Confession time. I have been a REALTOR for 20 years in Westfield, MA. I have a background in training and management and ran a real estate company for over a decade. I was the recipient of awards from an international real estate franchise and did motivational speaking and training for them for several years. I hosted a real estate television show. I was fearless…until it came to knocking on doors.
Latent fears are strange and usually make no sense. I can recall making my younger sister do the door knocking when we were selling girl scout cookies. I have never been able to comprehend what I was afraid of, just acknowledged that the mere thought of knocking on a strangers door made me slightly ill.
Worse than the fear was the knowledge that I was being a hypocrite. I would stand in front of hundreds of real estate agents and tell them that they needed to face their fears and pick up the phone or knock on a door. Man, is it so much easier to tell other people what to do!
So, here I am after re-inventing my real estate career and re-starting as an agent at Park Square Realty in Westfield, MA. I know all the things that I have to do to stay successful and I push myself regularly. I take aggressive training courses that keep me accountable. I create the web presence and work on becoming tech savvy for my career. I stay in touch with my sphere. I make appointments with for sale by owners and I mail to expired listings. Some of it works, but I am still not creating the kind of business that I want. My managers hold some brainstorming sessions and they tell us the impossible: go knock on doors, be the one that people meet face to face.
Hoo boy.
I acknowledge their advice. They are trying to push us into new patterns of behavior in this new market. I take a deep breath and commit in this meeting that I will try to knock on doors. That is a wimpy cop out committment, but it was the best I could do with the nausea creeping up.
Meanwhile, back at the real estate office (sorry, couldn’t resist) I am becoming affiliated with a home retention company called Titanium Inc. and am very excited about the potential to help people who have fallen into hard times with their loans. This is a subject that I am personally connected with and I am ready to be part of a positive change for these people. I complete the training, get my first assignments and then realize that I have to go KNOCK ON THESE PEOPLE’S DOORS.
Well, I am afraid, but I said I would help these people and I will. My first stop is a woman who ends up hugging me and crying and we make an appointment to meet the following week. Not bad, I am ready to try some more at this point. My second stop slams the door in my face. Even that wasn’t horrible…I realize he isn’t upset with me, just the situation. As I am leaving he comes back out, apologizes and invites me in to talk. Wow…this isn’t nearly as difficult as I expected. In fact, this is great….these people need my help and I can give it!
The following week I create some expired listing information folders and head out to visit some broker’s open houses in Westfield, MA. There are four expired listings near the open house and I am knocking on all of them. One lovely older couple is home and they invite me in to chat.
The next week I am driving past a for sale by owner in Westfield, MA and I happen to still have some of my information packets in the car. I decide to stop and while the homeowner did look at me like I had five heads, he was pleasant and I dind’t take up much time…just a low key “here is some information about what our company does, please let me know if you need some help”.
So, I am cured. No more fear of knocking on doors and I am ready to take on 2009 in a pro-active face to face way. So, if I knock on your door: rest assured I am there to help you in whatever way I can… and be gentle with me, I used to be afraid of you, too!
If you would like to invite me to knock on your door then get in touch with Lesley Lambert!
