The Value of This Kind of Education - PRICELESS!

I have to say that in all the years I have been in the real estate business I have marveled at the people I have met and continue to meet and what I learn from them.

I was not blessed to have a college education so I have looked at meeting and learning from clients as my post high school education.  The nice thing about this is that I never stop being educated and it is awesome.

I received yet another great opportunity to be educated and meet an awesome client last Friday and he has touched my soul in a way that is hard to describe.

I sell a lot of land which is mostly farm and development land.  This man calls me last Thursday and asks me about a farm I have listed. I give him the price, we chat, and he decides to come into my office the following day to write an offer.

The moment he walked into my office and sat down I felt a connection as good as any other I have ever had with a client.  Having been raised on a farm we talked about crops, crop prices and much more.  I asked him about his family, occupation, recreation and dreams also known as F.O.R.D.   This really opened him up to me and it was one of the best meetings I have ever had.

This buyer wrote a cash offer on the farm that morning and it was accepted within hours by my seller (I was a limited dual agent).  Before my buyer left my office he asked if I had any other land for sale and I said I had one I was working on and would call him later.   I phoned him later in the day about the 2^nd farm and he agreed to meet me the following day to write an offer on the 2^nd farm which has also been accepted.

I visited this mans Dairy the following day and I felt I was looking at the most amazing farm operation I have ever seen, and I have seen some amazing farm operations in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and California.  This operation was hands down the most sophisticated and well run operations I have ever seen.  Everything was computerized and so well organized.

I again asked him about his family and this time he told me that he had two boys that wanted to work at his dairy but that they would have to work for another Dairy for 2 years before they could work for him.  This intrigued me and I asked him why he did this. 

I could tell it fascinated him that I asked that question. He leaned forward in his chair and told me this story:

I said he went to a seminar years ago where the instructor told the class that if your children are going to work with you on your dairy, farm, or any business they must first work for someone else for 2 years.

1. He said the 1^st benefit is that they learn what it is truly like to be an employee knowing that you could be fired at any time.  They also need to learn what it is like to respect another's equipment and operation.  They could easily neglect these lessons in life if they worked for you right out of school and never knew what it was like to be an employee.

2. The second benefit is that your children will have a whole new respect for employees that they would never have if they had not worked for someone else as one.  The instructor emphasized they would treat employees with a much better attitude and respect.  He said his goal was to help his sons become first and foremost good human beings and secondly, good businessmen.

I could have listened to this man for hours!  So you see, my success cannot be measured simply by the number of closed transactions and the size of my bank account.   The education and wisdom I have received from these kind of clients cannot be measured in dollars and cents.  It is simply PRICELESS!