There are several blogs on the matter of whether rentals are better than sales, whether a sleuth of smaller commissions are better than one good commission every few months. Just last night I was discussing the matter with a top producer from our office and what it came down to, for me atleast, was... People.
Now, a quick back story: when the economic crisis hit, the Entertainment field went dry and I jumped into Real Estate. But the truth is that I was actually pushed little by little, over a series of months, by a friend of the family who kept saying "Gloria, you should go into Real Estate because I have a feeling that you're going to help us find our house." They'd been looking for months to no avail and though I was a complete novice when I finally got my license in September of 09, her predictions came true.
After that, friend after friend, referral after referral, I kept "helping" people. My sister-in-law just closed on her first home with $75,000 of County money to boot, and like her, several of my clients are already approved for City funds.
I enjoy helping people, I truly do, my mother even went so far as to suggest that it was the reason God wanted me to go into Real Estate: to help others.
But the problem lies in that usually, the people that need the most help or can benefit the most from those first-time-homebuyer funds, are buying properties in the low 100's to low $200,000 range.
Now, I've got a mortgage, and two kids, and a car payment, and an insurance payment, blah, blah, blah, you know where I'm going. All these little commissions are paying the bills, barely - no one's getting rich on county-approved housing.
By 2010, however, I had a new vision of where I wanted to take my business. I wanted to joing my two passions, Entertainment and Real Estate, and take advantage of all the contacts I'd harnassed through 15 years as a journalist, writer and producer. After months of preparation, we're just a few weeks away from the oficial launch of EntertainingRealEstate.com and already, there seem to be a few million-dollar listings in my immediate future. Awesome!
But, wait a minute... I thought I got into the biz to help people, right? Multi-million dollar home owners aren't, necessarily, in need. So... what do I do? How can I stay true to my desire to help, and at the same time, plow the fields of the many years I've already sowed in my Entertainment roots?
The answer came to me after reading a great book called The One Minute Millionaire, written by the creators of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. In it they promote the idea of tithing, of using your blessings to help others, but they have one simple warning: you can't help others if you, yourself are in need.
Timothy Ferris in his mega best-seller The 4-hour Workweek repeats a similar idea: you need to set up automatic cash flows that will allow you to free up some time in order to follow your passions. For him it was traveling the world and learning something new every year.
For me, maybe it's more quality time with my family, some time-off to finally finish that novel... or simply, a way to help more people.
I think the Bible puts it best: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." What's implied here, of course, is that you first loved yourself before you learned how to love "thy neighbor".
Here's to hoping that greed doesn't cloud my perspective...
G.
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