A Day in the Life of Broker-Owner

I love building my team, my brand, and my organization. If it wasn’t “mine” with my good name, there are things that I do that I might not otherwise. But that goes for anyone who is a principal in an organization. My days recently have been a measure of Radar O’Reilly, a dash of Patton, 2 scoops of Grunt, and a generous portion of Mother Hen. And I have loved every minute of it. In between the building is the troubleshooting; often, troubleshooting and building are one and the same. 

Late last month, a strong agent in the firm came to me for insight on handling a recently approved short sale. We had a conference call with the seller, and after 2 weeks of drama and intensive hand holding with the client myself, it closed. The agent had done all she could do; a team effort was needed. One could make a case that my intervention saved her considerable efforts and great work when circumstances in the client’s life seemed to create an impasse. We got to the other side together. I don’t care about credit, I want my agent to be paid for her great work.  

Last week, another agent told me about an attorney who adjourned a closing over a $150 repair that was delayed (they were offered a $10,000 escrow for 24 hours), and then demanded a $1000 adjournment fee when the closing was rescheduled. I reached out to the other broker to see if we could convert the discord to agreement. And independent broker like I, He couldn’t be bothered, preferring to put his energy into unhelpful, passive aggressive emails that wouldn’t forward the transaction. We went around him through the attorney on our side and had that fee reduced to $300. The deal got done. 

This morning, one of our agents asked what other marketing sites her listing could be posted, because her sellers have indicated that a large franchise might be better if they expire unsold next month. As I write this, Ann is posting the listing to a localized marketing portal we found and reviewing where else it can be syndicated. I emailed the agent to schedule a meeting with the clients. Nobody ever bought a house because of the sign in the yard; I’ll get her an extension. 

These are things we do daily, but the above three are what come to mind before coffee. I’m not big on sales meetings; the agents learn in these instances by osmosis and watching me work with the client. They’ll have a new tool going forward. I do quite a bit one on one in  non-crisis mode also.  I think the team knows that I have their back, and that we are always looking at the architecture of the company to give them every advantage. This much is for sure: The split to the broker in our company is not tribute to the godfather; we endeavor to take as much shrapnel in our keisters as they. And when the commission comes in, we earn it as a team. 

I once had a mentor tell me that the truly wealthy don’t cash big checks, they write them to others. That’s my goal.