Care Your Way to Success in Real Estate

In 2015, my then-girlfriend (now my wife) Brittany and I were excited; we were ready to buy our first home and we had put together just over $15,000 of savings after nearly two years of professional work.

We clicked on Zillow and got connected to a buyer agent, who called us immediately and set us up on showings. We went out, saw a few homes, and then came across a listing that, interestingly, was listed by an agent but had no photos. We asked our agent to show it to us anyway -- and it was an amazing home. We really wanted that house, so we asked our agent to put our offer in right away.

We immediately signed the paperwork right on the back of his trunk outside the house, and had him submit it.

Then... crickets.

We waited 24 hours and then contacted our agent. Any update? No.

We waited 36 hours and checked again. Any update? No.

How long were we supposed to wait? We didn't know. Hadn't our contract offer already expired? Who could we call to get answers?

I’m the type who hates waiting, so, despite Brittany’s "You're crazy, don't do that," I decided that enough was enough. After work that day --- two days after our contract had been submitted -- I jumped in my car, drove across town, and knocked on the Seller's door at 6:30pm. The sun was just going down. He opened with a smile, and I said, “Sir, sorry to bother you, but I submitted an offer on your home 48 hours ago, and we have heard nothing back. Did you receive our offer?”

He was first surprised, and then angry at his agent. He said, “What offer? We haven't received anything!” And then he invited me in.

Together, we chatted, became good acquaintances, and negotiated the terms of an agreement for us to buy his home. The house with no photos and an AWOL listing agent who, after 48 hours, had still failed to submit our offer to her customer, was now under contract and ours. We were so excited.

But that experience kept running through my mind.

How could someone – the non-responsive listing agent -- be so careless?

This is the largest transaction of my life. These transactions are about people's lives. How could that agent not care enough about us or her own customer to submit our offer? And, then it hit me. I am all about getting results for people. And, it would be way more satisfying to work for people than for big corporations with ungrateful investors I might never meet, right?

I could make a difference. I could do better.

So, that disappointing but very enlightening experience (which is still all too common) led me to take a huge leap two weeks later: I quit my highly coveted investment banking career and jumped into working for myself as a real estate agent.

In debt and hungry, with virtually $0 in funds, I had to go for it. If not now, when?

I quickly equipped myself with a real estate license – a ridiculously easy licensing process that should have its standards upped by 10-fold—and quit my job despite my family's, “OMG, he's throwing away his Wall Street career to become a real estate agent in Florida??” I started with a brokerage that pretty much left me on my own to figure things out, and I went to work trying to understand contracts and find customers. Soon, the business was on an upward trajectory, and I stayed true.

I had many failure moments in real estate, whether it was because I had failed to hire the right people to help the business grow further, or my ego getting too big, or a dozen other reasons. But one thing that remained constant was that I personally took accountability for every outcome, and truly cared about my customers at every turn. I had been them; I understood how momentous an occasion it is to buy or sell your home. And my customers could feel that I cared – they often told me so – so I knew I was making a difference. And that felt great.

Agents must never lose sight of the fact that customers can FEEL whether you see them as a dollar sign or a customer for life.

It's extraordinarily clear. And, that's why there's so much opportunity in real estate.

If you actually care about the outcome, have self-accountability, and are willing to put in the hard work of a start-up entrepreneur, then real estate sales can be a tremendous career.

I have not met one top agent who doesn't have those common characteristics.

And, #1 is that they care.

No matter the circumstance, they do whatever it takes to get the result their customer wants. But, unfortunately, we too often see agents get into real estate just for the money, only to find that they do a few transactions and then fizzle out. In fact, real estate agents have a 87% fail rate.

And those fails are almost always due to the fact:  

1) they don't actually care about their clients (this includes failing to learn enough about homes and markets in general), and their clients can feel that;

2) they don't put in the effort required to learn what is needed to be successful (pick up the phone - hello?… hello?); and

3) they're not self-accountable to the results when they don't hit the mark. To be blunt: it’s because they just don’t give a crap about customer experience and are not willing to be self-accountable when things go wrong.

So, I have to say it again: if you care about people and want to help them, you’ll eventually get the business you want. Stop trying to take shortcuts. Put in the effort and make it happen for your customers. Do whatever it takes… care.