Stressless

Why is your blog entitled “stressless”? A realtor’s job is to anticipate the potential stress situations and to be ready proactively to mitigate them, that’s the goal. I’m not just going for a good job; I’m going for a great job. If I provide so great an experience that my clients refer me and come to me for their next transaction, then I’ve met that goal. But I don’t then rest and be happy. I then get ready for doing an even better job for the next person. I learn from each transaction. I take every opportunity to learn from every experience. How could I have done that better? Today most clients know they can have any realtor add them to the MLS and receive by e-mail all information they’d ever want to know about real estate in their area and price range. I add value because I make a complex real estate transaction simple. I make it simple because I know the process and I take the load off my clients by anticipating their needs and being ready for them proactively.

Let me give you an example of the type of realtor I am not. I attended a training class last month. It was a three-day class. It cost my broker hundreds of dollars for me to attend this class. The class consisted of 12 realtors and one very experienced, very motivating realtor/instructor. There were four of us at my table. The woman across from me arrived hours after class started. She blew her nose loudly all day. She was very personable but dressed in what she called “hippie” attire. I enjoyed talking with her. She said her family recently used a more experienced realtor in her own office and felt that was wrong. That she was entitled to the business of her own family. The second day of class she arrived around lunchtime. Her cold must have gotten better but she was not into the subject at hand and therefore, wasn’t able to contribute productively to the class because she’d missed the foundation of the topic. The third day of class she never arrived at all. When I asked the instructor what had happened to her, he said “I have the feeling she’s the type of person to whom things happen”. Meaning she didn’t plan ahead and therefore wasn’t ready when life moved on without her.

Why am I writing this story? Because I am the opposite of this woman. Have an appointment? Be there on time; be ready, have your homework not only done but organized and ready for presentation; anticipate questions and have answers ready or explain when you’ll get them the information. And most importantly, don’t blame others when something goes wrong: be accountable. If your family doesn’t trust you with their real estate business then you either aren’t trustworthy in their eyes or you haven’t yet proven your expertise. Either way, it’s your challenge. My answer is to turn the challenge into an opportunity to succeed by serious introspection. Issues to consider: Trouble being where you need to be? Get an alarm watch. Not dressed in a manner that allows your family to see you for the real estate professional that you are? Change your style. Customers turned off by your glass-half-empty outlook on life? Learn how to express your thoughts from a glass-half-full perspective. Have too many things happening to you? Decide life is a do-it-yourself job and turn those challenges into opportunities. Your family doesn’t feel you are experienced enough for their business? Change the challenge into an opportunity to prove your expertise. Write what you know in blogs and mailings.