in a lot of places, so it’s good to have a photo she likes. My mentee also shadowed me on a listing appointment. The sellers are out of town so I went to the property and took measurements and photos. My mentee helped me with that and then spent the afternoon gathering more information from the tax assessor’s site and neighborhood. We got some information from Navica.

In the past couple days, she has had lunch or coffee with several title companies. Depending on who the seller or buyer chooses for their title work, it is easier if she has already met them before the closing day. She missed some stuff because she had a family appointment. I know that everyone juggles all the facets of their life & sometimes family comes first. For me it is usually family and clients first and I always have difficulty when I feel that I am not giving either side enough time. So I have been talking with my mentee about having balance among all the tasks. She is working on a pretend listing of her own house. That gives her an opportunity to fill out all the forms. I remember, though, that I still was very careful when doing my first listing!

Being a Mentor, Days 4 & 5

My mentee and I finished out last week with two more busy days. Here's what they looked like.

Day 4 of Mentoring
We started out the day having coffee with one of the lenders. He & I had planned to meet the previous Friday & it hadn’t turned out. It was great to have my mentee meet another lender. The more people she meets as she goes along, the better. If a buyer is already working with a certain lender, it is easier for the real estate agent if they have met in person. If the buyer doesn’t have a lender yet, it is easier for the real estate agent to create for the buyer a list of possible lenders he or she has met if the buyer wants it.

In the afternoon, we showed property in Orchard Mesa & Glade Park. Properties that are more rural can have wells and septic systems. Also we were lucky because the properties we saw had views of the surrounding cliffs and mesas. Glade Park is actually above the Colorado National Monument. Here’s a link to the CNM webcam. http://www.nps.gov/colm/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm You can imagine the views!

Day 5 of Mentoring

Here's what a buyer packet looks like.

I had floor scheduled for 9-11 this morning. When Bray is open, we have someone always available to answer questions about Bray properties. We also answer general questions about buying & selling homes. We can help people if they call or come in, & they want to get started in the process of buying a home or selling their current one. My mentee came in & shadowed me for that. I created a packet in case a buyer came in.

I ended up getting a call from someone who wanted to sell their house. I will be going over there later this week to see everything. This has basically finished our first week together. It was a good week. My mentee is scheduling her calendar & learning lots. So ... I told her to take tomorrow off from real estate & get her family life caught up.

Being a Mentor, Days 2 & 3

Last week my mentee and I kept busy with a variety of set-up, orientation, and mentoring activities. Here's a brief description of what our days looked like.

Day 2 of Mentoring
My mentee got a tour of the office. She also got her phone extension and did more paperwork for the office. We looked at a Comparative Market Analysis that I am working on for a listing. While we were doing that in Navica, we also looked at property information. I've talked about Navica here before, and how to understand Navica MLS listings. At the end of the day, she attended a Bray Productivity Meeting about Money Management and Profitability. The productivity meetings are run by a Bray agent & offered to Bray agents on most Wednesday afternoons.

Day 3 of Mentoring
At the beginning of the day, she attended a Bray Contracts Class about Listing Contracts. The contracts class is run by a Bray agent & offered to Bray agents on most Thursday mornings. I like to attend those classes when I can, but I attended a GJARA board MLS committee meeting. I am currently a non-voting member, & I hope to be a voting member on that committee soon. You may remember that GJARA is the Grand Junction Area Realtors Association.

Later in the morning, my mentee spent time at the front desk, learning to use the phone there & seeing what it was like at the front. Agents call to set showing appointments on Bray property. People walk in to meet with Bray agents or if they have questions. If they are not working with any agent yet, they are helped by the floor person. It can get busy at the front desk! Mentee had lunch with one of the lenders. In the afternoon, she & I went to get office supplies together.

Being a Mentor, Day 1

Yesterday, after 2 1/2 years at Bray, I became a mentor. I remember when I first started at Bray & I was a mentee. Before I became a broker, when I was still taking my online real estate class, I knew I would have a mentor to guide me. And then after I got my license I joined Bray Real Estate. That's how I met Vonnie Folkers, who mentored me.

Now I am a mentor for a new broker. Tuesday was the first day of our six-month agreement to be mentor & mentee. I don’t know her very well yet — I just met her on Friday — but I know enough to know that we have a good mentoring relationship. So… we had the Tuesday morning marketing meeting where she was introduced & it was announced that I was her mentor. Then we went on the bus for the regular Tuesday morning “new listings” tour. Yesterday we were scheduled for Fruita & Loma. It was a long tour, but we were able to look at properties together. I told her that she didn’t need to have any opinion about housing prices yet. However, she could mention what she liked & didn’t like about the property.

In the middle of the afternoon, we went on a showing appointment. We showed a couple three properties & she was able to see how that went. After we got back we signed the six-month mentoring agreement. When the agreement was signed, I showed her how to make copies with our downstairs copy machine. Around the activities that we did together, she also got her computer & phone hooked up, met with Robert Bray (Bray’s broker), went to Grand Junction Area Realtors Association, & did plenty of paperwork.

The Accredited Buyer Representative logo.

I ended up going to the Mesa County Women’s Network luncheon, took care of several phone calls & emails to clients, and got the news that I am now an Accredited Buyer Representative. Hooray. Not bad for a Tuesday that was the first day of the work week.