One of the major paradoxes of real estate brokerage is rarely, if ever, mentioned. Yet, it seems to haunt every agent and every real estate company. It especially bonds and hangs onto those who work the hardest; those who are the most creative in marketing themselves.
You see what most of us do is to take the conventional marketing wisdom - sending out cards and newsletters, cold calling neighborhoods, even putting expensive ads in magazines - and tinker with it. A splash of door hangers here, a mailing out of football schedules there, becoming very active in Rotary and the church and the PTA and the Junior League, and on and on. The things that are guaranteed to put you in the public's eye.
Lo and behold, one inch at a time our real estate prospects began to increase, our business seems to be on its way to gaining the momentum it needs to satisfy our goal. And darned if we don't soon get to the point where we are riding high. Some of us even fall into the trap of bragging to the public that we are at the top. No other agent is Up There with us.
"My hard work paid off. My tinkering with the formula of the conventional marketing wisdom has put me on top. I deserve it." That's what we smugly say to ourselves.
And then, although we are continuing to follow our hybrid of The Conventional Marketing Wisdom Formula, our number of sales and listings begin to diminish. Not only do they diminish, but we realize that another agent, another company has risen to take our place.
What happened and why?
In the Old Testament, God is referred to as YHWH. His name is thought to be representative of the sound of the wind. But since it can't be pronounced in English because it lacks vowels, the Masoretic bible spells it Yahweh.
And in the Old Testament, as Yahweh is trying out different ideas of how to get along with man, and how to teach man to get along with Him, often times an individual or group finds itself having spurts of Yahweh's favor followed by his disfavor.
So I've chalked my own bouts of real estate good favor and real estate bad favor to the will of Yahweh, not the result of my own doings. I think His purpose may be to help me keep my feet on the ground and understand the importance of being humble.
Because if I remain patient, soon I begin rising toward the top once again.
Copyright 2002 - William S. Cherry
www.billcherrybroker.com
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