Realty World Northern California & Nevada

A BOOK REVIEW

A few weeks ago Dennis Stewart, Regional Director of Realty World Northern California, Inc., gave several staff members the recent book Chain of Blame which provides a compelling chronicle of our current mortgage mess. I was sent the following review and wanted to share it with you because the review is really well done.  

So, if you don’t have time to read the book, at least sink your teeth into this review by Jayne Elizabeth Zanglein.

(this is Part 1 of a three part series)

2008 was difficult for many of us in the real estate industry and while most remain cautiously optimistic and hopeful for 2009, some professionals are still very nervous, perhaps even paralyzed because they haven’t truly pondered or addressed where they’re at in this business.
 
Last year, I spoke to hundreds of brokers and agents and posed the same question to many of them. I asked, “Are you in or out of the real estate business?” Sadly, many of them were undecided. For any real estate professional who’s “on the fence,” it may very well be a burdensome place to be. Whatever your decision, the success of your future mandates that you must move forward, and that means you need to get off that fence right away! Decades of experience has taught us that uncertainty and indecision will almost guarantee the resolve of your business and the likely depletion of your assets.

So, let’s agree to affirm your decision once and for all this week… no more delays. Next week on Wednesday, I will discuss various action steps to going forward with whatever your decision is. Please return to see my next blog post titled “Now that you have decided …”

Scott Gill
Senior Vice President
Scott.Gill@rwnc.net

Click here to read Part 2: “Now that you have decided, let’s take the first step.”

There’s nothing worse than fear of the unknown, which is precisely the distraction of so many good real estate professionals today.

Many years ago during a changing economy, I found myself in a real estate market of 17% to 19%+ interest rates. This type of market was all new to me and I knew I would have a tremendous challenge ahead, struggling to earn a living and raise my young family of six at that time. Well, it didn’t take me very long to understand that change was among me. The “old” way of doing business wasn’t working, and a new path lay ahead of me. I took a proactive initiative and disciplined myself into learning new skills so that I could educate my prospective sellers and buyers who weren’t confident with the real estate industry because of negative information they were hearing through the media.  Yes, the media was negative then also!

My goals were clear. I had to set out and find my own direction before I could begin to give direction. I prepared action plans of what services and systems I could offer my clients. I had to dig in and truly understand the markets I serviced, assess each area of my expertise and on a daily basis because things changed that quickly, just as they do today. (Oh, if back then I had the privilege of the technology offered today). 

Once I achieved my goals, encouragement came in the form of people asking me questions, they wanted to be educated. That, by itself, was enlightening to me. Confident in my newfound skills, I felt it my professional responsibility to guide them and help them understand every aspect of the home buying or home selling process. And it took so much pressure off of me because there wasn’t a need to “sell” anymore. People didn’t need to be sold, simply informed. The fear of the unknown was gone, and the fun began.

From the beginning of my real estate career I had a long term commitment to this industry.
I hope you do as well.