Work Hard in The Summer, Brag in The Winter

Work Hard in The Summer, Brag in The Winter

A  real estate, licensed in 2012, walked outside his office on a warm sunny San Diego morning and proclaimed, "It's a sunny day, I did that!"          

“No…no you did not. You just showed up.”, as Coach Bill Hart would say.          "The sun was there already, you can't take credit for it."

"Sold in 1 hour, with 20 offers; I'm the best Agent!" 

The sunny day was provided to you by some other force of nature, which we can't take credit for (and many of us were here long before this sunny day, when there was no sunshine; there was rain, snow, draught, fog and chilling cold. Just like that agent has not much to do with the market the last 9 years, but benefits from it - to an extent.

See, while it's never been easier to make money in real estate since the Great Recession of 2007 ended, it's also never been harder to develop ALL the skills you need to be a career agent. It's never been harder, because it's been a seller's market and there it hasn't been a down market in the last 9 years here in San Diego, CA. Now, don't get me wrong, what we do isn't easy even in the best of times, but the market has been improving fairly consistently for 9 years which creates a false sense of skills.

It's easy to think you're a great fisherman when the lake is stocked and they're jumping in the boat. But, it's not until you're on the open ocean in the middle of rough seas that you find out who you are and what set of skills you really have. Now, I'm not praying for a storm, I like calm waters, but when they bring out the amateur "boys of summer"...well.

Many of us have been REALTORS* through decades of different markets and interest rates, and we've learned to earn through "winter markets" and "summer markets" alike; we were tested.  But, there's a whole new generation of agents, licensed in 2012+ and most if not all have never known a market in the valley of a winter in our San Diego Market, because we've been in abundance mode (except for inventory)  since the 2007 Crash, with very few and very short blips of challenge. And I see them advertising how great they are, how they can "sell your home in 29 days or less or it's FREE". (Well, duh, 89% of San Diego homes sell in 7 days or less the last 3-5 years...of course you can make that claim now. But, could you do it in 2009?

I bring this up because never in my career have I dealt with more    temper tantrums and lack of emotional intelligence from other agents than in the last 3 years. The common thread being these agents all have less than 9 years experience in the market.

They have mid-escrow melt downs over "splinters in their finger tips" issues, because they've never had a "broken bone" issues to resolve. Experience offers a 10,000 foot view of their ground level issue.

And so, it feels like lately I babysit other agents more than ever - and I only do so to get the deal closed. (Then, they go on my Blacklist). 😉

The summer soldiers risk deluding themselves about their battlefield skills, they only knows doing battle in good weather, with abundant supplies and ammunition.

The Winter Patriot knows the cold, the hunger, the sickness, and the pain of and loss and injury. The Winter Soldier in our industry is the seasoned professional, with his/her battle bruises, scars and honed work ethic, has built an amazing business. The Winter Patriot has known the spoils of war on the top of the mountain, the reckoning down in the valleys and the uncertainty found on the plateaus.

I respect any agent in business today, that was in business and stayed in business through The Dot Bomb of 2000, 9/11/2001, The Great recession (The Crash of 2007-2011) and countless other peaks & valleys in their career. They are the ones better equipped to prospect when consumers retreat, list houses & sell them when it takes 6 months to close escrow and represent buyers when rates increase or inventory drops.

When the market shifts and it always does; skills learned at hundreds of kitchen tables over years and a variety of challenging markets are what pull you through and shed perspective on what real problems are vs. minor inconveniences. We've basically had one long upswing the last 9 years here in San Diego, CA. Even the pandemic only shut us down for about 5-6 weeks, then we went right back to an abundance of work. 

The fiery furnace of adversity is where I honed my craft: my negotiating, problem solving, communication and creative solutions all were born at several hundred kitchen tables, conference rooms, hotel lobbies and living rooms with prospects and clients, through a deluge of markets.

I don't wish for harder markets or challenging economies; I do hope for our industry to raise the bar on our basic business practices and communication skills and for REALTORS* to take pride in what they do and respect each other while doing it. We don't have to like each other, but we can show professional respect while serving our clients. I suppose I'm sounding like the old guy on his porch yelling at the kids to "get off my lawn" LOL. But I love being a business owner in real estate, for me this not a trendy fast buck job, it's a career choice that many of us make and honor with mastery of skills and high standards - for ourselves, our clients and other REALTORS*.

1. Photo by SivaSankara Reddy Bommireddy on Unsplash

2. Photo by stephen momot on Unsplash

3. Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay 

4. Photo by Oliver Sjöström on Unsplash beach

5. Photo by Simon Infanger on Unsplash winter soldier

6. Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash hands