GUEST COLUMN: Let Your Ego Go

The beautiful thing about being in the real estate business for many years is being able to analyze your growth as a professional, as well as an individual, and understanding exactly what role you really play in the home buying and selling process. Over the years, I’ve experienced many personality types on the other side of my transactions, and boy have there been some doozies!

My takeaway from those experiences is that at the end of the day, it’s really important to remember that no matter how many sold signs you have under your belt or how many followers you have on social media, the transaction really isn’t about you. The business of helping buyers find homes for their families or businesses, and selling real estate is about providing a service—helping your client or customer; it’s about solving problems or fulfilling a need.

When agents let their egos get in the way of solely focusing on getting their client’s home sold or securing a home for their buyer client, the transactions become more drama-filled and/or more complicated than they need to be. Helping someone sell their home should have nothing to do with a short-term position of power. Asserting dominance for no real reason is a disservice to your client and your fellow colleagues.

Don’t get me wrong, you have to do your due diligence. If your seller client requires a pre-approval before showings, that is what you do. However, when a repair rider is sent by the buyer’s rep, to aggressively tell the agent, “I’ve been selling real estate for over 30 years and I’ve never…” without even discussing any of the requests with your seller client is an issue.

The aim should never be to make another person (especially newer agents) feel like they don’t know enough, or they don’t belong.

Our responsibility as senior agents when dealing with our peers, especially newer ones, should be to give consideration, cooperation, and reasonable care. Remember, you were once a newbie and not knowing as much as you know now was tough. The last thing you wanted was to have someone belittle you.

Instead, come from a place of positivity and embrace the new members of our real estate community. Pay it forward and answer their questions with a smile. And when returning calls, e-mails, or text messages, start with a friendly greeting. Engaging in these practices will not only make the agent on the other end feel good, but the actions will also lift your spirit as a result.

There is already way too much negativity in our world. Taking care of each other, in addition to our clients and customers, will make for a smoother transaction. Take heed, that newbie won’t be a newbie forever and you don’t know when you’ll need to reach out to that agent for information or an appointment to show their hot new listing in the future… what goes around comes around.