Yee Haw!

In an effort to spark things up a little in the dead of winter, our broker Kim organized a couple of first quarter sales contests. The first was a Listings Contest and the second was an overall Activity Contest (buyer contracts, listings, continuing ed, open houses, closings, etc.). When she first announced them I was the first to balk. To even qualify for the listings contest you had to get at least 5 listings. No way! And for the activity contest, the big points were in closings and new listing and buyer contracts. I had no really good prospects and was feeling a little discouraged. But Kim had faith in us all, so I just got busy.
WELL...to my own great surprise and delight, not only did I qualify for the contests, I WON both of them! In 3 months I signed up 8 new listings, 3 new buyers and even closed one of the new listings (another one is currently under agreement). What's really cool is EVERYONE in the office jacked up their production during this time. The energy here is electric. If we were able to create something so amazing out of what at the time appeared to be nothing...I can't WAIT to see what we do next!

The Secret of Success

I've started 2010 with a bang; business is better than ever before, and I'm ecstatic. The crazy thing now is people are asking me what the secret is. It wasn't that long ago when I was tracking down top producers, clamoring for the same answers.
I remember calling Sandy Magner up out of the blue. She didn't know me from Adam, but I knew she was one of the most successful agents in the area. Sandy is a great conversationalist. She can sit down for hours in a row and make dozens of cold calls. She also holds open houses like they're going out of style.
Next I asked Donna Gemborys, the queen of Eastham real estate. She sends out thousands of pieces of direct mail annually and has a paid assistant who manages the tedious aspects of the job.
Did they reveal the 'secret' to me? Well, I'm not sure. I'll call up the occasional homeowner if I know I can sell their house, and I do my open houses, but honestly I often sub them out to other agents in my office. And I send out postcards with every new listing and closing, and I'm even starting to 'farm' a couple of neighborhoods. If you were to ask me what I do that brings me the most business I would probably talk about my online presence and my person-to-person connections. But would that be my advice to you?
It's true; if you are phone prospecting for an hour a day, doing 2 open houses every weekend, cranking out a monthly mailing, hiring an assistant, hob-nobbing and blogging your brains out, it will be hard to fail. But I don't know anyone who does all that all the time. Not Sandy, not Donna, and certainly not me.
So then what's the damn secret??
It's actually not that mysterious. It's a lot less sexy than you might hope.
The 'secret' to success as I see it is: find the things that you are good at, that you like to do. And then do them--really DO them, with passion, persistence and vision. When something works, do it even harder. And for pete's sake, when something stops working, STOP DOING IT. Don't judge yourself by someone else's yardstick; chances are you're better than them anyway. Keep raising your own bar.
And blog. Definitely blog.

Spring is Sprung

Last week I saw my first crocuses of Spring 2010-- a big swath of them on 6A in Brewster. A few days later I read in the paper that the right whales are back in Cape Cod. Then last night--my favorite spring sign of all--I heard the peepers in the pond across the street! Woo hoo! I've got forsythia branches forcing in the dining room. Next up: start watching for seagulls over the herring run.

Realtor Gone for the Weekend

Writing from an Amtrak car this morning on my way to NYC for my daughter's gymnastics meet. Funny, the last time I rode a long-distance train I was with the same daughter, except we were in China and had only known each other for a few days.
In this job of real estate, I'm often on the clock when my clients and most normal people are off. This means my job often happens on weekends, holidays and evenings. One of the hardest parts of my job is drawing boundaries. No biz calls after 6, delegate some percent of open houses, etc. But even if clients aren't calling, there's work to be done 24/7 and it's hard sometimes to stop and just be something other than a realtor.
Like, say, a mother.
Yeah, I gotta go now, we're almost at Penn Station. Have a great weekend--see you on Monday!


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First Quarter Bodes Well for 2010

Whenever I introduce myself as a Realtor, one of the first questions I get is, "How's business?" For a while now, that question has been puncutated with a little wince (from both of us!). No doubt, it's been a challenging 18 months or so.
However, from the word go in 2010, my response to that question has changed to, "Fabulous!" Here at 12 Bridge Street the recovery of the housing market is in full swing. Here are some of my stats in this first quarter so far:

• Buyers whom I haven't heard from in 2 years are contacting me and getting back into the market.
• Six new listings with 3 more in the works
• One of those listings already SOLD (closed yesterday) from an offer that came in 6 days after it was listed
• One more listing under agreement, from an offer that came in 2 days after it was listed

A lot of this activity is driven by the Federal Homebuyer Tax Credits. Existing homeowners stand to gain $6,500 at the closing table for buying a new primary residence. First time homebuyers can expect up to $8,000. This is not chump change!

 

May and June will be busy with closings, then we go into July, the busiest shopping month for Cape Cod real estate. Here's hoping that the activity we're seeing in the first part of the year will create enough momentum to get us back up to cruising altitude by the summer!

Complacency Kills

Holding a commission-based position in an industry whose failure charcterized the worst recession in decades was (what gratitude I feel using the past tense) painful and demoralizing. It darn near did me in. But never once did I stop working my tail off, learning, keeping my chin up. Isn't that what they tell you to do? 'When the going gets tough the tough get going.' 'Invest in your future.' 'You will reap what you sow.'
Well I'm here to tell you the same thing. I lived through one year with zero closings. Then just last year I had two small ones in January, one in June and NOTHING til middle of December. Never mind my two front teeth--all I wanted for Christmas was to keep my house!
But now...holy cow. The first two properties I listed this year each sold in 6 days or faster. In the past 3 weeks I've had 8 listing appointments. At press time I've put 2 of those live, and it appears that 5 others will follow suit. The last one, partly on my advice, has elected to hold off until next year.
The abundance is humbling and electrifying. But more importantly I realize that this is not a time to rest. How easy it would be to kick back and soak it all up. But I have to remember that tomorrow's success is the dividend of today's investment. Success is unsentimental. It doesn't care who you used to be. I used to run a sub-25 minute 5K. I don't expect the field to slow down so I can place like I did in the past. If I want to keep winning, I have to keep running fast.

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Sales 3.0

Sales 3.0