Oh my goodness, it’s been a long time since I’ve written my “weekly” blog. Already it’s the 25th of January, two thousand and twenty-two and I have not yet written a blog in this new year. In fact, it’s been since December 7, 2021 since I last penned any words regarding real estate for this blog which has been so dear to my heart.
Maybe I needed a break? Perhaps one week quickly turned into six without me giving the blog much thought? But no, that’s not true. I did think about the blog, quite a lot in fact. I direct people to my blog every time I send an email, so I have remained vividly aware of the fact that I have not been fulfilling my own personal obligation to this blog, while also feeling no inspiration whatsoever, the classic writer’s conundrum.
While I am also aware that I perhaps have very few readers, this space has never been about views for me. Naturally, one of my objectives is to drive traffic to our website for business, but this particular blog has been more personal in nature for me. Mainly writing for myself has created a feeling of greater intimacy and freedom, which has manifested itself as multi-faceted articles and musings, not only about real estate, but about life and my experience of it.
This unconventional approach to a real estate blog did garner a bit of criticism from some as a marketing approach because it wasn’t helping our SEO status on the big world wide web nor was it letting anyone know our vast expertise in real estate.
The criticism resonated with me and I took it to heart; I decided to start writing this blog solely based around real estate. The problem with that decision was, once I made it, I only wrote two blogs and then took my unintended six week vacation.
While on my walk this morning, I felt inspired. I wanted to write this blog. Moreover, I wanted to experience the freedom of my old blog–a place to write about whatever I felt relevant in the moment, with a bit of catharsis mixed in. And so here I am, writing. Interestingly enough, I genuinely want to write about some recent real estate lessons I’ve been learning. Funny how when we are able to let something that doesn’t fit quite right go, the perfectly fitting piece shows up. I had to let everything go about this blog over these past six weeks of hiatus to truly get back in touch with why I was doing this and what it meant for me.
Real estate has always been exciting, however, recently we were referred some very high-profile clients and now find ourselves firmly placed in the ultra-luxury real estate market and boy does it feel good! And gratifying. Accomplishing goals never gets old and this is one goal I’ve been after for a long time, so it’s especially delicious to savor. As I reflect on it, I realize it’s not about the fact that these new clients are in a small percentage of buyers and sellers in the world (although that is very cool!), the big reason I feel so gratified is because they were referrals. In any profession, a referral is the greatest gift and compliment one can receive from a past client because it implies that your client had a great experience with you and they want their nearest and dearest to have the same.
The profession of real estate is saturated with practitioners–everyone knows a Realtor, but, does everyone know a successful Realtor or broker? Yesterday, as Stacey and I went to open houses during Broker’s Open Houses, I was astonished at how many Realtors there are! In and out they flowed at a steady rate in every open house we saw, which in turn made me realize how we must be pretty good at what we do to eek out a comfortable and happy existence, supporting our family and lifestyle in a profession based solely on commission. The competition is fierce and bountiful in our beautiful city and yet we have managed to successfully run our own family business of selling real estate in Santa Monica, through advertising yes, but also through word of mouth.
The word of mouth part is heart-warming. As business owners, Stacey and I want nothing more than to blow our clients away with our excellent service, savvy negotiating skills, honest opinions, and delivery on promises made. Referrals are like a big hug of confidence because they remind us that we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing and leaving our clients happy and satisfied. Personally, there is nothing more rewarding and I deeply appreciate every referral and client that I get the pleasure of working with in the wild and exciting world of real estate.
