In a hot market, it always happens. As interest in real estate surges, so do the number of agents. In a hot market, everyone feels like a winner, everyone is a genius. Optimism abounds.
Every year, NAR puts out statistics which only vary slightly from year to year. Fifty percent of all new agents will quit the business inside of 12 months. Three out of four newbees will never renew at the end of their first licensing cycle. Truth is, real estate is the ultimate revolving door business, with thousands of freshly-minted optimists coming in and thousands of downtrodden skeptics going out every single year.
I'm not here to wish for the demise of new agents, or to live in fear that someone else is going to come along and "steal" my clients. I believe there is plenty of business to be had, if you (and here's the big IF) know how to create value for people that others do not.
For 20 years, I have built what I call an "others-based" practice. By making your clients' goals your own, and by looking after every transaction as if it were your own, you create value. By making the time and energy investment to attend high-level training classes and learn negotiation strategies others don't take the time or won't spend the money to learn, you become more valuable. By occasionally sticking our neck out, by leveraging your own resources or reputation to get a deal done for someone you truly care about, you earn long-lasting relational equity, which is the lifeblood of this business.
But in the grown-up world of real estate, where stress, drama, and yes, fallible humans reside... sometimes bad things happen. One of the reasons so many people go out of this business by their heels is that they cannot handle the emotional fallout of rejection, failure and even betrayal.
Rejection happens... it's a sign of life.
Failure is an opportunity to learn, correct and improve... let it teach you.
But betrayal is the most difficult to process, because it cuts to the core. You just have to let it go.
We've all got stories of being hung out to dry. Sometimes it's being undercut when another broker sweeps in at the eleventh hour and offers to list a home for a lower commission. Sometimes it's when one of your clients wanders into a builder's office on a whim and is charmed into signing a contract for new construction without representation. And sometimes it's showing someone houses for month after month after month, only to have them give up without ever taking the bat off their shoulder.
Real estate (and sales in general) is a world full of paper cuts. Things happen that hurt. But whether you let them take you down or use them to become stronger is totally up to you.
The bottom line is I live in a world where I take responsibility for everything that happens, because that's the only way you can grow and mature.
Failure, at any level, can make you bitter or make you better. My coping mechanism involves processing bad outcomes quickly, grieving them fast, looking for the lesson, correcting where necessary, and then moving on... quickly... to other productive things I can be doing for others starting right now.
Whatever you give your mind over to grows and gets stronger. Think failure, and failure becomes your dominant thought. Think fear, and your fears take root. But think solutions, and your brain will work to solve problems.
There is plenty of business in the world, if you can master the art of creating value and survive the bumps that are inevitable in any sales environment. You don't need to let one person derail your momentum, or undermine your commitment to faithfully being the best version of yourself you can possibly be.
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get on with it.
