Leverage Your Strengths & Process Improvement: Success in real estate is defined by the individual, and as I embark on my third year in the business I reflect on some of my wins. First off, as Socrates stated, “Know Thyself”. I have worked as a contractor for a small Richmond, VA based consulting firm for over a decade as a small group facilitator leading corporate and municipal team building and leadership development programs. Through this experience, I am confident in my strengths on the DISC scale of high “I” (influencer/optomistic/high-energy) and low “S” (patient/accimidsting/tactful). Building relationships, cultivating rapport, and making instantaneous personal connections with people is my superpower. Ask yourself what is your superpower? What can you excel at above and beyond everyone around you? With this in mind, I focused on open houses and have created almost half of my business originating from my open houses as a lead source. One of the most accelerated success stories was hosting an open house for another agent in our brokerage and I met couple who were combining households and planning to rent out each of their perspective properties. This couple stayed at my open house the entire three hours and I would bounce around to introduce myself to new attendees that came through the door and then bounce back to this couple. I put them in touch with the lender on the spot and they were talking to the lender in the kitchen getting preapproved on the spot and got the green light from my awesome lender partner. When it came time to discuss what an offer on the property would look like I ran into an objection that the buyer knew several other real estate agents who were his friends. Without hesitation I told him that I know everything about this property, and I have a great relationship with the listing agent that give confidence and assurance to the seller. I left him with a question, “if something goes wrong in the transaction, would you be willing to sacrifice a friendship over purchasing a property?” His reply was, “let’s write this contract Mike, you’re my guy”. I found out later the buyer was a high D (direct/forceful/task-oriented) and he needed to see my confidence projected in order for him to have confidence in me to get the job done. And we ratified the next day!! Another open house success story was meeting a family with two children who had outgrown their starter home, and I went directly from the open house to show this family two other properties on the same day demonstrating responsiveness and conducting a ‘how to sell and buy at the same time’ consultation on the go demonstrating flexibility and adaptability. The following weekend we found their family the Ideal larger hime, but it required a home contingency on the purchasing contract. When we ratified the listing agent dropped the home contingency because she was so confident in my communication assurances that the home would sell quickly in this low-inventory market. At closing the clients shared with me they had never worked with a Realtor who made the process so seamless, and I’ve received one referral from this family.

One of my biggest achievements since joining eXp is - I get to collaborate and talk to top agents from all across the country who are willing to share strategies that are working in their market. Then I have been able to implement those strategies in my local market.

My biggest achievement with eXp is having all the resources especially with KV Core, in learning how to get great leads and how to utilize and stand out with my website. Take advantage and take the time to know how to use it. You will thank yourself.