Gatekeepers

Exclusivity is such a funny thing.

Take churches for example. When you're an outsider, you're drawn by urgings to "come as you are" and by the "visitors welcome" announcement on practically every church sign. Then, as soon as you're part of the inner circle, there's a tendency to want to raise the bar for those still on the outside. You want them to clean up their act, or at least convincingly fake it, before stepping into the sanctuary.

But churches are hardly the only example. Think of country clubs, which depend on a perception of prestige. Cliques of friends. Boards of directors. High school sports teams. The double standard of acceptance crops up almost everywhere.

I am so guilty of this attitude when it comes to Realtors, of all things. By any standard I'm still a newbie in this business, having been licensed only about two years. But does that stop me from wishing there was some way to slow the flood of new Realtors? Of course not! Now that I'm in I want to shut the gates.

(Ironically, under new rules approved recently by the real estate commission I couldn't be a full broker, much less a broker-in-charge, without considerably more education and experience. In fact, we wouldn't have been allowed to start a real estate company from scratch under these stricter standards. I happened to fall into this business at the best possible time.)

Another example is neighborhoods. Last night we spent a couple of hours at a town meeting listening to resident after resident stand up and protest new construction and the riff-raff they're sure will follow. The town is tiny and those that are lucky enough to have secured a spot there don't want to see it grow a bit. I guess anyone else who might like to join them should just get in line and wait for someone to die.