The profession of real estate selling is rarely considered to be a noble one. Certainly not noble in the way that doctors and researchers and academics are able to consider themselves such, and far from true nobility that fights on foreign lands or keeps peace on these domestic streets. Real estate, the profession of it all, holds plenty of allure to much of the population, which is why there are television shows upon television shows devoted to the players within this industry’s boundaries, showcasing its successes and laughing at its failures. Only those inside the business know the way it all actually works, much like only pilots can understand what may have happened to a plane moments before the crash, or like only doctors can understand what it means when an Xray has some lightish blotches that look no different from the rest of the lightish blotches on the film. But again, this is comparing the profession of real estate to some other profession that’s more important, like piloting planes or reading films. Selling real estate isn’t like either, because it’s really not all that important.
But to me, in this office, on this cold December day, it’s pretty important. It’s the last day of 2014, and to understand this last day you must understand the first day, and in order to understand the first day, you must understand all of the first days and all of those last days that have come before it. This day, this is the last day of this most recent year, which is now the 19th last day of the 19th year that I’ve been working at this job, this real estate job. Every year, the end is the same. It’s a reflection on the year past, sure, but it’s very little of that. It’s more a fear of what is to come, as uncertainty is to real estate what scissors are to hair salons. There cannot be one without the other, and if there is one without the other, then nothing is being done particularly well. So one year ends and another begins. There should be time to contemplate for this, time to prepare. But instead, there is just one day when it’s that year and the next day it’s another one. The timing of it all could not be any more succinct.
My entire real estate life has been spent looking forward, rarely considering what has been accomplished, rarely resting on any sort of laurel, hard one or otherwise. That’s not to say that I don’t reflect, because I’m constantly staring into a glassy surface, but I don’t spend much time in the celebration of what’s come before. That’s why I don’t go out on New Year’s Eve. I don’t celebrate, because I feel that a celebration is good for very little. Are we celebrating the fact that we’re still alive? I suppose, and that should be celebrated, but perhaps it’s best to be expected, I’m not really sure. So I look back today, back at this last year and the other 18 that have found me waking up to make phone calls, and I wonder if it isn’t time to celebrate, just a bit.
In August of 1996 I put on a shirt and tie, pulled up some pleated dress pants, and went to work. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, how to accomplish it, and where I had hoped to go. I was a kid, and I subscribed to a very desperate theory that would force me to fake it until I made it. From that day until the end of 2009, some 14 years, I sold $42MM worth of real estate. That was enough to buy several homes, enough to get engaged and married, enough to have two beautiful children. It was enough to live here, to boat at will, to fish when the lake fell calm, to sail when the wind returned. It was plenty, though it was only enough to look at each year and think that it was okay, and hope that the coming year would be better.
In 2010, something changed. I had long before then decided that selling real estate wasn’t fun, and that if I was going to sell it I was only going to sell the real estate that I liked. I wasn’t going to sell homes in Elkhorn, because the truth about Elkhorn is that I don’t like it. Delavan? Can’t stand it. Whitewater? I’ll kindly need you to provide me with a map if you wish me to go there. So I made the decision to walk from selling any real estate, and I planned to only sell some of it. In 2010, I sold $18MM worth of homes. In 2011, $15MM. In 2012, $23MM. The trend has been established, and while I’m actually feeling sheepish about it all, 2014 brought $37MM in total sales. To reflect on the year that I made the decision to only sell Lake Geneva real estate, not Walworth County real estate in the vague way that most other agents sell, I can determine now that it was a very good decision. The focus that I sought to narrow has now been so constricted that my 2014 volume didn’t include a single sale that wasn’t a Lake Geneva vacation home. That’s focus, and I suppose in that I should be very pleased.
Pleased to be the top agent in Walworth County, pleased to be, by my eye, the #1 single agent in the entire state of Wisconsin. I can make that claim based on the fact that most agents in that volume category are actually team agents. They’re the, Lady-and-her-Husband-and-her-two-kids and-three-assistants-and-an-office-dog, sort of teams. I should be pleased that since the start of 2010, I’ve sold just shy of $110MM worth of real estate, and that total is represented by 98% Lake Geneva vacation home sales. It’s also the #1 individual agent volume for Walworth County since that time. That’s five years of being tops, and that should be something to be extremely happy about.
And I am, but in real estate, it’s last year and the next year. Last year, the year that I’m writing in today, I sold $37MM worth of Lake Geneva real estate. Last year, that was #1. In 2015, I’m just a guy with unkempt hair and a new office, and that volume has to find a way to return. In 2015, I’m starting from scratch, and it’s the starting from scratch that makes celebrating difficult to consider. I’ve been blessed this year, there’s no doubt about it, but I’ll need to keep that momentum into the new year if the past year is to be anything but a footnote. There are opportunities in this new year that didn’t exist in the old year, and I’m seeing the market with increased clarity each and every year that I stash under my belt. That clarity is why I’d like people to call me. That clarity is what should make me a bit different from the others. That clarity is how I can add value to your real state maneuvering.
For now, I’m grateful. I’m appreciative to everyone who slogs through this verboseness in hopes of finding a tidbit of two that are individually worth while. I’m appreciative to my customers and clients, who demonstrate exceptional loyalty in spite of having myriad representation options. I’m happy to be in this newfound position, but I’ve not forgotten that it took me almost 14 years to sell as much as I sold in the last one. There’s no annuity in real estate, no guarantee of anything. And that’s what’ll keep me in tonight, focused on what must be done starting tomorrow, not obnoxiously pleased with what happened yesterday.
Here’s to a very healthy, immensely happy, Lake Geneva filled 2015.