I, Real Estate Agent

How many people does it take to make a lead pencil?

Recently I read a short story written by Leonard E. Read called “I, Pencil”. The story was written in first-person from the perspective of the pencil – her life story. The economic moral of the story is profound and is a lesson I think is important for all of us to learn. However, my writing today is not to bring forth an economic point of view that I agree with, but instead to share another principle of this story relevant to my readers. I believe the story of “I, Pencil” is a perfect metaphor for what we are facing in the real estate agent and brokerage industry today.

The story begins with the sentence “I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write.” … “I am seemingly so simple. Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me.” … “Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much meets the eye—there’s some wood, lacquer, the printing label, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.”

Not so simple.

The story goes into great length to bring forth the magnitude of complexity involved in making a lead pencil—you can read the story to get the full picture, but let me give you an inkling of what is missing from what we commonly think of as a simple pencil.

• A cedar tree
• Harvested logs sent to a mill
• Mill machines cut logs into small, pencil length slats less than ¼ inch thickness
• Pencil length cedar slats are kiln dried and tinted
• Cedar slats shipped to pencil factory. Complex machinery gives each slat 8 grooves
• More complex machines lay lead in every other slat, applies glue and places another slat on top

Simple enough, but where does the lead come from?

• The “lead” is complex and contains no lead at all–the graphite is mined in Ceylon and shipped
• Graphite is mixed with clay from Mississippi in which ammonium hydroxide is used in the refining process
• Wetting agents are added such as sulfonated tallow
• After passing through numerous machines the mixture is baked for several hours at 1850 degrees Fahrenheit
• The “lead” is treated with a hot mixture which includes candelilla wax from Mexico, paraffin wax and hydrogenated natural fats

From a Cedar tree to a lead pencil

• After the lead is added, the cedar receives 6 coats of lacquer
• Then the labeling—a film formed by applying heat to carbon black mixed with resins
• The bit of metal added is brass. Who mines the zinc?

Don’t forget the Eraser

• And then, the eraser. An ingredient called ‘factice’ is what does the erasing. It is a rubber-like product made by reacting grape-seed oil from the Dutch Indies with sulfur chloride.

Relating a lead pencil to real estate?

After reading this story, it caused me to relate what goes into something as seemingly simple as a pencil to what goes into something as seemingly simple as a new age real estate transaction.

I, Real Estate Agent

This story begins with the sentence “I am a real estate agent—an ordinary job familiar to all adults who buy or sell a home” … “My job is seemingly so simple. Simple? Yet, very few people, including real estate agents and brokers themselves, understand everything required to work in today’s tech-savvy marketplace” … “Sending recipe cards to a database of friends or placing Halloween pumpkins on the doorsteps of neighbors. Driving buyers around and putting a sign in the yard. What do you see? Not much meets the eye—there’s an agent, a lender and a title company.”

In the past, maybe. But today, not so simple.

Like the lead pencil, much more than what meets the eye is required to procure today’s buyer and seller and more importantly what’s required to appropriately serve the buying and selling customer.

• SEO (search engine optimization) expertise
• SEM (search engine marketing) expertise
• Web technology (dynamic, changing, complex yet user-friendly websites that lure and captivate the visitor)
• Blogs and time-sensitive Content
• Landing pages and capture forms
• Combined automated + human systematic follow up for a 12-month average conversion
• Expertise at designing and using intricate contact and content management, marketing and communication systems
• Expertise at integrating systematic and strategic social networking
• Expert skill at using multiple social media platforms, such as:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linked-in
  • Geo-location apps like Facebook Places, Foursquare or SCVNGR
  • Eventbrite
  • Digg
  • Your Blog
  • YouTube

• Expertise at using social media tools and applications to market seller’s properties to a global market

Today, what is required to market for new business, offer buyers what they want on the web, offer sellers what they want on the web, expose homes to a global market, communicate through the multitude of new social platforms, WHILE showing buyers homes, listing sellers homes and handling detailed paperwork and legalities required for escrow and the closing process—well, it’s complex, and beyond the capacity of one real estate agent. Yes, far more than meets the eye.

The days of one agent being able to succeed all on their own is over.

So let me finish where I started …

How many people does it take to produce a lead pencil successful real estate transaction?