Bring it on!
Our market can experience wide swings from any given moment to another. Sometimes the market is super hot and we are all extremely busy helping out clients achieve their goals. Other times things are slower and many in the industry worry about where their next paycheck will come from. When you live on a commission based income, market cycles can really drive you crazy. Stability is a desirable state of mind that is hard, if not impossible, to come by when you work on commission. Budgeting becomes more of a cerebral concept than a dedicated ritual. Worry and doubt are abundant in down turns and anxiety can overwhelm the best of practices. After 20 years of industry experience, working on commission only, I have witnessed first hand the negative side of market down turns and slower business cycles. I have also had the opportunity to learn how to make the most of them.
Interest rate increases and higher price points had as significant impact on housing affordability and put the brakes on a red hot market. Everyone on in the industry felt the shift in real time and experienced the impact almost immediately. In the past this would have cast me into that familiar space of scarcity and contraction. I’ve been through this before, many times, and have gone through down turns in a state of frenzied panic. These days, market swings don’t impact me so negatively, quite the contrary, my approach to this down turn…Bring it on! Strange approach for someone relying on commission income and client opportunities? Not at all. This is the signal for a different season of business development. This is the start of an opportunity we don’t get often in this business. The opportunity to focus on both personal and professional development that we don’t always have time for. We business plan twice a year. In the summer and at the first of each year. We plan in plenty of time and strategies for personal and professional development, but too often working in the business, means you are not working on the business. There’s a difference. In the business is working with clients, scheduling appointments, sending emails, managing escrows and working on the goals and strategies from the last retreat. On the business is different, and in ways, much more important. On the business is when you work on designations and specialized training, its when you read more, learn more and grow more. It’s when you have the time to develop skills and relationships while focusing on longer term goals and strategies.
It is in these downturns that we always experience the greatest amount of growth and development. We welcome these opportunities as they make the busy times more satisfying and productive than they ever would have been without the space created for personal and professional development. This downturn will not last forever, just like the last ones did not. But the opportunities presented by a market shift cannot be ignored. The first step is recognizing these opportunities exist in this market, then go out and make the absolute most of them.
In the meantime we stand ready to assist our valued buyer and seller clients. We will continue to work on the business by learning and growing. We will be ready when you, or your friends/family, need us. We will be sharp. We will be professional. We will be knowledgeable. We will be responsive. We will be ready.
Until next time my friends,
Mark Newman
Owner/Designated Broker Newman Realty
(not AI produced..in case you couldn’t tell!)
480-993-8653
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