Listing to last -- the tired mantra

It has become written in stone, repeated often, enshrined, ballyhooed by old-timers, and, yet, it's incomplete advice. The fact that the advice is so prevalent is evidence of why an agent should consider not listing. Not all agents. Most agents are going to do well listing if they have the ambition, a little talent and apply themselves.

But for agents who want to find a niche and do something different, now is a great time to go against the grain and establish themselves as  exclusive buyer agents. It's a way to stand out and be different in a reputationally damaged field.

An EBA has the opportunity to position themselves as champions for buyers, with no conflict of interest, true representatives. As distrust of agents is at a peak what better time to build your brand on trust with buyers? Oh, you will laughed at, and agents will scoff, but buyers will appreciate you if you apply yourself and perform well. Carving out a niche as an EBA is a viable real estate career choice and it can be very profitable. It's not for everyone, because not everyone wants to be so personally involved with their clients, and not everyone can understand the concept. It takes a special agent to understand the concept and believe in it wholeheartedly, and that is why it's valuable -- not very many do it, and of the ones that do it, not many do it well. So, for the agent who can understand the concept and can do it well, there is a great career ahead.

You will have to work your tail off for about two years, but once you have branded your business and distinguished yourself from the crowd and you are approaching business from a position of plenty, you can hire an assistant and one agent that you train to do what you do, someone who understands and believes like you do, then you feed the agent until the agent can feed herself, then you hire 2 more and repeat, then 2 more. This should be enough. Now you are creating leads, picking from the abundance and feeding agents with the others. You are working less and you have a steady flow of income and you've put in about six years. Now you can start buying properties and dealing with investments. Hardly anyone gets rich in real estate selling other people's homes or working with buyers. The business can be a springboard for your own investments. After ten years, you are in your late thirties and you have investments that are creating another stream of income -- then you start thinking about branching out or you keep the steady flow you have -- you have choices. And then you become independent, truly independent -- you can do as much or as little as you want to do.

So, EBA doesn't have to be wall, doesn't have to be limited -- you can create what you want to create and never list a home -- unless you decide to sell your own properties down the road.