Are you treating your real estate business like a business?

It is a business you know. And a business requires consistent investments in time, effort, attention, education, and money to continue running. If your reason for being in real estate is for a fun hobby and/or a little extra spending money, I promise that it is not worth your time, money or aggrevation. This business is HARD. We are often the verbal and mental punching bags for clients who are frustrated with the market or their own bad decisions when things aren’t going their way. We sacrifice evenings and weekends and often miss family events for people who often treat us as disposable. We can spend hundreds and thousands of hours over the course of days, weeks, months, sometimes even years for a client who backs out of a transaction at the last minute or walks into a model home and buys a house without us, and then we are never paid for our hard work or expenses. This business is expensive, the fees alone on a yearly basis just to keep your license and tools of the trade active can add up to the cost of a small transaction.

I’ve often been frustrated over my career, particularly during my time as a managing broker, watching agents refuse to spend tens or hundreds of dollars in investing in their business and marketing, saying it’s too expensive, only to turn around and spend the same amount on a new pair of shoes. The new shoes will wear out in a season or two, while the connections you make from one month of prospecting can earn you hundreds of thousands in commissions over your career.

When you are running your business like a business you’ve got to keep your eye on the big picture and know why you are doing it. If you want to build a sustainable business for the long haul to support your family, put your children thru college, buy a retirement home, etc, then focus on that. Some months that may mean not going to Target or not buying the cute new pair of shoes so you can invest back into your business and your prospecting and marketing or maybe even childcare so you can work.

The rewards of our business can be tremendous, but not without effort, not without hard work, and not without sacrifice. The sacrifice may mean missing a dinner at home with your family to show homes and write a contract, or it may mean giving up a $4 a day Starbucks habit and putting that money into marketing instead. Either way, it can and will pay off if you are focused, consistent and determined.

Happy Friday!