Will you earn personal referrals with your expertise in:

• Negotiating

• Finance,

• Pricing property, or

• Technology?

Or do you think you should bet your future on your “people skills”? If you wish to depend on your interpersonal skills, it may be that you do not believe real estate agents add value to transactions in ways that matter to today’s consumers.

Real estate agents are a bright, talented, motivated work force. As successful agents demonstrate, you can do what it takes to thrive by developing skills that will distinguish you from the rest of the agents in your market.

Ask yourself, which agent a prospect would choose? Will it be the agent people enjoy working with or the agent who can demonstrate their abilities in a meaningful manner?

Position yourself with your skills

• Pricing: "Eight of my last ten sellers sold their homes for the price I predicted."

• Negotiating: "Five of my last seven buyers were competing with other buyers for the house of their dreams. Four of these five beat out the competition with my negotiating advice and got the house."

• Finance: "My clients pick the right loan for their circumstances and always get the best deal from lenders."

• Technology: "My clients get all the real estate information they need from my Web site, and I keep them updated with e-mail alerts, my newsletter, and links of interest to their homebuying or selling situation."

Money-making tip: Begin to collect results and prove to a skeptical public that you are the agent they should choose.

Select the last ten listings you sold. For each transaction compare the final sales price on the HUD-1 Settlement Sheet with the sales price you predicted on your competitive market assessment (CMA). Were you correct? Did the property sell for the price or in the price range your expected? The same approach works for exclusive buyer agents.

If you always work in a fiduciary relationship with your buyers and sellers, you can mix and match for the last ten transactions of either your buyers or sellers. Then, for example, let the world know that all but one of your last ten clients completed their transaction at the price you predicted.

In many ways, the decision about which specialty to master is a decision about whether you love using technology. It is also a decision based on how much technology you need to know.

Agents have two options today -- to become Technology Agents with the latest and greatest applications or to reach for the easier target of becoming simply technology literate.

A Technology Literate Agent uses today’s technology to improve his or her performance. Buyers and sellers with whom you work will consider you up-to-date. Little if anything that happens in the transaction will embarrass you with regard to your technological abilities.

As a Technology Literate Agent, you are adept at using one piece of hardware and three software programs: a laptop computer, word processing, e-mail, and whatever your local or regional MLS system requires to access their property database. That’s it.

The Technology Literate Agent knows that their success as an agent is assured due to their expertise in finance, pricing property or negotiating. Their use of computers and peripherals is not how they impress their clients.

A Technology Agent, on the other hand, uses technology to earn personal referrals. It’s the characteristic of their business that differentiates them from their competition. Multiple web sites, the latest gadgets, and most importantly their use of technology as a unique service exceeds their clients’ expectations.

Every agent’s people skills are important. They are as important as writing a highlight sheet for a new listing, touring properties for sale to keep up with the market or explaining an effective marketing plan to potential sellers. These are activities that need to be done to make a living. What I’m writing about in this column are not the basics, but those skills that you can use to so impress your clients that they tell even their parents or children there’s no better agent then you for them to hire.

Dare to decide: will you earn personal referrals in the next three to five years with your expertise and use of technology, negotiating, finance or pricing properties? Or do you want to depend on your “people skills”?