That's not me saying that, I am just repeating what I heard. As a matter of fact, it is the brilliant mind of Warren Buffett who coined this saying, the same Warren Buffett that invested $5 billion in Goldman sachs and today another 3 or so billion into General Electric. the same Goldman Sachs and General Electric that live on the train track called the financial services industry. You know, the industry that has more problems, more unknowns, more dead financial bodies and instruments in this latest couple of year onslaught than in any time that I can remember in my 31 years of experience in our business.
Warren exemplified his philosophy by investing into speculative areas with time proven entities that are phenomenal operators of their respective businesses. And he did it, against that underlying backdrop, not by turning on his online trading platform on his laptop, but by negotiating and selecting specific dividends on his preferred convertible investment using such art in negotiating his deal that he leveraged the fear and need for performance and substance in this environment that Buffett represents to create a tremendously enhanced model of a solid investment opportunity. He used the fear and the need for capital in this market to negotiate a deal that was favorable to his investors interests.
Okay, great, you might say, for Warren and his crew. But what does his dropping $8 billion have to do with me and the money I need to do my mailings and pay for my MLS? The answer is not in the investment of dollars, the answer is in being greedy in meting out those resources we have within us and available to us that the market is in such dire need of right now. We may not have billions to invest or a team of analysts, nor do we need that to be successful for our clients and ourselves in opur business. Our billions, our resources, translate to our time, talents and knowledge. Time is our stock in trade, it is what we convert to production, and our talent and knowledge is the component we use to leverage our time. We need to be greedy in how we make our deals to allot our time. Knowing that I am very capable of professionally and accurately pricing and creating an effective marketing plan for my clients means that I am going to make sure I get the most in return for my valuable services, both in terms of quality of business and in terms of the value and compensation I will be paid for rendering my quality services. I must be willing to work longer and deeper in this environment to succeed, but my success is not just tied to my efforts, it is tied to whom I am willing to give my efforts to, and that necessarily means I must choose to work with people who need to buy, and need to sell, and with whom I can make a reasonable profit for my time and effort, given what I must do to assist in my clients success, and the value of my assistance. Anyone else is not worthy of my time and efforts, and I will be greedy in terms of my unwillingness to work for free, close to free or less.
And, when you are negotiating a deal with a serious seller or buyer, you are doing it against a backdrop of sellers needing to know that they are one of, say, 50 houses for sale in a market and porice range where only 20 buyers will exist for the year. A greedy seller needs to wait for a different environment, right now sellers need to be a bit fearful in their approach. Likewise, a buyer of a house priced so low that even you can't believe it has to know that they are looking at this deal only because they are working within an environment that offers tremendous value to its participants if they work with the right agent, namely you, in finding the right deal or making the right lifestyle decision.
Real Estate will never stop moving. I have been doing this 31 years, and I can tell you that there has never been one day ever ever ever that I can think of that a house didnt close, a house didnt sell or wasnt listed in Real Estate in any of my markets. There is a bottom line in the world, people need to buy, and people need to sell. Seek them out proactively, don't be afraid to roll up your sleeves, hit the phones and databases. and put yourself in those places where production takes place. And then, once you're there, be greedy with your available allocatable marketing time and help those who need your help.
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