Well, it's been a while since I last posted a blog and thought I'd take the time to verbally vomit to my fellow AR's.
2007 has been an interesting year. I have achieved a lot personally and professionally. One of the most rewarding things was finally graduating from college after a 13 "college tour" - I figured I'd check them all out to see what they like, right? Anyway, I finally got that under my belt and feel great about it. It has been a long time coming and I've finally achieved one of my personal goals.
In addition to that I had the opportunity to watch our little girl grow and turn 1 years old. As many of you said in my "Ain't Life Grand" blog, time has flown by and my life has changed! The joys of being a new father with a Real Estate career are great, especially the flexibility of my schedule. My wife and I take turns working during the week which gives both of us a chance to get out of the house and spend time with our newest addition, who is an absolute mess! I figured out why they call it a "Smash Cake" real quick - my wife is smart for taking off Hallie's shirt.
In other news, I took a huge career step and let the corporate/franchise world of Real Estate and went out on my own with a fellow friend. In April of last year, we decided it was time to go out on our own and start our own company. This would not have happened if the opportunity didn't fall in our laps. There had been talk for some time, but it was time to bite the bullet. As my Dad always says, "No guts, no blue chips." We were fortunate enough to have friends and family to back us and support us financially and emotionally. We spent the first 4-5 months doing paperwork, getting our policies, manuals, legal, accounting, and much more organized and put in place. Then in October of last year, we opened for business. We came out of the gates running with 4 listings and 2 renovation projects, not to mention a few commercial leases.
It has been a timely process and stressful at times, but it has been a great ride! We opened with the vision of being a real estate firm as well as development since my partner is a Realtor and contractor. Here are a few candid shots of our progress:
The good thing is that both these house has been bought! It has been fun being involved with the construction design and sales of these projects. I could not have asked for a better partner and friend to share in this new venture.
Now that 2008 is here we had time to revisit our business plan, goals, and general outlook. As we were talking, we both realized that we were slammed with work, more like busy work. As we have grown, the paperwork keeps getting heavier. As we talked, we realized we need an assistant. We haven't been able to do what we love to do for the past month because of the paperwork, phone calls, and general office stuff. Instead of being out there selling, prospecting, etc, we've been at the office or on the job site trying to make this company a well-oiled machine. We collectively decided to hire an assistant to take some of the workload off of our backs and get out there and do what we really love! This is one of the first steps for me, to start being an active blogger and get out there instead of trying to figure out how many file folder labels I need to print.
With that being said, if any of you Brokers or business owners have any advice, tips, etc for a new company, feel free to share as we are always wanting information and education. If we don't, we're doomed.
Thanks for reading and Happy selling in 2008!
Todd
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