I hear it over and over again “I have tons of interested people looking at my home” and when you ask if they had an offer the answer is most of the time “no”.

Sure we are currently having a sellers’ market but that does not mean that every house will sell as soon it becomes available. There are many reasons why or why not a home will sell quickly or sit for a while longer and many sellers will find out sooner or later that selling a home is not all fun and game, especially when you have to deal with a buyer.

Price

Every seller would like to get as much out of their home as possible and some will price their home based on feeling and not true value for the area. Experience has thought me when a home is priced to high from the beginning it usually will for less than a similar sized home.

Value

Some sellers have refinanced their home in the past and that is what they are using to set their price they would like to sell the home for. This is not a good idea. Call an appraiser or the Real Estate Broker to get a current up-to-date evaluation.

Stage Ready

When a house is not “stage ready” you might not see an offer no matter how good the price is of the home. When a home show poor maintenance, is stuffed full with stuff and unorganized you truly will turn off buyers and later end up needing to lower your price or pull the home off the market.

Car sales mentality

Many sellers might hold and open house and trying to sell the home during the open house. Open houses are not a good time to “force” a buyer to sign at the bottom line. Open house is there to showcase and to have your home shine.

Remember the time you bought your home. You fell in love with the home and not the deal.

Be prepared that you have “lookie looks” coming in and most of the time they are only interested in what the neighbor’s home looks like from the inside.

Know the rules and laws

When you finally sit down with a buyer make sure that you know the rules, your rights and responsibilities from the inside and out.  Some of the transaction can get complex and confusing at times and when you overlook even a small detail it could cost.

Just ran across a blog post from Mark Graban called No Time for Improvement? Bah! Make Time for Improvement! That reminded me of an interview I did just recently with a REALTOR that I wanted to hire for REO’s and Short sales referrals in her home state.

As a real estate professional I am always looking for other professionals in other parts of the country to make connections with to be able send personal referrals too.

I always ask anyone who I plan to work with about continues education, and self-improvement.

This conversation stuck out and I never will forget this one for sure. It was with a new REALTOR. She had, at the time, her license less than 12 months and during the conversation she point blank told me that she does not have to learn anything else within her profession and everything she needed to know about real estate was thought to her in real estate school and she did pass her real estate license.

We all need to make time for continue education, and self-improvement and we need to make time and see that it is as important as making money. We never should stop or not be willing to learn for self-improvement or for business.

Being a servant leader is not a new concept it has been around and goes back to 33 A.D.(thank you Linda Fitzgerald, for correcting me) The phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in “The Servant as Leader”, an essay that he first published in 1970.

Organizations as well as individuals can be servant-leaders. When you are a servant-leader you focus mainly on the growth and well-being of others and the communities to which they belong too. Traditional leaders generally involve the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top”.

As a servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as to their best abilities.

For Butler University, Robert K. Greenleaf put the Ten Principles of Servant Leadership together.

Some of the qualities a servant leader holds are:

• Listening to others and values diverse opinions
• Regularly seeks out opinions of others
• Has Empathy for others and willing to help others with life issues not only work
• Commitment to the Growth of People into leadership rolls
• Build’s a community of trust
• Encourages others
• Has selfless qualities

Compare to principals of a traditional leader whose principals are guided by the accumulation of power and money servant leader is guided by the need and opinions of others and the community the servant leader serves.

We all do it !!!  Networking!

Some of us better than others and some of us don’t realize we are doing it every day.

Just having lunch with friends or family is a form of networking. You are getting the word out about what you do and who you are looking for. It always comes up during casual conversation.

Watching the kids at a sporting event is a form of networking. You usually make connections on a personal level with the other individuals who are at the event. Going shopping can be easily an event for networking.

Some of us are connected through social media and that is also a form of networking.

OK…now what we do with all of our connections we have accumulated?

When you speak with active networkers they will most likely throw the Givers Gain tagline at you. It is much more than that and I found a good example in an article I have read on the website “Addicted 2 Success” called “13 ways to unlock the hidden power of your Network to increase your net worth”

• Assess the barriers that are holding you back
• Define your core passions and purpose with the Funnel Test
• Create a mind-set of positive productivity
• Develop a Give Give Get attitude…..yes givers gain is also part of the mix …..
• Commit to shaking it up. Get out of your daily routine.
• Accelerate your connections with technology
• Cultivate relationships that support your purpose. Keep your core circle of networkers close and your secondary cycle close on hand.
• Visit power pockets to accelerate networking
• Hone your connecting skills and learn from hub players
• Create content, products, or services to share your purpose
• Develop partnerships to extend your reach
• Learn to make successful asks.
• Decide what brings you happiness and success: head, heart, or wallet?

Networking is a team sport and Jack Welsh put it best:

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch

Having been on both sides of the fence during my work career I recently stopped and contemplated about what type of boss I am.

Reading a lot of articles from different sources I came across an article that was posted in the Fox Small Business Center called “10 things great bosses do” and used their list to see where I am standing.

The 10 trades they listed were:

• Holding yourself accountable
• Don’t be full of surprises
• Be prepared to fix things
• Know and have a feel for your business
• Get the job done
• Manage effectively in every direction.
• Be able to make quick and informed decisions, even when they are not popular
• Be effective not productive and stay flexible.
• Live for your job by being engaged, empowered, driven, and self-motivated
• Make sure you keep your sense of humor, have humility, empathy and learn about your own limitations and fallibility.

Looking at this list I can see I still have room for improvement on the other hand I can personally see how far I have come.

In matter to grow a business we have to be willing to grow ourselves.