M. Nack’s Blog

I was speaking to a colleague the other day - an old time real estate agent such as myself. I often find myself having this conversation these days. The past 3-4 years have been really tough for real estate agents. We old-timers have gone through down markets before - but this one… It just never ends. And this poor fellow is literally at wits end. I could hear the desperation in his voice.

His credit cards are maxed out. He isn’t bringing in any money. He’s done everything he knows - and yet nothing is working.  He simply doesn’t know what to do anymore. He would go find a job if he could - but it’s not as if there are ample job opportunities out there.  I was at a loss. I wanted to say the perfect - something! -  to help him turn it around - but, frankly, I didn’t know what to say.

So, I have been giving the conversation a lot of thought.

The past 60-90 days my business has started to finally rebound. And I am excited AND RELIEVED! But to what do I attribute the turn around? I look around me - and it seems as if I am the only one that I know that can say I’m really busy. Not only busy - but actually productive! As in closing deals and making money. So, what changed?

Now, it’s certainly true that I have been working my ass off - but who hasn’t been? So that’s not the answer.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that:

Getting clear on the niche I wanted to serve and marketing to that niche has turned my business around 180 degrees! 

I have done over $3mm dollars in transactions just in the past 90 days!

That and keeping my head down - not being distracted by the million different rabbit holes that I COULD run down. I see this so often - agents trying just EVERYTHING - but not really executing on ANY ONE THING. It’s like watching a dog chase its tail.

The problem - even moreso now than ever - is that as real estate agents, we are very loathe to “niche” ourselves. We want to be open and available to whatever business comes our way. Particularly now! The problem with that approach is that the people we work with - the consumer, our clients and our customers - don’t know how we’re any different than any other real estate agent they meet. They like us, find us trustworthy and competent. But all these are intangible qualities that are difficult for them to articulate. They don’t refer us because WE haven’t given them any way to think about us that they can articulate to their friends and colleagues. And that’s 100% our fault.

Here’s the amazing thing: once I made a commitment to select a niche and let the world know that I had chosen to work that niche, past clients began calling me to work with me or to refer me. And here’s the truly amazing part - they were not just sending me referrals for the niche I had selected - they were sending me whatever business they had to send me!

By choosing a niche, I gave the consumer a way to think about me - and they began thinking about me!

So - if you are at your wits end and desperate to turn your business around, take 24 - 48 hours off. Shut off the phones, cancel all your appointments. Get crystal clear about who your ideal prospect is and who you most enjoy working with. Define your niche - and then begin to systematically market to that niche. Do not allow yourself to get distracted - keep your head down for 90 days and execute fully and well on just that one strategy.

Then call me in 90 days and tell me what happened.

“All Things With Exuberance!”
mary!

Is there really such a thing as “luck”? I know that sometimes events conspire in such a way as to make it seem that there is. And I have a client - a really interesting and completely charming fellow! - whose mantra is “I’m a lucky dog!”  [Now approaching 80, I can't help but imagine what he must have been like at 35.]

And even though Dirk proclaims himself a lucky dog, I know better. He doesn’t fool me for one New York minute. He has stuck to his vision, never giving up on it - through the best of times and the worst of times. I know full well that he creates his own “luck” - day in and day out working harder than many 35 year olds that I know. ”Yet Brutus says he is lucky.”  It could be that Dirk knows something that I do not. I will even allow that Dirk may actually know quite a lot that I do not.

Still, I think I know this: the secret to his “luck”. No, it’s not about working hard at all. That is such a typically American attitude: “Just work hard and you will be successful.”  You must trust me in this: that’s not it at all. Being a die-hard workaholic myself, even I know that is complete and utter BS.

The secret to this lucky dog’s success is that he  isn’t working at all. He is simply pursuing what it is he loves to do - his “purpose” , the thing that gets him out of bed in the morning and keeps him going until late at night - through all the aches and pains that must, of necessity, accompany approaching 80. Even though I am loathe to dismiss the power of the mind over the body and I have no doubt that loving your life and loving what you do goes a long ways towards alleviating any aches and pains that may annoyingly arise.

Now, if you were to ask Dirk point blank, “Dirk, what is your purpose in life?” I’m not sure he would have an answer. But I saw a quote from Deepak Chopra today: “The heart has reasons that reason does not know” And therein lies the real secret.  Our purpose lies within our heart - not in our mind. Oh, we struggle mightily with our minds to grab onto it and understand it - and we think we don’t really “know” unless we can’t wrap our mind around it. But the heart already… just… knows…

I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that I don’t really believe in luck. I believe in taking responsibility for your results - you know, “the numbers don’t lie” - and all that. Taking responsibility for your results is not so popular these days. We want to be bailed out, provided for, given a fair shake, blah blah blah. But the hard, cold truth is that the numbers DON’T lie - and sooner or later you take responsibility for your results or you end up wondering, “What happened? How did it all go so wrong? Where did I go wrong?”

