I was reading through some very old archived items on my hard drive searching for inspiration and came across this and it made me laugh (It’s been one of those mornings).  Hope you enjoy!

Useful Work Phrases

1. Thank you. We’re all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.

2. The fact that no one understands you doesn’t mean you’re an artist.

3. I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce.

4. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.

5. I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don’t care.

6. I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.

7. What am I? Flypaper for freaks!?

8. I’m not being rude. You’re just insignificant.

9. I’m already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.

10. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.

11. It’s a thankless job, but I’ve got a lot of Karma to burn off.

12. Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.

13. No, my powers can only be used for good.

14. How about never? Is never good for you?

15. I’m really easy to get along with once you people learn to worship me.

16. You sound reasonable. Time to up my medication.

17. I’ll try being nicer if you’ll try being smarter.

18. I’m out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.

19. I don’t work here. I’m a consultant.

20. Who me? I just wander from room to room.

21. My toys! My toys! I can’t do this job without my toys!

22. It might look like I’m doing nothing, but at the cellular level I’m really quite busy.

23. At least I have a positive attitude about my destructive habits.

24. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.

25. I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.

26. Someday, we’ll look back on this, laugh nervously, and change the subject.

Carpe diem,

I got an interesting email from an agent this week.  No, she’s not a client, just someone who had heard that I might be able to help her with a problem she was having.  Someone had taken the time to register a URL, build a website with enough SEO savvy to get top Google ranking that was completely dedicated to telling the world what a horrible agent she was.  Seriously, at first I thought it was funny, then sad, then aggravated.  I wasn’t angry at the poor guy who felt swindled (although the comments about this person’s heritage and family were, well, unfair), I was frustrated that her interest was not in making thing right, but in covering it up.   

This morning on Google there were about 1,650,000 results for I hate realtors (which took 0.17 seconds).  That is 1.65 million times that someone wasn’t slightly disappointed but angry enough to take the time to go online and say something about it.  In last year’s Harris Interactive poll on “prestigious” careers real estate agents and brokers rated dead last.  The interesting dynamic is the top of the list are the careers that are where many of the real estate community come from.  Why?  and maybe a better question is “What are we, as the minority of professionals, going to do about it?”

We need to start taking seriously the realities the problems within our industry and take a stand to clean them up.  We need to increase our standard of service – not for marketing purposes – but because it is the right thing to do.  We need to stop making excuses and start finding solutions on how to sell those listings that we took on.  We need to take ownership and responsibility (I know neither of those are very popular concepts in society), stop playing the blame game and actively turn the tide of perception for what we do.

I know how hard we work, how much we do and to what lengths we must go to get the job done.  The problem is that those that are good and do the job well are silent about it and those who are bad do all the talking.  Walk the talk, talk the walk and be a light of hope to your local community. 

Carpe diem,

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“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

-John Calvin Coolidge

I had an interesting experience recently.  As I was checking out at my local grocery store I was greeted by the store’s newest employee.  As I stood in line, I kept thinking about how familiar her face looked, her mannerisms, her expressions, even her voice.  When my turn came to ring up and I looked at her nametag it all came rushing back…

When I first entered this crazy real estate business (in the mid 90′s) the market was very similar to how it is now.  Bright eyed and bushy tailed I had just passed my exam, went through my obligatory, Broker sponsored, two week “Everything you need to know to be successful in real estate” class and was settling in my new desk when a head popped over my cubby pony wall.

Little did I know that I was just about to meet my friendly, professional rival, no, my nemesis.   She quickly informed me that I could not market all these different areas that I was looking at on a map because “they were her areas.”   Never mind that I lived in the area, and I had never seen anything from her, nor had she taken a listing there in the last 30 listings, nor that the manager had assured me that we were in an “open farming office.”  So it started.  It was actually one of the best things for me and my new real estate business.  I have always been the kind who is up for a fight.  And fight we did as we took it out to the market place.  We both did well, although I, like the father in the movie “A River Runs Through It” who out-fished his sons, simply was a bit more blessed in the ongoing struggle for dominance on the sales board. 

As often happens in life, our lives diverged as my life took a turn into the Broker side of the desk in another market area, and hers went along “greeting” the new agents and selling homes and condos to her friends and family. 

I hadn’t seen her in at least 10 years.  And here she was, checking my groceries at the local market.   Smiling – but not really.  Her husband was well, her kids fine (her daughter a bit disappointed, because she wasn’t going to be able to go to the college she wanted because “mommy didn’t sell houses this last year.”  She resolved that she was going to be back in the game soon, but I know differently.   I know the down markets separate those of us who have chosen this field as our profession, from those who are in it for the fair weather.  I’m not criticizing those that have to get some side work to put food on the table, but do it in a way that doesn’t cannibalize your business.  I’m all for the stormy periods, because I know at the end of the journey, I’ll be left with a bunch of Pros. 

As my wife, kids and I climbed in the car we talked about how our decisions make all the difference.   We talked about the importance of delayed gratification, we talked about the importance of pressing on when times are tough and we talked about the truth in Coolidge’s quote. 

To all of you who are hanging tough, not because it is easy, but because you don’t have any other choice – I applaud you, I respect you, and I am with you. 

Carpe diem,

I may have discovered that I am a little on the stupid side.  Seriously.  I know that may not come to a “blinding flash of the obvious” to those that subscribe to my humble blog, but until yesterday I thought I understood our crazy and dysfunctional industry.   Just like your drunk uncle Joe or the mother-in-law that you wished wouldn’t have been part of the deal, there are a few things we all put up with in our real estate lives.  But at the end of the day, I thought creating income was the point of why our Broker of choice has the privilege of hanging our license at their shop.  I know, I know, with over 70% of or industry living below the poverty line I should have seen this sooner, but no – I held out hope. 

Here’s what happened - yesterday afternoon I got three, yes three, outbound corporate relocation leads (2 listings and 1 sale) that needed to be placed with agents.  Usually I have an admin person do this, but they were out of the office and we needed to get them placed by the end of the day, so I got to do it personally.  All I had to do was identify agents who met the following criteria:
1. They would return the call or email.
2. They have been licensed more than 3 years .
3. They were full time and could handle the referral.

If they met those criteria, they would get the deal.  Simple, yes?  I mean with over 1.2 million REALTORS it should be no big deal.  WRONG!

I called and emailed 15 agents and here is what happened -

13 never called or responded back
1 called back, thanked me for the consideration and said she was going to be out of town for August and thought she should decline for the client’s benefit (yes, she is going to the TOP of my list next time)
1 got all three leads (and it took her more than 6 hours to get back to me).

Before you get all high and mighty, let me tell you where I drew the pool from - for the listing leads I looked for CRS designees that worked for major brokers who made over $100,000 last year and were members of ActiveRain.  For the buyer lead, I only substituted ABR for the CRS designation. 

Has the lead generation companies jaded us that badly that we can’t afford a bit of professionalism and civility to our other real estate brethren?  It’s not like I am from Nigeria and asking you via email to send me $25,000 so that I can transfer King JKAdhLAIDT’s fortune to you.  I was going to send them along without even taking a referral fee.  I am a real estate broker who is looking for someone who can take good care of my people.  That’s all, nothing more, nothing less.

Carpe diem,