Morning Aha’s….”Shift”

Good Morning-

Today I was playing DoFI for the first hour of my day and was able to crack into Gary Keller’s new book/manual “Shift”. What an insightful book this is! One of the testimonials is “Gary Keller is the wizard of Aha’s”. I couldn’t agree more! What stuck with me is to “Build a fortress around what you have” meaning that in a downshift your production doesn’t change you are gaining market share. Now when the market goes on the upshift… you hold onto that market share. That is that big Aha, but I also want to share a story about the emotion of real estate………

As I was reading shift this I noticed a woman walking around outside of our office for about 15 minutes and I let her in……. she was 30 minutes early for a closing and clearly nervous. I directed her to the room she would be closing in and she paced back and forth and finally came back out to the lobby. Understanding that this clearly was a  big day for her I asked, “How are you doing?” and she quickly responded, “Nervous!!”. The woman went on to talk about the decades she had spent in the home, raising children in the home and I could see her recounting the memories in her head. Then we talked about where she was moving and how even though she didn’t think it was possible, her new house really felt like home. A few minutes passed and we could see the buyers coming up to the door….. the woman turned to me and said, “Oh they are just kids!” in a very motherly way. The “kids” entered and everyone introduced themselves and as different as their situations were, they were connected by the same emotions. Then the seller asked the young buyers… “Do you have any kids?” and they replied, “No, no kids.” The seller went on about a few “play things” for children that she left behind in case they could use them…. after a slight hesitation the young couple looked at eachother and said, “Actually we just found out we are pregnant this morning!” The mood in the room changed instantly from anxiety to excitement and the seller began to talk about all of the great things the property had to offer a young family……. after over 3 decades in her home you could tell she couldn’t be more happy to pass the home along to a new family so they can create new great memories in her old home.

Seriously I thought I was watching a movie unfold before my eyes….. the lesson… don’t forget about how much emotion is involved in every move we guide our clients through. Show some compassion and go the extra mile to ease their anxiety…. sometimes all it takes is the peace of mind knowing the next owner will take great care of their home……

Brett