I am very tired of telling everyone about how many houses I’ve sold. It’s nauseating, really. I have no idea where the balance is between making sure everyone knows that I am far and away the top producing agent in this County and stepping back and letting my sales speak for themselves. They should speak for themselves, after all, but as soon as I think they’re speaking I look over and they’re all tongue tied, sitting in a chair that faces the corner of a locked room. Perhaps it’s the curse of working in a very small office. Perhaps if I worked at a great big office I’d be able to stand on stage with the applause ringing in my ears while my boss hands me a really nice Rolex along with a plaque with my name on it. We would shake hands and the flashes would flash. But then I think about how terribly lame that would be and how my wife wouldn’t even want to go to the banquet and how the watch I have on my wrist is cooler than the watch they’d gift me so why would I want anything to do with that?
Perhaps if I did all of that I’d be a who’s who in Lake Geneva real estate. Perhaps some people aren’t aware that you have to pay to be on those lists, perhaps everyone knows that. I know that, because I’ve checked on that, but marketing perception is often far from reality. That’s why I try to tell you about my sales and my statistics, because I know how confusing it is to look at a market and review the participants and then try to figure out who’s who. I figured that the actual rock hard statistics should be a clear guide, and since those statistics support my position in the market, I guess I hope that’s enough. But as soon as I think that it’s enough I see a social media feed or a postcard from someone else claiming they’re the tops and I wonder if I’m living in a bizarro world. Did you know there’s a market participant in the Milwaukee market claiming she’s the top agent in the state, even though I am? This is how marketing can be confusing.
And so it goes, a search for balance and a complete failure at finding it. For 2022 I closed more than $135,000,000 in transactions. That figure puts me as the number one agent in Walworth County by some figure that exceeds $90,000,000 in volume. I’m guessing that volume will place me as the top singular agent in the state of Wisconsin again for 2022 (rankings on this won’t come out until this summer via Real Trends). But does that matter to you if you’re seeking assistance in the Lake Geneva market? I know it should, because it means my network is robust and if you’re a seller I likely have your buyer and if you’re a buyer, well, you know how networks work. I also know working with an agent who has found a pattern of market specific success should be a meaningful data point, for the reasons that are obvious but also for reasons that aren’t.
I have two lakefront transactions pending today, both off market sales of the quiet nature. I closed a farm yesterday for a highly valued client of mine, but that was off market as well. If you don’t like the business of off market deal making, consider what it is that I’m doing here. I’ve been tasked with finding a buyer for a seller, or a seller for a buyer. I could advertise that condition and beg for interest. I could pretty up the property and place a sign in front and roll out a real red carpet in hopes a neighbor brings their cousin over during my Sunday open house. I’ve seen this happen on TV before. But why would I do that? What I’m doing today is akin to an elite level match maker, or an executive placement firm for the C-suite. Anyone can put their profile pic on a dating or job site and hope the world notices them, but there are others who look to direct match making through well paid match makers in their cities, or in their financial strata, or in their career space. By looking for a match in this manner, you know the match maker is weeding through throngs of would-be matches to try to deliver to you the best possible match without publicly sorting through those who just aren’t the right fit. And you were going to fill out a profile on Tinder?
I wake up every morning and drive to this office and work to make some matches in this market. I can do it very quietly and discreetly, as I have been doing with terrific efficiency, or I can do it very visibly with massive market exposure, as I have also been doing with terrific success. Either way, I’m here to help, and if it matters to you, I hope you know I’ve been fortunate to help the best clients in this market buy and sell quite a few houses over the past many years…