OK, let’s just get this out of the way: Office manuals aren’t sexy. They’re usually not much fun, handling as they do so many noes and very few yeses.

Still, solid policies are necessary in any business. And the argument could be made that they’re even more important to have in place — and up to date — in real estate. The fact that most brokers are independent contractors means that they have much freer rein than many other professionals out there. So if managing brokers don’t have a document they can point to that spells out what brokers can and can’t do, they’re automatically at a disadvantage.

Now the managers we spoke to for this issue don’t have that problem; they’ve all spent a fair amount of time thinking over how office manuals can make their lives easier, as well as the best processes for keeping these documents current with changes in business practices and laws.

However, if you look at the survey results on office policies, you’ll see that agents, team leaders and managing brokers all have very different views on how policies are handled and what could be improved. So it’s clearly an important discussion to have.

If you want to discuss policies with me — or any other topic related to running a successful real estate business, really — shoot me an email at meg.white@agentpublishing.com. I have a policy around promoting interesting discussions, and I plan on sticking to it.