What is the real value??

Gwen and I are a very good team of Realtors.  We are reliable, prompt, honest and all the other stuff one would expect from a really good Realtor.  This weekend gave me pause to consider what is the real value of my profession and my life.  For the second time in a month we attended a memorial service for a friend who was taken too early by cancer.

At the services for both of these truly gentle men, who also personified the word "gentleman", time after time friends and family members stood up to offer a few words.  And time after time they talked about how much they loved their wives and their families, people told funny stories of how both men interacted with friends, and how at the end both men, knowing the end was very near, talked about how much they would miss their wives and their children.

Not once did anyone talk about how these truly wonderful, and successful men, wished they had spent more time away from their family working at their jobs.

The stories of devotion to family and sharing their time with the communities they lived in made me wonder how important is it not to be at a child's birthday party because someone really needs to see a house they truly won't buy on Saturday afternoon.  Should a really successful Realtor invest a full day driving people around to look at as "many houses as I can see today" so they will know what is available.  We don't often do this, since we usually can give our customers more than enough information to make informed decisions before even getting in the car.  Do you do it?

How many agents give up their family time, especially on a weekend, in the hopes of getting a commission?  We have set boundaries for our customers, and are thinking about re-setting them.  Even a Realtor has the right to quality of life.  The market isn't as bad as the media makes it out to be, people are still buying houses.  Set the expectations of your customers up front and it is amazing how almost all of your customers will accept them.  If someone wants you available 24/7, just maybe you don't need that particular commission check.  Think about what is the real value of your profession, and your life. 

I always plug in a hotlink to my website to promote a listing.  For this particular message, I am simply asking you to visit our website, www.SunBayAssociates.com.

Are you living to work, or are you working to live?  Have a great week.