Diary of a real estate rookie
Friday, December 29, 2006
By Alison Rogers
Inman News
 Alison Rogers |
So it's
time to make New Year's resolutions again. Gosh, after 2005 (when my New Year's
resolution was "Get married and start a new career") and 2006 (when
my New Year's resolution was "Stay married and don't starve to
death") it seems tough to go back to the old standby of "Lose 10
pounds and go to the dentist twice."
But
honestly -- after a year where I did my first deals and wrote a marathon
100,000 words -- I'm ready for a tad less adventure. Maybe I'll make a bunch of
little ones, so that I'll feel a sense of achievement even if I keep only some
of them. (My friend Joyce summed it up perfectly in a birthday card she sent
me: it's a Mike Twohy cartoon of two cats standing next to a scratched-up
chair, and one is saying to the other: "I have a couple of other projects
I'm excited about.")
So let's
see, what would be nice, bite-sized New Year's resolutions?
1. Stay married. Possibly the
only resolution I have to revisit every day, but definitely the most fun,
though it involves occasional pain like "teamwork" and "house
cleaning."
2. Give blood more. I'm a
universal donor (O positive) and giving blood usually means eating cookies, so
I don't know why this is so hard for me. Partly because it involves knowing
what I'm going to be doing two or three days ahead of time, which I'm still not
good about, and partly because it involves eating decently so I have a high
enough iron level to give (which means waiting to eat the cookies until after I
donate).
3. Be
nice to five senior agents.
I haven't been pursuing this because I'm deathly afraid I might learn
something, but now that I'm starting to get the basics down I can use the
veterans' knowledge of advanced customer handling, market cycles, etc.
4.
Develop a savings plan.
Finances involved with starting this business have been so reactive: I pay the
bills that say "Disconnect Notice" on the front. But I think I'll
actually earn my keep in 2007, and that means thinking about things like
emergency funds and retirement. Since this will be the first time I really have
to make these decisions as part of a couple, this will feed directly back into
Resolution #1.
5.
Learn one graphics program.
I love the computer and spend waaaay too much time on chat boards: what if I
took some of that time and made pretty flyers with it? Might be time to hold my
nose and take a quick community-college course in Photoshop or InDesign. I want
to be a little bit more of a glamazon, too, and I've found that nothing makes
me pay attention to my clothing faster than hanging out with art people.
6.
Spend one day every two weeks taking stock. When I first started, I was so broke I would measure my cash
flow every Friday because I was fascinated by the gushing blood and I was
struggling to get on top of things as quickly as possible. Now, when things are
going well, I don't do it at all: who wants to take time away from a client for
bookkeeping? But I miss knowing exactly what's going on, and I know that
knowing the big picture helps. I never deal with my mail, so this will let me
hold a gun to my own head every couple of weeks. Besides, if I'm going to get
any money for #4, I have to do this.
7. Go
to the movies more.
I mean, who says New Year's resolutions all have to be hard? I once attended
continuing education with a Montclair, N.J., Realtor who urged us all to read
widely so we could talk with our clients. Well, I already read all the time
because I write so much. Plus, some of my clients are Hollywood people, and
some of them are just rich people, but they all go to the movies. It's easy to
talk about movies. In addition, I run an Oscars humor site (www.thefelixes.com) and there's lots of
small talk that can come from that.
8.
Implement one idea that I get from Real Estate Connect. (I know what you're thinking:
she's moderating at Connect NY, how great can it be?) But I've been to three of
these conferences now (starting from before I even worked with Inman)
and I always learn something outrageously useful. Also, it's fun to tease Brad
about what an early tech adopter he is.
9.
Learn two neighborhoods I don't know. Will that be useful for business? I can't tell. But being able
to recommend restaurants and outings, even in an area where I don't sell, will
be useful for my clients. Besides, I can just imagine the fun I'll have
learning new restaurants.
That's
nine. How about one more, to hit a nice round number? Let's see, I don't smoke,
I don't want to face the challenge of getting organized … alright, I'll go with
the oldie-but-goodie:
10.
Lose 10 pounds.
***
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Copyright 2006 Inman News
