Scared Stiff to Intrigued and Interested

I began my career in Real Estate in 1992. The Country was just coming out of the last big housing downturn from the Savings and Loan debacle.

I did not know anything about the realities of where we were with the economy or housing situation…I was fresh out of College and Bartending, so I thought I had hit the jackpot of a job!

Seventeen years have passed, and looking back, I realize I did not hit the jackpot of a job…I hit the jackpot of a CAREER! I have had ups, and downs. I have made more money, at times, than I ever dreamed possible, and lost more than that in the same breath. In every situation, I enjoyed the experiences of being in the Real Estate business. I have never been as Intrigued and Interested in Real Estate as I am today.

If you don’t feel passionate about Real Estate, you should go and get passionate about something else…I suggest you get passionate about Real Estate!
Today, I look around and see three types of people in the business:
1. The Scared Stiff
2. The Scared Silly
3. The Intrigued and Interested

The Scared Stiff are simply shell shocked by how challenging the environment has become and have not made one single adjustment to their games. At the sales meetings, they have glazed looks in their eyes.

They have become walking Zombies.

Money is going out the door to stay in the business, but nothing is coming in, and they are doing nothing to improve their opportunities. They do not realize that by doing nothing, they are going to receive the same monetary measure in their bank account.

The Scared Stiff sit back and think that nobody is buying, so why try to do anything that would require effort when the result is going to yield nothing.
The Scared Stiff will view everything as the “market’s fault”, and simply see themselves waiting for when the market returns, and their business will do the same. They also believe that those that are making money are simply lucky, or have found the magic pill and are the exception, not the possibility.

Give them an educational article about what is going on, and they are not able to understand anything. This is okay, but they will not feel compelled to ask questions to try and understand…and that is not okay.
The problem with this group is that they are part of the problem with the time frame of the correction. We all know the market is going to change for the better, but nobody truly knows when. Part of when the change happens is going to be the educational process that Realtors take with the general public. In this, only the most talented, and professional Realtors will be able to truly see the signs, and relay them in a professional matter to those on the fence…

This group has two options:
1. Make changes to your game; stop being scared; start moving forward with passion
2. Make changes to your choice of careers

The Scared Silly are going about their game thinking that the only way to make it is to manipulate people and truths…twice as much as they did before the downturn started.

The problem with this group is that they are manipulating things to try and get people to use them in either buying or selling. They will eventually turn off the people they are trying to work with as this type of rhetoric always shines through; and someone that could have been a great prospect decides to do nothing because of the experience they just had with the Realtor.

They believe that nobody really wants to buy or sell today, so their job is to pressure people into doing the action they really don’t want to do.

What this group forgets is that we don’t sell homes, we sell a service, and that is an unspoken sale.

If this group goes to a sales meeting, they believe they know more than the others do, and are not willing to listen for a better way. Their way is the best way, and they will go down trying to prove it.
The Scared Silly are willing to work…they usually work too hard doing things the way they have always done it…only twice as hard! That begins to wear them down, and eventually being broke and burned out will have them leaving the business of real estate.

This group has two options:
1. Relax; change your approach; educate the public once you have educated yourself…STOP trying to think of sales as manipulating someone into doing something they don’t want to do…try it with passion vs. fear based
2. Make changes to your choice of careers

The Intrigued and Interested have distanced themselves further and further from the rest of the pack. They realize it is a game…and the only way you win in a game is to get into it and play with intensity and passion!

This group is amazed at what we are going through as an industry and Country, but are enjoying the game vs. fighting against it.

This group will study the trends of the marketplace and know more about the financing world than they ever knew before. They will read articles. They will look for improvements. They will look for new techniques to add to their performance.

They do not blame things on the market; they study what they need to do, or what new niches to fill…and fill them!

They are willing to participate and help others. They greet each challenge with a view of opportunity.

They educate the clients they work with, and allow the clients to make their mind up after a careful presentation of facts. The clients feel more secure in making a decision today, because they know they are in the right hands. There is no pressure…things just make more sense for the clients.

This group has two options:
1. Keep doing what they are doing, and make a nice living while others are struggling
2. Keep improving every day and crush the competition that is Scared

Someone told me the other day “Change does not cause stress…Resistance to change causes stress!”

In Atlanta, we sold as many homes in 2008 as we did in 2001…not bad! The problem is that we have 40% more agents than we did at that time…the correction of number of agents is happening…only the strongest shall survive!

The great news is that no matter what category you may fall under, you can make the decision to change! It is a market that is going to re-vamp the Real Estate Arena…for the better!