I have been reflecting a lot lately on what being in a real estate over the past two years has meant to me. I’ll officially celebrated my two-year anniversary on September 27th of this year. What a ride it has been, and I feel like I need to share how I got into real estate. A few years back I took the necessary training with a friend of mine. At that time, he followed through and took his test while I moved on to building different businesses. In the spring of 2016, my wife said to me, “Is it worth doing these other businesses and to gross $$ but not make money?” I prayed about it and realized she was right. So, in the summer of 2016 I enrolled in and completed the required coursework and took my exam in September 2017. It was very rewarding to make it through the process.
As I was interviewing brokerages, one of my goals was to do it differently than every other agent. With respect to the 11,700 agents in Kansas City there is absolutely nothing wrong with their methodologies or approach. It was just going to be different for me. No cold calling, no circle prospecting, no calling expired listings or For Sale by Owners (FSBO). It was, and still is today, based on relationships. Have I lost some business to local agents because of my approach? Absolutely and I recognize this on a regular basis. However, I have an internal drive to compete and do the very best I can as an individual.
My personal conviction and personal belief is that I can and will continue to build my real estate business on personal relationships and connecting with individuals on a personal level and be intentional about that every single time. I also believe that a real estate transaction is personal and private, and it is not about showing off how many transactions you have completed. It is the nature of sales to be proud and I get that. However, I tend to take a more laid-back approach and it has served me and my clients well.
People notice when you do something different and I do have the numbers to prove it, but it is not about the numbers. It is about helping others navigate one of the larger transactions whether you are selling or buying a home, investment property, lot to build or land for agriculture use. Show-Me Real Estate in Smithville Missouri has allowed me to do real estate the way I feel led.
Recently, I reached out to Heartland MLS, our local association, to talk about some statistics from 2018. The information I received from the Kansas City Regional Associations of REALTORS® of Heartland MLS for the period of January 1, 2018 through December 31st, 2018 gave me some interesting insight into realtors practicing within the Kansas City market. There were 9,697 agents in our association. Of those 9,697 agents 38.04% had no sales, and the average number of Listing Agent (LA) Sides was 3.52 transactions with an average of $815,082 and 3.52 was the average number of transactions for the Selling Agent (SA Sides). The average sales volume was $1,630,092. The average agent had 7.04 transactions in 2018. There was a total of 43,810 transactions equaling over $10,142,885,831 in sales.
As evidenced by these numbers, there is certainly great opportunities to be a real estate agent in the Kansas City area. I am extremely blessed to have a great managing broker as well as a tremendous owner / broker who challenges on a daily. I am glad to be part of Show-Me Real Estate and I look forward to working with my customers in the future.
About The Author Daniel D. Hartman:
I have been married to my wife, Marjory Hartman, for 25 1/2 years. Marjory is an incredible wife, mother and partner. She is employed full-time as a preschool teacher at Grace Community Church in Smithville. Our oldest son, Ben, is 22 and graduated with a Turf Management Associates Degree from Iowa Central Community College in May 2017. He is now employed as Assistant Groundskeeper with the Round Rock Express in Austin, TX (Houston Astros AAA Team). Our middle son, Nick, graduated Smithville High School in 2017 and attends William Woods University, where he is pursuing a degree in Communications, as well as serving part-time as a youth pastor at Midway Heights Baptist Church. Our youngest son, Nathaniel, graduated in May 2019. He is also serving in the US Army Reserve and plans to enroll this spring at UMKC to pursue a degree in Electrical Engineering.
My priority for my free time is family. I work hard for my family and enjoy spending time with them every chance I get. Some of the activities I enjoy are raising cattle, boating, attending baseball games, and being active members of our church and community. I enjoyed coaching my kids in baseball for 15 years. Whenever possible, we travel together to visit our extended family in Denver, Chicago, Florida, Texas, Arkansas and to my hometown of Hastings, Nebraska.
In my current real estate career, I welcome the daily challenges and am dedicated to helping folks navigate through real estate transactions. I work with residential customers to sell and buy homes in addition to working with real estate investors and commercial customers.
