'Dickson University' stays abreast of industry change

By the calendar, it's been only a decade since Dickson Realty launched its "Dickson University" training program.

By the measurements of galactic time and space, however, the training program today operates in an entirely different universe.

The four-digit reason: 2008.

"That year was like the industrial revolution for us," says Nancy Fennell, broker and owner of the Reno-based real estate brokerage. "Everything changed."

With about 225 agents, Dickson has the largest market share of residential brokerages in northern Nevada, and the company typically is training eight to 10 new agents at a time. They'll spend three hours twice a week for about six months learning the skills ranging from time management to the intricacies of negotiating a short sale that weren't required to complete basic real estate school.

Sitting next to them and, in fact, often amounting to the largest number of students in a class session are veteran Dickson Realty agents who recognize the need to sharpen their skills in the ever-changing new environment.

And the combination of experience and skills sometimes challenges the Dickson agents who teach the classes.

Andrew Reel, for instance, teaches technology skills that range from the effective use of Web-based content to the legal ramifications of electronic signatures on real estate documents.

And he's teaching those skills to students who range from young agents who grew up in a technology-dominated world to long-experienced agents who still recall how to use carbon paper to create multiple copies of a document.

"There is such a wide variety of technological savvy, and you have to teach to that," says Reel.

Fennell notes, too, that technological skills vary widely among purchasers of real estate these days. Gen X buyers, for instance, often have conducted extensive online research before they step foot in a brokerage office; older buyers are more likely to rely on the expertise of an individual agent.

As rapidly as technological change has swept over residential brokerages, the financial and negotiation skills to put a deal together have shifted even more rapidly, says Jen McDonald, an agent who teaches Dickson University courses that show agents how to negotiate their new world.

Five years ago, no one at cocktail parties was talking knowledgably about short sales, and only specialists handled properties in foreclosure.

"Now, it's a different story every day," says McDonald.

The changing face of the real estate business itself has been an important factor in Dickson Realty's ongoing commitment to the program, says Fennell.

The company defines itself as a learning organization, she says, but Dickson executives in a decade ago had developed misgivings about the traditional mentoring programs in which experienced real estate agents informally trained newcomers.

"Not every agent is a great mentor," says Fennell.

At the same time, Dickson Realty, like other brokerages around the nation, increasingly worried about a wave of retirements from a graying sales force of Baby Boomers.

The answer was Dickson University, designed to formalize training and strengthen recruitment.

But the need to strengthen recruitment vaporized in 2008, when the collapse in the northern Nevada real estate market meant that no one wanted to get into the business.

The firm's executives decided to bring Dickson University out of hibernation in 2010, partly because Fennell saw a pool of early retirees from other professions who could become top-notch residential sales agents with some training.

It's working, says Kathy Leggett, who got into the real estate business 18 months ago after a full career as an executive in the ski industry.

While real estate school teaches the basic requirements new agents need to pass the state examination, Leggett says Dickson University taught her to write effective contracts, present herself as a real estate professional and position herself for a successful career.