Eight Years and Eight Lessons in Real Estate

Pictured: My first sale - a condominium for a lovely couple along St. Anne's Road shortly after getting my license. They had tried to sell privately and gave up.

June 2019 marks my eighth year in real estate.  I ALWAYS wanted to be surrounded by real estate.  I remember going to a multitude of open houses just so I could take it all in.  What actually propelled me to finally taking action was a television show on HGTV about a female realtor in Canada that built a successful real estate business, then team, and ultimately brokerage for herself.  I thought, if she can do it, why can’t I? 

ASIDE: Don’t worry Stan, I have no intention of starting a brokerage after observing what you do day-in and day-out for the last eight years. No thank you! Let me sell things!

I am still learning something new every day, even after 550 deals and counting (if my calculations are correct).  I was recently reading Ben Franklin’s Autobiography and found his 13 Virtues still very relevant for today. He was really onto something.  To that end, I have picked eight virtues that I feel are still relevant to what I have learned in my eight years in Real Estate:

1. Silence.  Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation. We must listen openly and honestly to our clients. We all have our own biases and backgrounds, however we are not truly serving our clients best interests if we try to insert our own beliefs and opinions into their decision making process.  Yes, we are there to provide guidance and an education on the home buying and selling process, but not to influence it with our own opinions or biases.
2. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.  Sometimes it is okay if you respond to your emails at the end of the day.  Focus on the client you are with, they are the priority.  Learn how to prioritize your business to save your sanity (I am still learning this one). I could go on.
3. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.  Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign resounded with so many because it was simple, and was a message that we all needed.  Do what you should do.  Set your goals, go out and take the steps you need to achieve them.  Whether that be in a new marketing campaign, new listing, or hitting new sales goals. We are often our biggest obstacles, and getting over ourselves and getting to brass tacks is the only way to achieve true success.
4. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e., Waste nothing. There are always new shiny objects: flashy marketing ploys, tools for realtors, etc. Some are useful, but the majority do not stand the test of time.  Look at your core competency, constantly work to streamline and improve it, and grow from there. 
5. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions. Keep it simple.  Similar to point 4 above, work on those core competencies and just get really good at them. Hone in on them.  Revamp, streamline, improve. Learn to be the BEST at what you do. If you aren’t getting better, you are getting worse.
6. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly. Judge Judy is my guilty pleasure, and one of my favourite lines from her show is “If you tell the truth, you don’t need to have a good memory”.  She is right.  Honesty is always the best policy, especially when it comes to what will be most people’s largest purchase in their lifetime. Sincerity equals longevity in this business.
7. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.  Stealing a line from my lessons blog of last year: there are two ways to build the tallest building in town. I know, this sounds weird, but there are two ways to look at business: 1. You can tear down all of the businesses around you to become the tallest building, or; 2: You can just build the tallest building.  This can be a tough industry as my colleagues or friends within the business are often my competition, and an industry set up such as this can lead to dissension amongst peers and sometimes downright dirty tactics to obtain clients.  But karma exists. Always choose to build the taller building.
8. Humility.  Which to me means keep your pride in check.  Be humble.  I think to say it most succinctly, “stay hungry, stay humble”. 

So what do the next eight years look like?  I have no clue.  As I write this we sit as a team of four agents and one full-time administrator. We are currently sitting just shy of 80 deals halfway through 2019.  I like the size of this team.  We are small enough that we are all close and know what is going on in one another’s business, but big enough that we can take time off and know that our clients are well taken care of.  We are also the perfect number for two golf foursomes. But growth never came from comfort zones! Stay tuned!

#AgentJen

Jennifer Queen

Phone: (204) 797-7945
Email: Jennifer@JenniferQueen.com