I met with an agent this morning—let’s call him John. John is relatively new to the real estate industry, and he was feeling discouraged after having one of those weeks we’ve all had. First, a buyer he’d been courting for weeks made an offer on a FSBO over the weekend. Then the building owner he’d…
It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” I love this quotation, I love its message. It’s a reminder to all of us to push ourselves, to test our limits, and move outside of our comfortable place, every day if possible, but certainly on a frequent basis. I use…
When the market shifts from a seller’s market to a buyers market, the sellers can feel the greatest impact. Let’s say you have an identical home to your neighbor, but their home sold only 12 months ago for $50,000 over the asking price in a multiple offer situation, it’s only understandable that you should expect…
I have much to write about confidence. It’s a topic that comes up very often with my agents. Confidence underpins success for any real estate professional. This came up again for me just this morning when I was at my barre class. I take the early class most mornings of the week and there are…
In most recent years, with the previous market red hot for sellers, we’ve seen more and more people choosing to list their homes as “off-market.” While I’m not the biggest proponent of this strategy, I can understand the appeal of a homeowner taking this approach. You test out a high price, expose your home to…
Technology has its merits, of course, for any real estate professional’s business development activities. But, and you can call me old fashioned, it shouldn’t ever become a substitute for real life, in-person interactions. As real estate professionals, we deal in emotions, life events, intangible reasons for making huge financial decisions. In essence, we deal with…
I was humbled today by an agent I met with who is interested in joining my firm. Let’s call him Bill. Bill has been selling real estate for 25 years. He’s had a great career so far, is in the top 30 agents in his marketplace, consistently sells between $20M and $30M in volume a…
Everyone wants to be successful. Certainly, every real estate agent I’ve ever met wants to be successful. And they expend enormous amounts of energy pursuing success. They hurry from prospecting activity to prospecting activity in search of their next success. What they often don’t do is define exactly what success might mean for them. This…
When you work for yourself, often alone, getting done what you need to get done can sometimes be challenging. Stuff gets in the way, you get busy, distracted, there is always something else to do. Having a method for accountability can help enormously. Someone or something to hold you to your task can be the…
There’s something happening in Boston real estate right now, and it’s more than just the seasonal holiday slowdown. To put it bluntly, the market is shifting. It’s settling down. It’s taking a breather, so to speak. And as famous economist Herbert Stein once said, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” A market shift can…