Guest post by Agent Chris Levy
Flying combat missions and selling real estate have many similarities. Granted, one involves driving around a nice neighborhood and the other involves trying to kill people and break things that are protected by really scary defensive systems…but they both involve details. Lots of critically important details! During my 24 years of flying combat sorties, I learned over and over just how important those details can be. Just like in real estate, successfully addressing those details is the difference between success and failure.
Planning a mission might at first seem simple. There is the target…fly over it and bomb it. Done. However, it involves an endless list of seemingly benign pieces of information. How much moon illumination can we expect over a night target? Where will the sun be when we expect fighter resistance? Which way is the wind blowing? Those pieces of information, along with hundreds more, drive our tactics when approaching the target. The moon illumination determines if the bad guys can see us as we approach. The sun might hide us from enemy fighters (or them from us if the sun is in the wrong place). The direction the wind is blowing determines where we drop the first bomb so the smoke and dust from the explosion doesn’t obscure the remaining targets.
Completing a successful real estate transaction involves just as much attention to detail as a combat mission. Get your information from reliable sources such as the tax record. Pay attention to local news, community projects, and market trends. Double and triple check all the entries on a contract. Be very careful to follow the ethical guidelines for Realtors by always representing the interests of your client. Track every deadline in a transaction. Ensure any communication you send is also received and understood by the intended recipient. These are just a few examples of the myriad of details that must be covered to close a deal.
Steve Jobs, while not a Realtor, understood the value of details when he said, “This is what customers pay us for, to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We’re supposed to be really good at this.” Realtors are really good at sweating all those details so it’s easy and pleasant for our clients to buy or sell property. That’s why we get paid a decent commission. It’s attention to detail that separates good agents from great agents, just like it separates good fighter pilots from great fighter pilots. The truth is in the details!
