While watching the exciting golf tournament yesterday afternoon (of course, that may be an oxymoron to some) and attempting to get a listing agent to beat up his seller so that my buyer can “steal” their home at a lowball price, I was thinking about how many of us will deal with the immediate future facing us in the real estate profession.
Yes, homes will still sell and yes, buyers will still be able to obtain a mortgage, just in less numbers than during the heyday of a few short years ago. Many real estate agents who rushed into the market in the past few years to earn big, fast money will soon be rushing out to get paying jobs. The Post and Courier, Charleston’s daily newspaper highlighted this trend in Sunday’s paper.
In the days before homogenization, the milk bottle delivered to homes appeared to contain 2 different liquids, a thick yellow liquid (cream, the butterfat of milk) at the top and a thin white liquid (skimmed milk, the nearly fat free portion of milk) at the bottom. Even after shaking the bottle, the 2 layers would eventually separate and the cream would once again rise to the top.
I noticed that many of the finest players in the world were in contention during the golf tournament because it was the first event of the new FedEx Cup with lots of money at stake. They are the cream of the crop, the crème de la crème as the French might say and the best always wins or comes out on top. While Tiger didn’t play the first of four tournaments, does anyone really think he won’t win the inaugural event?
There has always been a business cycle and the world of business is truly based on British economist, Herbert Spencer’s phrase “survival of the fittest” based on Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”. During good economic times, even average companies turn a profit and grow but when the economy turns down, many flounder, lose money and go out of business. The best run businesses gain market share and grow even more profitable as the economy turns up once again.
As professional real estate agents, it is up to each of us to rise to the occasion, put our game faces on and survive and thrive during these difficult times and rise to the top.
The cream always rises, see you at the top!