My Dear SWS'ers
You may have heard a rumor last week that Mollie Wasserman, the founder of the ACREŽ program (Accredited Consultant in Real EstateŽ) has resigned her post as ACREŽ's CEO and Chief Bottle Washer and, in a moment of delirium, handed that baton over to me.
Well, the rumor you heard is true.
Effectively immediately, ACREŽ is mine <insert evil laugh>. Nah, just kidding about the evil laugh, but not about ACREŽ. Yep, I'm in charge over there now. As you can imagine, I'm honored beyond belief, but a little nervous as well. Luckily, the current members of ACREŽ have been supportive of the change in management and as they're wishing Mollie all the best in her new endeavour, they're also looking forward to the future of the community they've built under her leadership.
If you are already a member of ACREŽ (and many of you are), this is week-old news to you. But if you aren't a member or have no idea what on earth ACREŽ is all about, well, please stay tuned for more information about how the program will evolve under SWS. We'll be folding the ACREŽ program into an entirely new division of SWS and I promise you - awesome stuff cometh soon.
This seems as good a time as any to talk about something I want all of my readers to know about me and my vision of the future of the real estate industry.
I've never hidden the fact that the real estate industry frustrates me to no end with all its hype and hoopla dedicated to prospecting prospecting prospecting, with barely a crumb tossed toward ensuring that our practitioners are competent, even exceptional managers of a real estate transaction. However, I accepted a long time ago that I will never change the real estate industry. Frankly, I have no real desire to change it - I like my life the way it is and don't have any fantasies about running around the country lobbying for change!
Anyway, my point is that my ultimate goal in creating the SWS community (which will now include ACREŽ) has never been to persuade NAR, CREA or any other industry association to see things our way and demand that the industry change to an SWS/ACREŽ way of doing business. No, my goal has always been to create a safe place for real estate professionals who envision a different sort of real estate career - one where the client is treated competently and respectfully and the agent is compensated fairly. And in this safe place, like-minded real estate professionals will connect, network, share ideas and solutions, and find the tools they need to run a successful, profitable, respectful, PROFESSIONAL business. If, at some point, the Powers that Be recognize that we may just be onto something, they can come looking for us. I won't be going to them.
So, I'm honored to have you with me as I take the next step toward building this uptopia for real estate professionals who want something better for ourselves and for our industry. 2012 is going to be a big year around here!
