What I Learned About Surviving Any Real Estate Market... After 22 Years in DFW
In 2008, I had eight properties under contract. All eight terminated in the same week when the financial collapse hit. I went from expecting a significant commission payday to having no contracts, no income, and a dead pipeline in a matter of days.
So I did what any sane person does. I started looking for a job.
I went on two interviews with an asset management company handling foreclosed properties. After the second one, they offered me $60,000 to $65,000 a year. I told them I needed to think about it overnight.
On the drive home, something clicked. If they were expecting me to commit 40 hours a week to earn that salary, I should be putting that same energy into my real estate business. The problem was not the market. The problem was that I was expecting a full-time income on a part-time effort. I turned down the job the next morning and got to work.
What followed was learning to call expired and cancelled listings. I studied scripts and objection handling.
My hands were shaking before the first dial. I think I hung up two or three times before the call actually connected. But each call got easier, and my first expired listing appointment in Allen, Texas turned into a listing, a sale, and a buyer transaction...north of $15,000 in total commissions.
That one decision to stay in the business and master that skill is the reason I am still here 22 years later.
I also write about the three mistakes I consistently see agents make when markets shift, including why cutting your lead generation is the worst first move you can make, why abandoning your core expertise is a trap, and what I call becoming a skillionaire during slow markets.
The agents who make it through down markets come out the other side with more business, more income, and more confidence. The ones who do not are usually the ones who quit on their skill development the moment things got hard.
I wrote the full story..including the 2013 decision that took us from solo production to 162 closed sides and $65.6M in volume...here: What 22 Years in DFW Real Estate Actually Taught Me About Surviving Any Market
If any of this resonates with where you are right now in your business, that post is worth 10 minutes of your time.
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