Coaching Corner

By Nancy Wilkinson Van Valkenburgh, CRB, CRS, GRI, Real Estate Business Magazine, June/July 2007

Enhancing Work and Life

Help Neighbors with More than Real Estate

What if you got up every day and said, "Oh, boy, I get to go to work today! Won't that be fun?" Most of the great achievers in life have said that. They look forward to every day. Such a positive attitude is important in every aspect of life. In sales, it is vital.

To achieve, it is important to foster a volunteer attitude within your business. Volunteers do what they want to because it is important to them — important enough to step forward and to exert effort. No amount of artificial motivation will make people do what they don't want to do. However, we can encourage each other to persevere — to keep trying when the effort is hard, but the work is important. This volunteer attitude carries over to every area of life.

When we hold ourselves out as professionals in the real estate business, we are volunteering, in a sense, to help people with what for many of them is the largest purchase they will ever make — the house that they can call home. We sell not only the house, but help them find one that fits the life they want to lead.

We work and live with our buyers or sellers in a community that we enjoy — or not — depending on what, together, we have made of it. We have choices about the kind of community in which we live and work — the community where we spend our lives. This is the community where we find our present and future clients.

Why should we volunteer? Does it relate to real estate? Can volunteering boost your business? How do we get started?

Volunteering enhances quality of life for ourselves and especially others. Volunteers create communities where people care about each other and the kind of place where people want to live. Committing to causes you care about puts you in touch with people who share your interests. To implement volunteerism in your real estate business consider the following:

1. Find Your Passion

Volunteer interests may be the seed that grows into a lifelong real estate business. Companies and individuals may enter the real estate business because of work as volunteers. Perhaps you want to restore historic buildings or save local woodlands. Maybe you want to revitalize your community. Maybe you work to develop land in an environmentally sensitive manner. Perhaps you want to assist first-time homeowners to help provide housing for those who previously had no hope for a home. Ask yourself what your passion is. It is fun to volunteer when you know you are making a difference in something that is relevant to you and to others.

2. Be a Giver, Not a User

So you have found your passion and you are in an organization where others share your interests. How can this translate into real estate business? You have really to care about the organization and its members. If you are just in a group for what you can get out of it, you won't get much. You have to be dependable and honest. You have to do what you say you will do. If you are a phony, it will be obvious — instantly to most people and, after a little while, to everyone else. People will rightly assume that you will run your real estate business the way you handle your volunteer tasks. In other words, character matters in real estate, volunteerism and all aspects of life.

3. Support Your Interests Financially

As a company, you may allot some of your advertising budget to support volunteer interests in your community. Although you may not be able to support everything, choose an organization that is active in your service area or in which a number of your associates are interested. Individually, you may support a school in your farm area or the efforts of an organization in which you spend a good deal of time.

4. Pay Attention and Follow Up

Almost everyone is interested in real estate. It is one of the topics people enjoy discussing. Your friends and people who are in organizations with you may ask you about the market. Often, they will tell you their real estate needs. Make a mental note, and at the first private opportunity, put their hopes, dreams or requests on a small notepad, your digital organizer or your tape recorder. Do this in a sensitive way, not right in front of them at the meeting, or the appearance will be that you are using the organization even if you are just trying to help the person. When you find something your fellow volunteer may be interested in, follow up on the conversation as soon as you can. Being helpful is such an easy way to sell that one new agent said it was like standing in a field and watching the money float by. All you have to do is reach out and catch it. But, remember, you still have to reach out! You may have the prospects, but you still have to do the work.

5. Prioritize Your Time

Remember that everyone can do something — but no one can do everything. This is where your "to do" lists are crucial. Numerous sales trainers through the years have suggested that every day you make a list of your 10 most important things to do the next day. This list of 10 things should be in order of priority. Even if you are unable to finish the entire 10, you will get the most important ones done. Do you have a child who is in a play that will never be repeated? Do you have a loved one who has only a short time to live? Is the volunteer task one only you can do, and is today the only day that the task can be done? Did you obligate yourself with volunteer work to the extent that you are unable to handle the real estate task for which someone has entrusted you with the most important possession they own — their home? Planning will make it possible for you to search yourself and find time for what really feels most important in your life. This avoids wasting the one resource that can never be reclaimed — your precious time.

6. Value Buyers and Sellers and Their Interests

Like you, every one of your buyers and sellers has a life. They have interests that are important to them. If you can help them connect with organizations and volunteer work that are important to them, it will help them, the community, and in the long run, it will help you. They may improve the community through their volunteer work. They may be happier people. And when they think of you, it will be in a positive way. Value them and they will value you.

A life of service is a well-lived life. It is a special privilege to help people with their homes and their communities. In the short run, our prosperity depends on having a good community. In the long run, the kind of life we live depends on what kind of communities we build. It is a special privilege to be able to help people with their homes. It is an even greater privilege to work with others to build a better future for those who follow us.

Nancy Wilkinson Van Valkenburgh, CRB, CRS, GRI, is the co-owner/managing broker of Van Valkenburgh & Wilkinson Properties Inc. based in Huntsville, Ala. She and her staff are actively involved in volunteer efforts throughout their communities. She can be reached through www.vvwrealtor.com.