Real estate is a business where if you don't watch out, it can be very easy to slip into becoming a jack of all trades and a master of none of them. But when you look at almost any real estate marketplace, it's the agents who specialize in one particular discipline who are most often the top producers in that area.

Within the field of commercial real estate, for example, we have the disciplines of industrial, office, retail, and investment brokerage. And even within these areas people can specialize in becoming listing agents or tenant rep agents, depending on both what they'd like to focus on, and the desired focus of the company they work for.

In residential real estate, on the other hand, most agents concentrate primarily on selling single family homes, and they'll often focus on either obtaining listings, representing buyers, or sometimes a combination of both of these arenas.

The problem comes when agents try to work within different disciplines simultaneously, not specializing in any one, and feeling that any type of property in any area can be their oyster of opportunity.

To Illustrate what I'm talking about, there's an attorney who continually advertises at my local gym. In one ad he tells people that he'll list their home for just a 4 1/2 percent commission, and that there's no need to pay anyone a 6 percent commission when selling their home.

And in his other ads he mentions that he can handle all your needs in real estate matters, business litigation, medical malpractice, criminal law, personal injury cases, divorce and family law, collections, and he'll even do business consulting for you, too.

When I look at all of the areas he's advertising to help people in I find myself thinking, "How good can he really be in any of these areas since he's specializing in none of them?" Think of everything you need to know and do just to be an outstanding real estate agent. With this in mind, how do you think the quality of your service might be impacted if you began offering several other non-real estate brokerage related services to people along with everything you're currently doing for them right now?

With respect to this attorney offering all of the services I've outlined above, I've wondered sometimes if he'd even work on my car as long as I paid him his regular hourly rate.

We live in a world of specialization, and the people who specialize in their own area of expertise are often the ones who are the best at it. (As compared with, for example, the image one could conjure up when a doctor would advertise being both a "Cardiac Surgeon and Botox specialist.")

In real estate sales and leasing, unless an agent is working in an area that is lightly populated, the agent will most certainly meet with mediocrity if they chose to sell and/or lease properties from two or more different disciplines. For example, you don't normally find highly-successful agents who work on selling both industrial buildings and apartment houses.

Agents who try to do things like these spread themselves too thin and become generalists in two or more areas instead of specialists in just one. And as a result, they usually get beat by their competition because their prospects feel their competitors are more knowledgeable and present themselves better, too.

And even if you're specializing in one particular discipline, you can still encounter similar problems if you don't focus on one specific geographic market. Unless you're in a lightly populated area, or unless you're selling investment properties on a regional or national basis, you'll probably cost yourself a lot of money if you don't specialize in primarily one geographical area.

Once again you'll be a generalist, and people want to work with someone who's a specialist. And when you go up against competitors who are true experts in what they specialize in, your prospects will recognize this and they'll choose them instead of you in most situations.

So take a look at the agents in your area who are continually the top earners. In most situations you'll find these agents are specialists in the properties they work on, not generalists. With this in mind and in working towards maximizing your own income as a real estate agent, the chances are very high that you'll be very well served in becoming a specialist in one particular area if you haven't already done so.