Sometimes the answer is off the paper...
This is a story about my 4 year old, tattoos and paper.
Stick with me…
My 4 year old has a new obsession with temporary tattoos, to which I can thank the endless amounts of kid birthday parties that we are socially obligated to attend. Everyone, and I mean everyone puts these temporary tattoos in the party favor bags. Thus began her obsession.
As a total shock to literally no one, my 4 year old is an entrepreneur at heart. So she opens a tattoo shop in our living room where she is “selling” her tattoo services. Now, this tattoo shop has a poster with 5 options of small doodles that she has created and these are your only options to choose from.
Zoey asks you to pick one of the designs and she then replicates it onto a new piece of paper and proceeds to cut it out with her kid scissors and use a minimum of 4 pieces of clear tape to adhere the tattoo to your hand.
Well, now that my hands are covered, she goes to Violet, my 2 year old, and instructs her to pick a design from the labeled poster.
Violet says I want a red balloon.
Zoey says that isn’t on the paper. You have to pick from the paper.
Violet says but I want a red balloon.
Zoey insists she pick from the paper.
Violet says I don’t want anything on the paper. I want a red balloon.
Zoey looks at me for help because she’s so stunned that Violet wouldn’t just pick a design from the paper. Eventually, after a decent amount of crying, Zoey drew a red balloon for her sister, attached it to her hand and they were both happy.
I promise this is relevant to real estate! Stick with me…
Well, now it was my turn but this time, Zoey said you can pick from the paper or I can draw you whatever you want.
Ah ha! All of a sudden, her mind had realized that there were other possibilities that weren’t on the paper. And she was actually encouraging (rather begging) us to have her draw something that wasn’t actually on the paper. The idea that there were endless options was exciting to her!
This really made me think of real estate in NJ right now.
I think so many of us are staring at the options labeled 1-5 and telling our clients to pick something from the paper, when our clients are asking for the red balloon that isn’t on the paper!
Real estate is about creativity right now, and the options are endless.
Ask yourself: Is there something that you can find that’s off the paper to help assist your buyers in their offer making? Something beyond the scope of “normal” creativity in offers? What can you do, as their agent, to find them the property they want? Is there something off the paper that you can do for the marketing of that difficult property you are about to list?
Sometimes the answer is off the paper.
You have to dig deep to discover what that truly means for each situation, but hey, that’s the problem solving nature of our business! You get paid in proportion to the size of the problem you solve. So go solve the big ones and know that there are endless possibilities.
This business demands creativity from its participants and it's in those moments where we look beyond the paper that we will find the most success.
Talk Soon , Friend!
- Meg Wub
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