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Don’t beat yourself up

Take the gloves off

Take the gloves off


Business is hard

For most of us the real estate business isn’t easy these days.  We find the clients or they find us but not all of out listings will sell and not every buyer will result in a closed sale.  I don’t have a problem admitting that my numbers are down.  I know I am a good agent and I know why my numbers are down.

I know too many good agents who are beating themselves up when the economy is beating us up.  Agents are dropping out becasue they can’t pay their bills.  Only the strong will survive.

Adjust

Feeling like a failure isn’t going to help. Beating yourself up because the bank rejected your third offer on a foreclosure is counter productive.  Pretending that life is business as usual isn’t a sound plan either.  We all need to adapt.  In my case I have had to cut some business and household expenses because my income went down.

Listen

Last year I did beat myself up.  I blamed myself for everything that went wrong. If every deal I started last year had closed I would have had the best year ever. It didn’t work out that way. This year I have been listening to other agents from my own market and around the country and I have been talking too.

It has changed my perspective and I don’t feel like beating myself up any more. For me the talking about my own experiences has been harder than the listening part.  As a sales person I have been taught to say that yes business is tough but I am doing just fine.

Talk

Don’t isolate yourself.  Reach out to others in the industry.  Listen to them and tell them not to beat themselves up.  Put the gloves in the closet.

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Written By

Full time REALTOR and licensed broker with Saint Paul Home Realty Realty in St. Paul, Minnesota. Author of StPaulRealEstateBlog.com, Columnist for Inman News and an avid photographer.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. CJ

    April 10, 2009 at 8:53 am

    Teresa, great thoughts around not just survival but success in this challenging market. I think we can sometimes withdraw from our agent community because we fear negativity and/or a comparison to someone else. However, very few are not having their own set of challenges and supporting through ideas, stories, our own “what works” can be very empowering. Thanks for the reminder.

  2. Mark Eibner

    April 10, 2009 at 11:16 am

    we’re at it again Don’t beat yourself up: Get out of your feed reader and comment on this.. https://tinyurl.com/comk65

  3. sheilabragg

    April 10, 2009 at 11:23 am

    Don’t beat yourself up: Get out of your feed reader and comment on this post- we PROMISE that the ShamWow .. https://tinyurl.com/comk65

  4. Real Estate Feeds

    April 10, 2009 at 11:40 am

    Don’t beat yourself up: Get out of your feed reader and comment on this post- we PROMISE that the ShamWow .. https://tinyurl.com/comk65

  5. CJ Brasiel

    April 10, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Don’t beat yourself up https://ow.ly/2x7I (Great reminder for #realestate agents to manage their attitude and seek support. Thanks Teresa.)

  6. Missy Caulk

    April 10, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    I tell my team this EVERYDAY.

    It is hard, you write 5 offers for 5 different buyers and HOPE one will get to closings.

    I had 5 fall apart in February. That was hard so I get it.

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