Articles
Real Estate Strategy & Leadership Articles
Strategic insights on real estate practice, brokerage leadership, development analysis, and professional education by Liz Penner.
Upcoming Book | Managing the Customer Experience for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs
Coming Soon | Managing the Customer Experience for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs My second book is under contract and in production with Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group, for a textbook I have written, Managing the Customer Experience for Small…
Mental Health Supports – You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
Part five of a week-long series on mental health in real estate. We’ve covered a lot of ground this week. We named the pain, talked about what actually matters, learned to be a little cheaper, and thought about who we want around us while we weather this. Today we end…
How to Find Your People
Part four of a week-long series on mental health in real estate . This week, we’ve been moving through a progression. We started by acknowledging the pain — naming it honestly, refusing to pretend it isn’t there. Then we talked about what you’ll actually be proud of…
How to beHow to Be Hilariously Cheap
The abundance mindset that served us during the boom told us that spending was a signal of success. The mindset that will serve us now is different: it asks what things are actually worth, what we actually need, and what we might enjoy more if it costs us less.
Because the habit of looking — really looking — at what you’re spending and why is one of the most useful things you can do right now. Not just financially. But as a reminder that you are still someone who can assess value, negotiate outcomes, and make smart decisions under pressure.
The Question Nobody is Asking
Part two of a week-long series on mental health in real estate. What Could You Be Proud Of? Yesterday we talked about pain. About the financial reality of this market and the importance of naming it honestly. We talked about how you cannot heal from what you refuse to…
Realtors Are Hurting. Let’s Start There.
Part One of a Week-Long Series on Mental Health in Real Estate As an instructor for real estate and home builders, I spend my weeks in classrooms with realtors and builders. I get to see the temperature in the room of the industry. I hear the conversations before…
Luck Had Nothing to Do with It.
Luck Had Nothing to Do with It. If there ever were an epic underdog story, it’s JK Rowling’s. Let me set the scene: it’s 1997, and this woman is a struggling single mother on welfare benefits. She has almost nothing to her name but a manuscript rejected by a dozen…
The Course In A Box Already Exists. Here’s Where To Find It.
The Course In A Box Already Exists. Here’s Where To Find It. All week I’ve been talking about rethinking real estate education — at the national level, the provincial level, and the brokerage level. Today I want to get specific about the mechanics of how great course…
Real Estate Education Starts at the Brokerage Level. It’s Time to Recognize That
Real Estate Education Starts at the Brokerage Level. It’s Time to Recognize That This week, I’ve been talking about real estate education at the national and provincial levels. Today I want to bring that conversation closer to home—down to where most real estate…
Realtors Are More Educated Than They Think. The Industry Just Hasn’t Caught Up Yet.
Readers, please bear with me. I am going to explain something, but I promise there’s a point worth sticking around to hear. I am going to explain how to upgrade the real estate education industry in a way that gets people excited to be involved. For years, I’ve been…
Rethinking Real Estate Education
Rethinking Real Estate Education: Regional Learning, Professional Infrastructure, and the Future of Industry Development Real estate is approaching a turning point. The industry itself has become increasingly specialized, technologically complex, regionally nuanced,…
Contributing a Case Study to Managing the Customer Experience
Contributing a Practive Example to Managing the Customer Experience What Is a Practical Example Contribution? A practice example is a short vignette, typically 250 to 500 words, that highlights an example of excellence in your organization. Each vignette connects…
Upcoming Course | Customer Service and Home Warranty (BLDC 1010)
BC Home Builders Licensing Class Upcoming Course | Customer Service and Home Warranty (BLDC 1010) I will be instructing Customer Service and Home Warranty (BLDC 1010) at BCIT beginning April 13. This course runs once a week on Mondays for 12 weeks and is part of the…
Upcoming Class | Customer Service
Upcoming FVREB Class | PDP Accredited I will be instructing a full-day PDP-accredited customer service course at the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board on April 9. More and more organizations, large and small alike, are realizing that their greatest differentiator is not…
Economic Forecasts vs. Dirt-Under-Your-Boots Intelligence
Economic Forecasts: Do the Builders Really Care? Recently, I have been noticing a growing trend among real estate companies that work with home builders. More and more brokerages are producing economic outlook reports that forecast where the market might go over the…
Sales vs. Marketing: The Ongoing Battle
The Disagrements Between Sales and Marketing Sales vs. Marketing: The Ongoing Battle While writing my first book, Leadership in Real Estate, I spent time studying personality markers associated with success in different roles within the industry. One of the most…
Do Open Houses Actually Find Buyers? It Depends Where You Are.
Will You Get Buyers from Your Open House Yesterday I was teaching a personal branding class for realtors in the Fraser Valley. One of my favourite parts of teaching is that I often learn as much as I teach. When a room is full of experienced agents, new ideas tend to…
The Burger Product
The Burger Product, A Conversation About Organizational Culture If you’re alive and always on the internet (like I am), then you’ve probably seen the McDonald’s meme. In fact, it seemed like bigger news than the meteor that lit up the sky and shook half the houses in…