I like to watch the Desert Car Kings show on the Discovery network. They take an old junk car and turn it into a classic in a matter of weeks. What can we do to create something beautiful out of something that may have been discarded as nothing more that a pile of trash?
I realize that there is some advantage to owning your own automobile junk yard so that you have a huge supply of parts to help make this transformation complete. I do believe that in Real Estate this is possible as well. It doesn't matter what it is that you're trying to take from the trash heap and breathe a bright new future into, it could be your career, a really bad listing that just won't sell or whatever.
I came up with 6 things from watching the 3 episodes that I have watched of Desert Car Kings that I believe are applicable in our industry.
1. It must be in good enough shape to reclaim. Something that is completely broken down and rusted through, using the car analogy, can be beyond repair. A Real Estate deal where the buyer and seller will not budge from their demands, which are still very far apart may be beyond reclaiming. There is always the strategy of stepping back and starting over!
2. You have to want to restore it! That may mean doing many things that you don't like to do! It may mean calling that mean buyer or seller and trying to get them to reconsider their position. It may mean getting back to the basics and prospecting like you have never done before. It may mean long hours working. If any of these are factors to building up or restoring what you wish to build up or restore, you have to REALLY want to do it. If you don't, it isn't going to happen, no matter how much you wish that it would happen.
3. It is going to take hard work. I mentioned you many have to do things that you don't want to do in number 2. What I am saying here is that you are going to have to work hard doing the things that you do like to do as well. If you're really good at negotiating and love doing it, you may have to work overtime to bring together two parties that appear to be miles apart on the deal. If you like prospecting, you may have to find new and creative ways to do it. Regardless of what it is, it is going to take effort. It is also going to take a commitment to continue to learn and grow as a professional and individual. Build up your skill set! Become the best!
4. You have to have the right people working with you! No one is an expert in all things! You have to have skilled people working with you that are as vested as you are in the outcome. More than that, You HAVE to trust them to do their job and get out of the way so that they can to that job!
5. You will most likely have to get creative. The things that you may need to do may not be the standard things that you have always done. You may have to "think outside of the box" in order to come up with the right solution for everyone involved. You may have to learn new skills that used to be unrelated to Real Estate, but now are becoming Main Stream.
6. You have to enjoy what you're doing. Like number 2 said, you may have to do things that you don't like to do, so you really have to enjoy the big picture of what it is that you're doing. For example, most professional athletes will tell you that they dislike practicing, but they love the sport that they practice. Practice, to them is just one of the necessary evils that they must do to continue playing the game that they love. In our industry, even if you don't like prospecting, but you love working in Real Estate, you must understand that prospecting is just one of the things that we have to do to continue in the game of Real Estate. You must also be commited to learning new technologies, even if they don't seem important. Twenty years ago, a lot of Realtors thought that the computer was a nice toy, not something that would become a need instead of a want in the industry.
A car showing with a photo in the window showing what it started out as
What it became!
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