The mantra refers to a movie-ending classroom discussion by Matt Damon’s character in ‘The Martian,’ about surviving Mars or whatever situation they found themselves in.
“At some point you feel its all over, but you do the math. You solve the problem, and then you go on to the next problem. You solve enough problems, you get to keep living.” It’s not alone on Mars stuff, but there are plenty of situations to solve in real estate.
Accompanying photo – at 40th reunion with brother David – wasn’t the first time a future in real estate had been contemplated. Still, in less than 100 days, from first day of class, to qualifying for State exam, being licensed as a broker in North Carolina, and successfully acting as a buyers agent on a $280k condominium sale on February 13th, I’d have to say:
Deciding to make a major life change means nothing without action.
One question every new real estate person consistently gets asked is, “How long before you sell your first house and get a paycheck?” First sales already handled, closing date is the 24th are facts I can (generally) count on.
Matt was resourceful as hell throughout ‘The Martian’ in fixing technological challenges, and beyond good people skills, technology is an essential in real estate.
Technology vs. Personality
Making a first sale– to the FIRST PEOPLE you ever talk to— is a somewhat giddy feeling, but there’s no telling whether anything will become ‘more real,’ no matter how bright and warm a day the relationship starts on.
Its important to recognize that, while I managed to get a particular search application our company offers for downloading sent to those clients, going to that location to check out open houses vs. doing previews by myself was related to a difficulty in using my eKey to unlock houses.
Although walking up and introducing myself was the ultimate starting point – and considering the positive consequences of meeting these clients as a result of being short of the right technology wasn’t bad – a major truth in today’s real estate is, “Make sure your technology works.”
After fixing an e-mail address and setting my client up for automatic updates of all relative properties coming on the market, the software allowed tracking what they were most interested in, and their responses to follow-up phone calls kept the search tight.
Just as an ice storm came to Charlotte they identified two condos; on Thursday we showed them, despite more trouble with obtaining keys. On Saturday they made an offer, which was accepted. Yes, Charlotte is a hot market!
The consequences of meeting these clients as a result of being short of the right technology certainly weren’t bad – but a Truth in today’s real estate is, “Make sure your technology works.”
After another episode with eKey failure, it took 2 1/2 hours – late on a Friday afternoon down at MLS Services – to determine my cell phone wasn’t on the list of possible users for a reason. Buying a *much* better phone Saturday morning was a $75 investment in my future. There was also the recent purchase of a Toshiba laptop, after knocking out the screen on an old Acer unit, and at $325 + tax, its been a super addition as well.
People will help, but handle your own problems
As much as having people like and trust me as a professional counts, knowing that technology will work FOR me becomes more of a reality each day. There are regular classes, ‘playing around on it’ and seeing screens actually matters.
The atmosphere in a strong real estate company is the sense of team accomplishment, and after a long period of time having worked alone, its invigorating to me. The team leader I’ve become a Buyers Agent with was dead right in stating, “It’s your fault,” about eKey problem, because I’d delayed a month in handling something obviously wrong. While the laptop, and an unfortunate whack on car requiring a bit of credit card space, seemed like problems, it didn’t require any dynamic resolutions, just money.
That people are willing to explain a couple new functions a week to make me more effective for clients in searching, and therefore a better broker, that’s all I’m going to ask for. Oh, and hitting the two closings a month by April goal I set in training.
CDTalent Enterprises 