Post-Retirement Hobby: “Grandchildren” “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” –General Douglas MacArthur As far as I can tell, there are two reasons Realtors don’t seem to have retirement parties: One. They never retire. At least for some agents past a certain point, it’s a lifestyle as much as a livelihood. If you don’t...Read More
Jury of One’s Peers, or, “It Takes One to Know One” Want to know who the top local Realtors are for any given area? Not just sales volume, but actually talented, professional, effective, etc.? Ask their peers. Specifically, ask the agents who’ve done deals with them — and have witnessed, first-hand, how well they market,...Read More
Scrambling to Get Ready for a Sunday Open House If you’re a Realtor who doesn’t need something printed, last-minute, for your Sunday open house, noon is a terrible time to try to get something done at the typical residential real estate office. Why’s that? Because all the harried Realtors who do (need last-minute marketing materials) are monopolizing...Read More
“Choose Wisely!” I’m not about to change my last name. But . . . for some just-starting-out Realtor who’s not similarly attached, here’s what I’d pick: “Wisely.” Because then the headline on all my marketing would be, “Choose . . . Wisely!!” Sorry. P.S.: What’d you expect from someone who’s license place is “MY RLTR” —...Read More
“The Only Color That Matters in Real Estate is Green” “Steer-ing”: the discriminatory practice by a real estate agent of maneuvering a client from a minority group away from considering a home in a white neighborhood. —Dictionary.com Realtors quickly learn that there are taboo words in real estate. Like, anything relating to creed or color; socioeconomic status; or even directive behavior such as “steering.” Nouns vs. Verbs Which, of course, is all as it should be. But,...Read More
Question #2: How Many Months Between October and March?* The answer to “how long should the listing be?” is easy: long enough to sell the house (duh!). But that just begs the underlying question: how long will that take? Practically, the listing contract needs to be long enough to properly prep the home for market...Read More
