My husband, a top-producing Realtor® in his own right, came back from a meeting the other day and informed me that the average number of annual closed sales for a working agent in San Diego County is five. That’s five per year!
I was surprised to hear that the number is so low. Depending upon where you live, the average sales price for a single-family residence could be anywhere from one hundred thousand dollars to over one million dollars. Parts of Florida and Michigan have home values that are under one hundred thousand dollars.
But, what struck me even more than this number was that major players in San Diego County who had previously closed many, many transactions were also closing near that average of five.
What happened? Well, I know already that they market happened. But, something else has happened as well. They did not reinvent themselves when the market changed.
Several weeks ago, I broke bread with some old friends of mine—one who is a college math professor. At the table, he stated that he had read (and I can’t tell you where he read this) that the average individual needs to reinvent himself every ten years.
In real estate, I’d be willing to wager that you need to reinvent yourself a little more often than every ten years.
What does it mean to reinvent one self?
To reinvent yourself does not mean that you need to change careers. Reinventing yourself means taking thoughtful, strategic steps to change the way you do things for the better. If your real estate career isn’t going the way that you hoped it would (if you did not get anywhere near meeting the goals that you set with your broker at the end of 2009), it may be time to step away from some old strategies and move towards some new ones.
What do you want your life to look like?
The first step toward changing the direction of your real estate career is to figure out where you want to go. Write down your thoughts in a list. What do you want your career to look like? How much do you want to earn? How many hours per week do you want to work? Do you want to work harder or more efficiently? How do you want to contribute to the field of real estate on a grander scale?
Visualize what your life would look like if you accomplished each one of the ideas on your list, and put it aside for a few days until my next post hits your inbox.
I met and exceeded my personal and professional goals for 2010 because I have been continually reinventing myself for the last several years. This is the first in a series of posts in which I am going to show (and tell) you how I was able to accomplish those goals. If you are interested in hearing more about reinventing oneself and how I was able to personally meet my goals, please subscribe to my blog and always maintain a positive attitude.
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