About a decade ago, I made a commitment on January 1st to read one 
book every week on investing and finance. I actually read more than 52, but who's counting. It turned out to be my most prosperous year ever. Go figure. One of the books I read was a little book called, "The Instant Millionaire," by Mark Fisher.
In this fun little book, the main character is desperate for money. He learns of a millionaire who will teach him all the ways of becoming rich and financially independent. So, he goes to see him. When he arrives, the butler ushers him to the garden where a man, in gardening clothes, is working with the roses.
During a brief conversation, the man asks the young man if he has $10 he can have. The young man is really short on money, but he finally gives the old gardener the money. Shortly after, the butler arrives in the garden and informs the gardener that one of the staff is leaving the employment of the instant millionaire and he needs an additional $10 to pay him his final pay. The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of money as big as an apple. On the outside, is a $10 bill.
He peels that it off and gives it to the butler, and immediately the young man realizes that the gardener is in fact the millionaire. When pressed as to why he took the man's last $10 bill, the millionaire responds to him because he asked, and he gave it.
The moral of the story is, you will receive more business if you're willing to ask for it. How does that relate to real estate? We have dozens of avenues to ask for things.
- We should be asking people we're familiar with if we can be of service to them and/or their family.
- We should be sending information to new companies who are coming to town. They have relocation clients for us.
- We should be asking friends at the PTA, the soccer leagues, little baseball, etc., if they are in need of a real estate professional or if they know others who are.
- We should be asking local attorneys if they could use our services with their divorce, bankruptcy or estate clients.
- We should be asking the post man if anyone is moving out of the neighborhood. You'd be surprised to learn what the mailman knows.
- We should be asking our banker if there is any room for us with their REO sales. I spoke with my banker today, and I walked out with the business card of their REO department head.
- We should be asking, asking, asking.
The book has many more great lessons in it, and you can read it in an hour or two. Take notes, put it into practice and see what happens. You might just have the best year of your life. If you can't find it in the local book store or at the library, you can get it on Amazon.com, or you can just ask Google. Google can find it for you.
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