Taking the little deals...do you take it as an insult or a compliment?

And I have to hijack your post Neil- LOL! Because one of my favorite and very successful clients just chimed in- Corinne Guest! I can attest that she is closing the big deals:) Corinne Rocks! 

Neil- I am NOT a SNOB, LOL!!!!!! It works for you- more power to you- I always know I have a biker friend in you:) 

Great Post! A lot of my business comes from personal referrals so I do whatever comes my way to take care of clients and referrals. So far this year my transactions range from  $118K to $1.2M and I am happy to take care of everyone because they are all important to my clients!

Amen to the small deals.. I have 5 deals working right now  4 of them are under $70000. One is a foreclosure condo for 56K it has worked me to death.. The buyers are always apologizing and I smile and tell them its my pleasure, and it is. They will send me ore people then the guy that bought that 400K home from me. I would say 25% of my income is from those little deals.. pays for my kids college :)

Neal. All my deals are small. It's just the way my market is. But I love where I live and I love what I do. So it's really all relative. TLW and I live a simple life. If we sale 4-5 houses a month we are good to go. Last month we closed on 10. I'd much rather be relaxing out by the pool anyway. Work is over rated and this year I'll be working on how to get out of it :)

Everyone just needs to work what they are comfortable with.

Money is money and deals usually lead to other deals. So large or small it can never be a bad deal. In this business the number and quality of people you know is life or death.

I closed a $1.2 million deal and a $93,000 deal in the same day (last month) and was thrilled with both closings.

Chiming in again.. My point is that working with people looking to rent at the low end generally doesn't even cover my costs.  It also can be an enormous time drain that could have been spent cultivating buyers and sellers.  On an average rental of this nature I NET about $350.00.  It can take two days of showings to get to an offer.  Since Craigslist and large complexes have the bigger part of the market.  So I actually get to that $350 once every 5 buyers.  That's 10 days of showings for $350.00...I'm sorry, this just doesn't compute.  I can't work for free.

I do them all and treat my clients the same no matter the dollar volume. Small but consistent deals keep the lights on as any business needs consistency.

Tommy Hopkins would have a heart attack hearing us call a "transaction" a deal.

I've done tons of rentals.  Many people in the office scoffed at them because of the low pay but it got me some money when I was new and those rentals have turned into a few buyer clients.

No such thing as a "little deal".  Chances are, some other agent might have turned them down but you didn't. Someday soon, you may find that one person could refer you more people than you can handle.  My first little one was only a 1 bedroom house for $39,000.  That one client has since sent me more than 10 big deals, about 2 per year for the last 5 years. Word of mouth advertising is great when you put your soul into all of the deals, big or small!  Congratulations on taking the opportunities!

Keep Smiling!

Karen

Everyone deserves the best we can offer, no matter the size of the deal. 

Big or small shouldn't affect your performance.  In the code of ethics they don't have a sliding scale of how ethical we should be according to price.

Working the So.Cal. area, many years back I listed and sold a two-unit in Watts ($108K), yes that famous Watts (twenty miles from my base) as a courtesy for a neighbor. A few months after closing his brother listed with me his eleven unit ($960K) & fourteen unit ($1.3M) in Huntington Beach, CA.

Never turn down business. 

I also do a lot of smaller deals.  I have some very grateful clients when we are done. I am always amazed when they thank me for still working with them once I found out they can't qualify for a larger purchase, because several other agents have already done so. 

Neal - the size of the deal is unimportant, it is the people involved in the deal that are important ..... they will remember you when the time comes for a bigger deal.

Thanks for taking the "little deals." Sometimes, as an investor, a house is so bad, that I can't get a loan for it. I end up paying cash, which means I can't put in the amenities that I want to (I don't have the money) so have to sell at a discounted price. Agents usually HATE these and won't take them. Thanks again!

What's going on with your blog? It keeps shifting over to my search engine!