The REAL Reasons that You and I are in Real Estate

Sure – You all will tout “I *heart* my customers and clients” or “I *heart* negotiating” as reasons to be in real estate, or a more viable answer of “I need to make a living and this career works for me” (the whole “I love looking at houses so I got my license to do it professionally” bit dies after the first 75-home-no-contract-client…)

And there are some of you who just wanted to be in a profession that allowed you to legitimately carry around business cards with your photo on it. (Oh, that is a whole different story…)

But I need to stand up and call BS on all of those reasons to be in real estate.

You and I both know the REAL reasons that we have chosen this field.

Free Stuff.

I mean, yes, the free lunches from other brokers, builders and lenders courting you for your business are a plus. Especially when they keep taking you out after years and years of rejection on your end…

I am talking about the REAL treasures of real estate. The REAL reasons that you and I have chosen to GET and KEEP our licenses.

I am talking about the branded foam houses, the engraved plastic letter openers, the teddy bears with logo-tummies, the off-sized desktop cell phone holders, the countless mouse pads and sticky dashboard mats, the golf balls and blow up beach balls, the hand-shaped massage toys, the Velcro-back branded baseball caps, the ultra-wide-extra-short tee shirts, the wax-flavored chapstick, the tiny tins of mints, the cupboard full of various coffee mugs from every non-coffee-company you could imagine and all the pens you could ever wish for (in addition to the ones you steal from your title company).

And let’s not forget the free cookies and sodas at closing and the random gift baskets full of chocolate and biscotti brought into your office by an insurance or inspection company.

What would our business be without all this free stuff?