The end of that title is ...helping others. Heck, even the title of my blogs has "Helping" in the title, but little did I know that helping others and posting it to for the public to see would have done so much for my business.

It was Tuesday morning approximately 7:30 local time and I had written a post over the weekend and I decided to post it. But as usual I struggled with the decision if I should make this post public. There were many reasons I struggled with this post and why maybe I should keep it a members' only post. But, the biggest reason was because of the public perception of the title of my post, "I won't lie to you, I've never done a short sale before".

The reason I didn't want to make this a public post was because it was about an interaction between me and another agent and sometimes the public doesn't need to know the inner workings of our business. But the other reason was the title, was it going to backfire on me when it came to Google?

I didn't want to see my business suffer because I have a post title that has to do with another agent and not myself. When people search Google for short sales, my fear was that families in a short sale situation would read the title and never actually click on the post and realize that I was actually someone who did short sales and I was not only helping buyers and sellers, but my fellow realtor who had never done a short sale.

I believe in giving back to the community, to my business, and just man in general, especially when they are reaching out. This agent clearly was leaving herself venerable by telling me this, but I wasn't going to be the agent that was going to make her feel bad about never having done a short sale. Many have heard the nightmares about them and have made the decision to never do them, while others have attempted one and choose not to do them any more. How could you blame someone after hearing the stories, being worried about exposing themselves to someone in this business, that seems at times, to be more like a tiger eating their cub than a business where we put others under our wings like a mother bird and help each other?

Well, I certainly didn't expect what has happened the last two days and I really do need to thank Activerain for the Google juice, but this story is not only about this wonderful Activerain success story. This story is about maybe we should make more of what we consider members only to seen by the public.

This one post may have changed my opinion on public versus members only posts, because on Tuesday afternoon I had another agent in the Portland area who was searching about short sales. They found my post and contacted me and decided to, instead of taking the listing, to give me the listing and just take a 20% referral. This wasn't any late stage short sale either. The fact is they aren't going to be late until March as they are being laid off from work in late February.

WOW, talk about an opportunity that would have been missed had I not put this as a public post. But, you know what the best part about this is? This isn't where the story ends!

Earlier today I got another call from a landlord that was about to go in to default on both their primary residence in another state and their rental property here in Oregon and after reading my post knew I was the agent for them. So, because I reached out, as I try to do to everyone, and because I posted it to the public instead of hiding behind the veil of Activerain and the members only post, I got two listings in three days.

So, here are your two lessons for today. The first is never, ever not help your fellow man for any reason and the second is maybe, just maybe, we should lift the veil and let the public see what we are really all about.

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Todd Clark and the Friendly Home Team
Knipe Realty
Todd@IFoundYourNewHome.com
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

 

 

 I am a licensed Realtor who specializes in Washington County, Oregon and also work in both Clackamas and Multnomah Counties including the cities of Aloha, Beaverton, Canby, Clackamas, Gladstone, Gresham, Happy Valley, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Sherwood and Tigard.
All information contained in these posts are copyrighted and cannot be used without prior written approval authorization from the author me Todd Clark. If you are looking for an outstanding agent please give me a call I would love to help you with all your real estate needs.

 

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