JL's Columbia SC Real Estate Blog: May 2009

 When I was 19 years old, my Father's Mother Grannie Boney as I caller her, passed away. She had developed symptoms that were comparable to Allshiemers and at times she could be quite a handful for anyone in her midst. In fact, prior to her illness, she was already a handful. She was the type of person that if it popped in her head it immediately shot out her without a second thought nor the first regret.

 I helped my Aunt care for her for the last couple months that she could not be left alone and I was there at her house the night she died. From there we went through the wonderful task of making arrangements for her funeral and the process of setting those arrangements in motion. It was the first time that someone I was truly close to passed away when I was old enough to understand and at the time, though I could accept what happened, it was a huge learning experience.

 At 24 years old, I was standing at the foot of my other Grandmother's hospital bed the second she crossed over to the other side. A lot had happened in five years and I had learned a lot more about the acceptance if the things that I could not change. Death after all is a part of life and no matter how you try, you will never make it out of this life alive. I helped my Mother with the arrangements of all of this situation, and once again went through the motions setting those arrangements to actions.

 Shortly after this was another chapter in the course of history, my Mother and I made the decision that it's too difficult to make these arrangements on short notice. Plus, since she and I could not come up with a viable plan for when she would check out, we made the decision to plan ahead. So will my Mother is alive and well, we have already revised her will and planned her funeral. We're both pretty off the wall individuals, so it was not a somber experience despite the concept of what we were doing. I even attempted to try out a coffin that she had picked out, but the funeral home would not allow me, and my Mother begged me to stop embarrassing her.

 No matter how hard we try, death in this life, is something that we will all face. Loved will make there way across the divide and we too shall someday pass. No matter how prepared we are, I don't believe we are ever truly prepared, we just learn to accept what we can't change and deal with the harsh realities when they come our way.And for those of us who have had loved ones returned to the soil, then you understand this all too well.

 If youare still reading this, then in all honesty, your attention span is much better than mine. However, if you still are, I would like for you to do me a favor. There is a member of AR that today understands these situations all too well, and it would be nice to send some encouraging words her way. She can be found here on a blog she wrote this morning. So, if you have an opportunity, please stop by and let her know she will be in your thoughts.

 Even if you're not a big fan of sports, I'm sure that you can appreciate the need for a strong follow through in certain activities. When you are attempting a jump shot in basketball, it's great to have form and a good release, but you need to have a good follow through to increase your chances of obtaining your goal of making the shot. The same can be said for a golf swing. It's good to have a strong swing, and good aim, but you also need to follow through for good results.

 Life and business is no different when it comes to this simple need. It's not a difficult concept by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems to be very difficult for many people to set into motion. The simple act of following through. It's easy to start things, but it's far more important to finish what you start. This is the sort of thing that can not really be taught, you're either willing to do what needs to be done or not.

 When you consider the importance of planning and setting goals for yourself, both personal and business related, you also must consider the importance of staying the course. You have laid your path before you and you need to follow through order to achieve the success that you desire. People will remember those of us that veer off track and do not do what we say we will.

 I don't personally write down my goals and plans, I just know where I want to be and how I plan to get there. For me it's a mental thing that drives me to do what it takes to move forward. The greatest laid plan in the world will do you no good at all if you don't make the effort to follow through with the plan. You are simply spinning your wheels or running in place and you need to move forward. So set your goals, make your plans to achieve them, and then remember that you have to follow through with the plan in order for them to do you any good.

www.jlboney.com

  Did you ever notice that those three words seem to be so difficult for most people to say? Well, like it or not, if you live long enough in this lifetime you will be wrong. In all honesty you will be wrong a lot. You will be misinformed, mislead, and sometimes you will just forget or become confused when attempting to answer a question.

 You will misinterpret information and you will mislead people. I'm not saying that you will think that you are wrong from the start and I am not talking about you intentionally misleading anyone you encounter. I'm simply talking about the fact that from time to time, you will be wrong. You had better learn to accept that fact and make a decisive decision on exactly how you will handle the situation.

 Can you stand your ground, take it on the chin, and admit when you are wrong? It takes a brave and honest person to admit when they are wrong, and I can promise you that no one really likes to do it. We all want to be right all the time, it just doesn't work that way guys. But you have to straighten things out when you are wrong, because it's a sign of strong character. If you're in real estate, it's also part of your job. You are here to guide, advise, educate, and protect. Allowing people to wander through a transaction misinformed will ultimately lead to trouble and a lack of trust when they learn the truth that you didn't tell them.

 So, my advice to you is to learn to admit that you're wrong when you're wrong. Learn how to swallow that bitter pill and get over it. When there's a cloud looming over a situation, it's hard to move forward. So get it out of the way and be done with it. Not everyone will be happy at first with your admittance, but they will respect your honesty. And in the end, your integrity and respect is worth difficult task of uttering those three painful words. "I was wrong."

www.jlboney.com

 In 1898 Beyer, famous today for their Aspirin, released their latest miracle. A cough suppressant known as Heroin. At the time it was a completely innocent effort to aid people with chronic coughing issues to sleep through the night and relieve pain. Shortly after, Sears and Roebuck made Heroin kits available to the public through their mail order magazines. For $1.50 you could purchase a kit that included and steel seringe, Herion doses, replacement needles, and a carrying case.

