Customer Reviews

Agent's Guide to Real Estate : Power Your Career to Financial Success & Personal Happiness

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A quick read that touches upon all aspects of the "guts" of working in real estate: good & bad. Will be a reality check for those expecting an "easy money" career in real estate and reassure the newcomers, like me, that we're not going nuts.

Whether you want to improve your income, improve your business systems or just want to have a better rapport with your clients, you ought to place this book on a high priority list.

My name is Brad Osborne and I am an agent in Indianapolis with Century 21 Realty Group I. I am now finishing my 22nd year as a full time residential Realtor and I wanted to share that David Rathgeber's books and resources are some of the best I have ever seen. Frankly, I have done everything in a real estate company from manage offices through Director of Recruiting and Training. David's books are helping me have more fun now than I have ever had and my current professional role is salesperson/counselor for residential clients.

Now that training is not my full time responsibility, it is a pleasure to get an opportunity to train some new agents occasionally. "The Basics" from the book, "Agent's Guide to Real Estate" has set the tone for the most complete day of training in our class. To give you a quick back ground, our office has been the number one Century 21 office five out of the last six years. We have recently structured some joint venture operations with nine other Century 21 offices around the state and that is one of the reasons that I have been able to directly recommend your books to well over a hundred agents in our company and even to some of my favorite competitors.

David shares ideas on utilizing market data statistics to enhance your position as a knowledgeable information resource. I've obtained several listings where the clients were mentally committed to FSBO. As I shared points that David explains in his book, these folks listed with me without even any "trial fsbo period."

I hope you take the time to read this book, you'll be glad that you did.

David Rathgeber's book offers a degree of practical and useful advice which is rare. The field is full of novice licensees, (one million added during 2004)with little or no clue as to how to serve their clients or how to save themselves the many frustrations of being a "newbie". It is entertaining, quirky, and a fun read as well. Anyone who reads this book and doesn't come away with a stockpile of useful information is either not serious about the business, or is a dedicated under-performer.

I bought this book because of the good reviews it had gotten but had a different opinion upon reading it myself. As a new agent I read this book prepared to take notes and put markers on pages to come back to for further review. I finished the book with no notes and only 1 paged marked (gave good tips on what to ask a broker when interviewing with them for a position). Other than that I couldn't gather any useful information from the book that I could actually put to use. I found "How to List and Sell Real Estate" by Danielle Kenneday and "How to Become a Power Agent" by Darryl Davis to have much more useful information.

This is quite possibly the best book I've read on this subject in my twenty-three years in real estate. Rathgeber's analysis is on the mark in virtually every case. His characterization of real estate activities is nicely enhanced with occasional witty asides.

His advice to agents is sound and do-able. He does not deal with prospecting for business, but rather concentrates on how best to handle opportunities in a real-world setting. His approach is methodical and analytical. His insights are acute and on the mark. Any real estate agent will be able to benefit from Rathgeber's work.