Most real estate professionals can tell you what it takes to be successful, but very few actually achieve real success.

Imagine for a moment, that you're out on tour with other agents from your office and they're complaining about not making any money. How many of these laments have you heard recently?

1. There's just no "inventory" or "there are no buyers."

2. I've been taking floor time and haven't had a lead in months!

3. I spent all this money on this mailing program and I haven't gotten any business from it!

4. I've been holding open house every Sunday, but I never get any leads.

5. It's really unfair—the manager gives all the referrals to Agent Z (top producer) in our office.

6. Prospect—I just don't have time. I'm too busy with all these buyers I'm working with!

7. Buyers are liars—I've worked with these buyers for six months and then they go to an open house and buy it!

8. I can't believe it. I worked my fingers to the bone on that listing. I kept telling the sellers they needed to reduce the price. And you know what they do? They let the listing expire, drop the price, list it with XYZ Realty and it sells immediately.

Can you spot what each of these agents has in common? In each case, the agent has fallen into the reactive pattern of believing they have no control over the given situation.

In items 1-5, the agent is waiting for business to come from reactive techniques such as floor time, passive mailing, open house, or management referrals.

Items 6-8 are a different type of trap—the trap of being busy rather than effective. When agents don't have buyers and sellers who are ready to take action now, it's common for them to fill their time with unrealistically priced sellers and/or buyers who are not ready to buy.

Both types of thinking are negative and non-productive. Instead, these agents can examine why these circumstances are happening and take proactive steps to make sure that they are more successful.

Published: August 7, 2001

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Bernice L. Ross, Ph.D. operates RealEstateCoach.com, with her husband and co-trainer, Bryon Van Arsdale. A Professor of Psychology at Los Angeles Pierce College, Bernice also is a faculty member at Coach University and holds the designation of Master Certified Coach. She served as Executive Director of Training from 1993-1997 for Prudential Jon Douglas Company, and also pioneered the first real estate/coaching teleclasses for Continuing Education credit in California. E-mail Bernice at bernice@realestatecoach.com.