There are two categories of vendor relationships that affect a real estate agent's business more than almost any other: the lender and the home inspector.

If you have ever attended a professional event and found yourself having the most valuable conversation of the day in the parking lot, over a drink at the hotel bar, or waiting for an elevator — you already understand what this post is about.

Here is an uncomfortable truth about real estate professional development: most agents walk out of training events genuinely inspired — and by the following Tuesday, almost none of the inspiration has translated into changed behavior.

Women make up more than 60% of licensed real estate agents in the United States. In the greater Philadelphia market — across Montgomery County, Bucks County, Delaware County, Chester County, and the city itself — female agents represent the majority of the industry's working professionals.

Every real estate event has sessions. Most of those sessions follow a familiar structure: a speaker presents a topic, you take notes, there is maybe five minutes of Q&A at the end before the next segment begins.

There is someone in your phone right now who needs to be at this event.

There is a version of professional development thinking that assumes cost equals quality. Pay more, get more. Events that charge admission must be more serious, more valuable, more curated than the ones that do not.

Let's be honest about something the real estate industry rarely says out loud.

If you are a real estate agent who has spent any time on major industry stages, inside large brokerage training programs, or in the company of the most serious professional development conversations in the business — you have probably encountered the name Skye Michiels

Which towns should we be looking in?" "How do the school districts compare?" "Are we going to be able to compete for what we want?" "Is this a good time to buy?"