I recently spent time with some second and third year agents who have all been doing relatively well in the industry.
I asked them to come to the whiteboard and map out the ideal real estate business. Save for a few minor details they could write down what it would take for them to become a $500,000-plus earner.
With all the training, videos, scripts and dialogues, and with all the opportunities to attend conferences and workshops, everyone knows (maybe outside of some rookies) what it takes to build a wonderful real estate career.
I happened to look out the window at the same time and saw a gardener working through his daily duties and I said to the group, “if I ventured downstairs and said to the gardener, ‘there is a group of people upstairs who know how to make $500,000 but aren’t doing it’, what do you think he would call you?” I will leave their answers to your imagination.
I went on to say, “if I asked the gardener if he knows how to make $500,000 he would no doubt say he didn’t”. You see most, if not all, real estate practitioners in this country know. So the obvious question is, why aren’t they doing it?
Every dream you want in life lives between what you know and execution. A few thoughts come to mind when I ask why is there a gap.
Firstly, nearly every agent in the country has evidence of a deal coming easy. There’s someone you don’t know who comes to an open and has a house to sell, you get on well, you list that home and two weeks later you make a fee.
Seems easy, doesn’t it? But, as we know, luck has two sides to it, good and bad.
The second is motivation or lack of it. Many people look externally to find it. However, motivation remains and always will be an internal search.
Thirdly, environment plays a role. The old saying “it is hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys” can certainly apply.
Finally, some are just plain lazy and there is nothing you can do for this group.
Real estate is a simple industry. You build relationships, be good to people, respond quickly, do what you say you are going to do, treat people with respect and remain humble. Stock in, stock out.
There is only one model I know that works, which I have mentioned before – volume, consistency, and quality.
This industry provides us with a gift every day, and that is the knowledge that we have an opportunity to carve an income and lifestyle unmatched in most other sectors.
That dream lies in the gap between what you know and what you do.
