Jan 3, 2004

Once a teacher, always a teacher
Joanna Phillips’ Willow Glen business trains realtors

By Carol Rosen
Editor

When Joanna Phillips first moved to the Bay Area in the early 1970s, the special education teacher couldn’t find a job teaching. At that time, there was a glut of teachers in the area. So Phillips decided to change careers and go into real estate.

“When I first started out in real estate, you needed a license but you couldn’t get any actual training. You basically sat at a desk and waited for the phone to ring. Most real estate businesses in the 1970s were small, independent companies, very different from the franchises of today,” says Phillips.

In 1986, she said, California passed a law that realtors have to have 45 hours of continuing education every four years. That year, Phillips returned to her favorite career—teaching—but this time with a classroom full of realtors instead of children.

Now, through her business, the owner and president of Power Training for Real Estate, Phillips teaches and writes the curriculum for her classes. In fact, she and her associate Ellen Santomauro—the firm’s training coordinator—offer up to 10 classes geared toward the specific selling area of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz or Monterrey Counties. Power Training’s newest course is a two-day course on working with people over age 50. This course includes tax implications, long-term care and rental properties and includes an elder-law attorney and a CPA. The length of each class is six hours per day, one day per week for nine weeks.

Her other courses teach specific skills about the job. For example, “Looking out for Number One” teaches new realtors how to set personal goals, manage time, success characteristics, influence lists and a weekly calendar and card system. Another class talks about successful open houses, new laws, cold calling and sales by owners. The contracts class explains the different types of contracts (CAR and PRDS in Santa Clara County, for example) and teaches how to explain them to clients.

Another class discusses qualifying and counseling buyers, a realtor’s job description, buyer/broker agreements and how to show properties. There’s a class about negotiating techniques, offers and counter-offers, multiple offices and contingency removal forms. Phillips teaches an inspections and listing package class, a special class on the listing interview, a specific class on financing the transaction and a class on counseling sellers that includes communications, personality style and staging companies.

“These six-hour classes are equivalent to working for two years in real estate,” says Phillips. “Otherwise, training is extremely sporadic. The larger realty companies have a training program, but most independent companies don’t have anything. Often it takes new realtors at small firms some time to get going, and that’s what I’m here for.”

She notes that it’s important that the training be specified for each particular area. “It’s important to train realtors in their particular markets,” Phillips says. She actually sells in both Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties. “It’s important to learn the MLS (multiple-listing service) in the particular area. Contracts in Monterrey County are different than those in Santa Clara County. And, realtors have to be aware of each area in order to understand their customers and the MLS,” she adds.

Phillips sells real estate in the three-county area and tests information before she puts it in the Power Training manual. “I test all the items that go into the classes for a year before I use that information,” she says. “I guess you could say I field test the information and if it works, it goes into the classes.” She currently is upgrading the Power Training book.

Students completing the classes are given certificates at the end of training. Class prices range up to $795 per person for the nine-day classes.

For more information about Power Training for Real Estate, contact Phillips or Santomauro at (408) 275-9637, fax them at (408) 275-9647 or visit the Web site at www.REALESTATE POWERTRAINING.com.