This July I will have 8 continuous years as a Full Time Realtor. I have learned more about people and homes in this time than I could have imagined. I have sold beautiful mansions, ugly mansions, great land, not so pretty land, forever homes, first homes and foreclosures.
The biggest knowledge I have gained is about myself. I can do it. When I started this I treated my real estate business as a small, one person business. Like other parts of my life, I wanted to give it 100% and if I failed so be it. But it worked, which is why I still run my business this way. I treat others how I want to be treated and always apply these three spiritual principles: Willingness, Honestly, and Openmindedness.
Lately a lot of people have asked me “Why don’t you have a team?” Or “ Why don’t you scale your business?” The short answer is that I do not want to be middle management. I like helping people find their next home or home site. That is my Favorite part of this job. The unfun part of the job is the marketing or home cleaning or vendor locating. Plus I believe God only created one #JaySellsMiddleTN. What works for me would not work for everyone. I have a special set of skills that make me successful at this job. Some are that I know all of Middle TN, plus I have the willingness to find solutions and get deals close, and I have a degree in advertising/marketing. Those are all great advantages in the Real Estate World. And no one else has the skills, knowledge or history that I do.
I am with my clients from the first discussion or home tour to the closing table. I do not pass clients off to assistants or team mates. I hate when businesses do that to me, so I do not make that part of my normal business plan. I have always talked people out of buying or maybe selling a home. The timing is not right for all people all the time. The market changes and so do people’s situations. Sometimes it is the time and sometimes it is not.
When I help someone buy a home, we all know and hope they do not have to sell in 2-3 years. But life, jobs, marriages and kids happen. It is my job to give an honest answer of what it would look like if that happens. And I prefer selling homes that I can give the answer of – yes I could sell this and make you money.
This is the best job I have ever had. One of the main reasons for that is because I have work/life balance. That balance is a little strange because I work a lot of nights and weekends, but I am not wasting time, like when I worked in the corporate world.
I am grateful for this job and every opportunity to help people improve their life.