It's Not About The House

Chapter I: Realationship: The Right Real Estate Relationship Is Everything

It's Not About The House, One Agent's Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, Zig Ziglar, the DOJ, Mike Ferry, the FTC, Zillow, Discounters, Real Estate 1.0 and a Few Other Antagonists on the Road to The Tour de House.

When I read Lance Armstrong's Book, It's Not About The Bike; I was struck by the irony of a star athlete downing his most prominent ability and iconic association; and writing about things much more important.

I even thought of some similarities to My Life As A Realtor, or Real Estate Is My Life; my next 2 books.

I attended a conference on entrepreneurism. A story was told of the answer to a question asked to the President of American Century Mutual Funds: "How many mutual funds have you sold in your career?" His answer: "None. I don't sell mutual funds. I sell financial security."

When I started in Real Estate, my broker had his head stuck firmly up Real Estate 1.0. It was "All About The House", all about the cold call prospecting and all about the sale.

My broker had never heard: "They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care".

When I wouldn't drink the Cool Aid, or become one of their Stepford Realtors or Robo-Realtors; we parted ways. Any independent thought or creative idea was seen as a reason to not do cold-call, telemarket prospecting in the isolation booth.

I was in the process of embracing the Real Estate marketing opportunities of the Internet and Real Estate 2.0. I knew their was more to life in Real Estate than spending hours looking up the phone numbers of expired listings and calling them at the same time as my fellow newbie agents.

When I heard a 10 year old tape of Top Cool Aid Salesman, Mike Ferry (Why don't any of his kids work with him any more?), where he told agents to put their computers away for 3 months and went on to say 90% the same things he said in his last call, I knew my end with that firm was near. (Anybody have good scripts to keep good relationships with your kids?).

I was taught:

• Location, Location, Location
• House, House, House
• Sale, Sale, Sale
• Real Estate 1.0, Real Estate 1.0, Real Estate 1.0

But "The Days of the Giants", the days of the cold call and the days of the Real Estate Listing Books with "CONFIDENTIAL" written all over them were dying fast. Giving way to Websites, the Internet, Zillow, Google Base and all the other potential National MLS's.

Real Estate's new mantras are:

• Traffic, Traffic, Traffic
• Internet, Internet, Internet
• Real Estate 2.0, Real Estate 2.0, Real Estate 2.0
• Relationship, Relationship, Relationship

In Real Estate 2.0, The Relationship is most important.

What we can call "The Realationship." The Right Real Estate Relationship Is Everything.

Adapt Or Die!  Happy Searching.

WebHomeUSAblog; The Blog of Real Estate Search Marketing

Comments

[Jay Thompson]

EXCELLENT blog post! Thanks for the Carnival of Real Estate submission!

You got a Three of a Kind!

http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/carnival-of-real-estate-the-33rd-edition/284

[john harper]

I hear a lot about Mike Ferry, but haven't met him or attended any of his events. I'm curious about the kid comment as that can speak volumes.

Your assessment is right on.