Yet, even so, I, too, am a lucky dog. I have been so richly blessed - beyond any measure of “deserving”. I most assuredly have enjoyed the immense good fortune of a happy life. [Though I doubt that "deserving" has one iota of anything to do with anything.] And I doubt that these two positions can ever be reconciled in any way that makes any kind of sense. But, then again, the heart has reasons that reason does not know. The heart already…just…knows…

“All Things With Exuberance!”
mary!

It’s amazing what you can learn about people by the way they handle their real estate transaction. I’m working with a buyer right now to whom I have shown maybe 50 homes. We finally saw one that he fell in love with on Tuesday - a marathon day of looking because he wants to get in on the 1st time homebuyer credit. He has been contemplating this move for quite some time - but we are getting down to D Day and H Hour - and we’re running out of time.

We submitted an offer on the property. However, we ran into a bit of snag on his financing and the whole thing has now given him pause. Of course he’s been talking to friends. My experience is that friends and family will often discourage any positive decision to do something - because they can never be wrong if they tell you NOT to do something.  And if things don’t work out quite as expected (and when do they ever?), they can say, “See! I TOLD you so!”

Now, I am not saying he SHOULD buy the house. But I am surprised that this young man is willing to give up so easily on his dream. It makes me wonder - what else has he given up on too easily? To stand up for your dream and fight for it takes the courage of your convictions and commitment to see it through.

I sometimes wonder about the younger generation. Are we aging Baby Boomers just overgrown spoiled brats insisting on getting things our way? We grew up in an era that questioned the status quo -  that refused to ”settle”. We realized that there ARE some things worth fighting for - and that fighting for them took courage and commitment - but that Viet Nam was not one of them. And is Iran? You gotta ask…

Or am I just letting my ex-hippy attitudes take over?

“All Things With Exuberance!”
mary!

There is something inherent in human nature that we want to possess things. We want to own things, hang onto them - make them ours.

My husband and I just spent 48 hours on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. We are exploring this area as a possible future vacation/get-away spot. It has the advantage of  being closer to Chicago than Door County.  And since the market downturn caused us to give up all our acquisitions in Door County, we are feeling the need to recreate that experience. We spent a fair amount of time discussing and exploring possible candidate areas for future ownership.

And yet, from a financial standpoint, owning a vacation home makes no sense at all. For the money we spent on our cottage in Door, we could have taken some pretty fabulous vacations. And how many times did we go to Door and really vacation? How many times was going just one more thing added to an already over-crowded “to do” list?

And yet there is that emotional sense of belonging: belonging to a community, of belonging to a place, of being invested in what goes on and what happens, of putting down roots. Belonging to a place that just the mere thought of brings happy memories of good times - the proverbial “Blue Bayou”. You don’t get these emotional deposits by merely vacationing - staying a night or two, taking in the local treasures - and then moving on. These things only come with acquisition and ownership.

What I’m really describing, of course, is “Home”. Being raised a Navy kid, the idea of Home is something that has always eluded me. Interesting, isn’t it? That someone who has never truly experienced “Home” should make a living selling them. But that’s a story for another day…

And why is it that I have never truly invested where I am living with that interest and sense of belonging? Because I have to live here. I have to come home day after day after day to a place of sanctuary. If I invest TOO much emotional currency into it, and things don’t go the way I want them to, then I’ve lost my sanctuary. This is, after all, life in the city. And if we lose our sanctuary, we will not be able to continue to live here. At the end of the day, this is what forced us to leave our condo in East Ravenswood.

Perhaps it is about commitment - not wanting to make so much of a commitment to a locale that it holds me back. Holds me back from what?

I have a client that I sold a home to 4-5 years ago that jumped in with both feet right away. She knows all her neighbors, eats dinner with them on a regular basis, is involved in the local library, the parks, etc etc etc. I emailed her recently. I asked her if she had ever thought about running for public office. She has that investment, that commitment to her community.

Perhaps the reason owning a 2nd home is so important is that it provides that sense of belonging without requiring too much commitment. It’s like living together vs. getting married. We want to be in a relationship  - but getting married is just too scary. Crazy, huh?

“All Things With Exuberance!”
mary!