 When you stop and think of the epidemic of addiction that this created, today this sounds insane. But the innocence of ignorance and the search for relief from ailments propelled this drug throughout the nation like wild fire. No one with a clue as to the damage of it's long term effects or it's addictive qualities until it was too late and the damage was done. Of course, since then it has become an illegal drug, but the battle still rages on to eradicate this cancer from society and the world at large.

 In real estate, it is important that we think beyond the short term cure with our efforts to solve an issue. This may be a drastic analogy, but history is full of similar situations where people have attempted to heal the symptoms and never truly cured the cause. We have to strike at the cause, because healing the symptoms alone will only suppress the issue for the time being, and possibly create a much larger issue in the long run.

 We must instead give serious consideration to our actions to insure that we don't create another problem. Take for example agents that promise sellers that they can sell their house for an unreasonable price just so they can get the listing. Like Beyer, these agents are ignorant, but they are certainly not innocent. Then from these actions to make the seller happy, they create another much larger issue. They create a seller that is misinformed and unrealistic that has little if any chance of selling their house.

 Then further down the road, when the house doesn't sell, not only is there an uninformed seller but there is a seller that now believes that Realtors are the scum of the Earth. Frankly they believe this because some of them are indeed. But now, the next Realtor will have to overcome the fact that there is a huge trust issue created by the first dumb ass that lied. And the first Realtor will not stop there, they will spread through the community causing a plague of sellers who no longer trust us, all due to a bad experience with a bad Realtor.

 Well, these days the D.E.A., the F.B.I., and local authorities all have to battle the affects of Beyer's little cough suppressant. We on the other hand must combat the creations of an enemy within. Unfortunately the D.E.A. will never show up and attack bad Realtors in order to throw them from our presence. Instead we will have to remain here fighting them by doing the job right and telling the truth. So before you make the decision to just say what people want to hear to get by the question, take into consideration the epidemic that you are helping to create.

www.jlboney.com

 Like anyone who may read this, I too am human. There are days when I wake up and right from the start everything seems to go wrong. I am completely used to one phone call or canceled appointment rearranging my entire day, that's just part of the business.

 However, like everyone else in the world there are days when the whole dynamic just gets to me. Having your entire day wrapped tightly around the fingers of anothers' whims can sometimes be more than just a little irritating. But, most of time you simply learn to accept it as fact and move on.

 But what about the days that you clearly have a lack of acceptance for all the reality that is breaking down before your very eyes? What about the days that you feel as if you are trapped in quicksand and the harder you struggle to break free the further you sink into the oblivion? What about the days that you would rather do anything else in the world than go out and chase after whatever you can find?

 It's on these day that I love the fact that I run my own business the most. Anger and frustration are clouds that hang over your day and often lead to poor judgment on your part. They are a force to be reckoned with and most of the time, time itself is just what you need. You're too close to the situation to change it from the inside, after all you are the situation.

 On those days you need to come to the realization that no matter how hard you try, there is little hope that you will be productive. Even if you were to encounter someone who could use your help, it's more than likely that you are in no shape to truly help them anyway. So take yourself out of the equation so you can get your mind right. You have no idea how much it can help. Besides, who wants to deal with someone having a bad day from the start?

www.jlboney.com

 Lately I have noticed a trend on the part of local Realtor boards and real estate companies to downplay the use of the phrase multimillion dollar producer. I have discussed it with several agents, brokers, and instructors from out local Realtor board. It seems the decision to do so stems from misconceptions on the part of the public as to the exact definition of a multimillion dollar producer in the industry.

 You see, many consumers hear the phrase and immediately think that it means the carrier of the title makes millions of dollars by selling real estate. This is not at all the case, in fact it may not be further from the truth. However, I can understand why people would have this misconception when I stop and think about the phrase for a brief moment.

 A multimillion dollar producer sells enough real estate to total in the millions. While they do indeed make commission off of these sells, that commission does not total in the millions. If you sell two $500,000 homes in a year, then you are a million dollar producer. Selling two homes in a year doesn't really sound like you are setting the world on fire now does it? If you sell four $500,000 homes in a year, you are now a multimillion dollar producer because you have sold two million dollars worth of real estate.

 This is how one becomes a million dollar and a multimillion dollar producer. It has nothing to do with the amount of money that a Realtor makes, at least not directly. Obviously the more you sell the more you make, but the phrase doesn't make you a millionaire by a long shot. Instead, it simply tells the volume of sells that you have made which is directly tied to the number of and the price of the homes you sell.

 So, with all the confusion out there over these phrases, and the obvious misconceptions that follow we are experiencing the death of the multimillion dollar producer. We still have them, we just have more and more of them that no longer use it as part of their advertising campaigns. It's just one more effort on the part of some Realtors to clear up the publics confusion as to how our business works.

www.jlboney.com