As agents, building a database and adding value to our sphere has been drilled into us. We took that same mindset and strategy, and applied it to our peers and agent relationships. Just like we’re told to host events and send gifts to our top clients, we do the same for the agent community.  We can attribute getting into this business and succeeding in it to the different agents and entrepreneurs who advised us. Now we get to give back to the same community and show people that there are many different ways to succeed in this business.  We also have to attribute our real estate bus ..read more

Human beings are an aspiration and progress-based species, and money is the currency of this game. We’re always going to chase growth and success, and that comes with a lot of social debt and expectations, but if we’re not careful, that will get us in big trouble. We might find ourselves making decisions based on what impresses others, not what makes our lives better, and that’s the wrong way to go about things.  Many people would rather buy an entry level BMW, for the bragging rights, not the driving experience. The better decision is to aim for the high-end Toyota - it’s not too expens ..read more

When you look at high performers, it’s hard to tell exactly what they do differently, but what’s clear is that their results aren’t the same as ours. Many people try to mimic them on the surface - eat what they eat, read the books they read, go where they go, but it doesn’t work.  You know what you’re supposed to do, you’ve got the tactics, the information and you spend thousands on coaching and masterminds, but you’re still not doing it. What holds us back, and how can we adapt the mindset of high performers to get what we want?  What separates us from the high performers aren’t b ..read more

The NAR buyer’s agent litigation has been a huge topic and concern for agents across the country for months. Now that the lawsuit has been settled, there’s a lot of panic, knee-jerk reactions, assumptions and worries about what it means.  Are we in trouble? Should we be worried about our future? No.  It’s just too soon to make a final conclusion on the matter. Everyone’s thinking that this is bad news, but it’s just too early to believe that. Nothing is final, and there are definitely more questions than answers at the moment.  What isn’t a question is what we have to do (and ..read more

In today’s market, most of us are coming up against the same problem - belligerent sellers who think their home is worth more than everyone’s saying it is. Under normal circumstances, that means no deal, but there’s strategy for these kinds of leads, creative finance.  Creative finance is an incredibly simple strategy that many in real estate treat as illegal or wrong. The truth is, the people who do creative finance, make the water muddy so you think it’s deep, it’s actually something a lot of us can easily do.  We have thousands of creative finance deals sitting in our database ..read more

In a good market, the gap between great agents and average agents is virtually non-existent - it’s anyone’s game. When the market turns, the gap between the good and the great becomes so wide, it’s the difference between earning money and leaving the business entirely. Doubling your business in a down market is possible, but it’s not by chance.  You and your team have to be so different that sellers believe you’re the only way they can get top dollar for their home.  That comes down to marketing - the best marketers won’t just outlast the market, they’ll win outright. The market as ..read more

Adults don’t need to be instructed, they simply need to be reminded.   Pain will always be the leader in the lessons of our lives. If you chase the pain, you learn the lessons quicker. Chase the pain of growth, the pain of the next level. The things you have avoided will always show up on your doorstep like a bill collector.  The better you get in your life, the better your business gets. How can an organization provide everything people need to succeed and they still fail? One person can take a strategy 100 miles and another can take the same strategy and only push it for 2 f ..read more

In our industry, owning a brokerage has always been seen as the pinnacle of success. But for many owners who love what real estate offers but not running a brokerage, it’s a necessary evil.  Owning a brokerage is a doorway to many great things, but what happens when that starts to hinder your excellence in the areas you really care about? That’s where Keith Riddle found himself. After becoming an indie brokerage owner, almost by accident, he realized he didn’t have to control everything to be successful.  It’s like a saw mill. Back in the day, saw mill owners put all their focus on ..read more

Making a change, whether it’s to a belief system, a business model or brokerage is something many people won’t do, even if it would benefit them. Only people who think critically and aren’t caught up in ego are willing to shift how they see things when presented with new information.  Being willing to change our beliefs publicly means people reminding us of what we believed or said before, or even being labeled as a flip flop. There’s a huge difference between an emotionally intelligent person and someone who changes with the wind. In real estate, too many people hold onto a belief or bu ..read more

Profit - it’s the whole entire point that we run businesses. For such a critical, and even fundamental topic, agents will talk about everything else but whether or not they are making a profit, and there’s a reason.  Staying on top of your numbers requires a scary level of maturity. Whatever financial decision we make has an impact on the bottom line, and that level of responsibility is so uncomfortable, we’d rather avoid it altogether. It’s the equivalent of stepping on the scale and knowing we have to make lifestyle changes to take care of our health.  If we ran a publicly traded ..read more