Comments on: Must Have a Plan . . .

By: The REAL Reasons that You and I are in Real Estate : agentgenius.com

The REAL Reasons that You and I are in Real Estate : agentgenius.com — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:20:03 +0000

[...] *heart* negotiating” as reasons to be in real estate, or a more viable answer of “I need to make a living and this career works for me” (the whole “I love looking at houses so I got my license to do it [...]

By: Thank You : agentgenius.com

Thank You : agentgenius.com — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:31:29 +0000

[...] last post I wrote here on Agent Genius was about business planning and how I am struggling a bit with it this year. The post received several comments, many were [...]

By: Paula

Paula — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 05:55:59 +0000

I am still working on my business plan. I hope real estate never defines who I am. I have found whether by time or money, it all comes down to balance. Finding balance is big fr me this year!

By: Dale Chumbley

Dale Chumbley — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 06:06:31 +0000

To Jonathan,
If you were independently wealthy would you really be on the 3-6 game? I’m thinking higher stakes would be in order. I’d love to be right there next to you. Maybe Jeff Turner and Dustin Luther as well.
I feel a game coming on.

By: Wade Young

Wade Young — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:54:41 +0000

Teresa-

One more thought. Consider retirement. When average people retire, they lap it up. I have two uncles who retired from the telephone company in their 50s with significant retirement income. They love the retired lifestyle, 5th wheel, golf and all. However, when exceptionally successful people retire, it goes like this. They travel, play golf, fish, catch up on things they have been meaning to do and then realize that they want back in the game. The most successful people in the world always come out of retirement. I think the key is to have more time off. If we vacationed like the Europeans, we would all likely love our work more. The ideal is not to give up work and follow your dream, scaling and taking pictures of the Rocky mountains, for example. That would get really boring after a short while. The key is to work less and work that fun stuff in. That’s my goal for the future. I know that I love what I’m doing. I just need to find ways to get away for more vacations. I doubt I’ll ever take that permanent vacation called retirement.

By: John Harper

John Harper — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:41:01 +0000

Too many spend too much of life trying to get a life so they can lead a life.

By: Jonathan Dalton

Jonathan Dalton — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:49:54 +0000

Mine’s definitely income-based. My mortgage company is less worried about what I’ve learned than if I’ve made my payment.

If I were independently wealthy, I’d be spending my days as a leather-ass at the local 3-6 hold em game.

By: Teresa Boardman

Teresa Boardman — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 05:11:21 +0000

Wade – fascinating. Maybe we never really know what we want.

By: Teresa Boardman

Teresa Boardman — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 03:18:45 +0000

Jeremy – money or volume, just two ways of looking at the same thing. When it comes to tracking I track volume, not money.

Larry – I may take August off this year. So far my vacations have been short.

It looks like most of you are in the business to earn a living. I think most of us do enjoy it or there isn’t any way we could do it.

By: Jeremy Hart

Jeremy Hart — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:56:48 +0000

Teresa – when you asked about the formulation of business plans on Twitter, you weren’t off-base with the income goal. We’re all in it to make money, or at least most of us will admit that we are. But we do it because we’re (a) good at it, (b) addicted to the gas fumes as we continually refill our tanks , (c) desperately need to be ordered about, or (d) all of the above. Whatever the reason, we’re in it to make cash

If starting with an income goal works for you do it. For me, I found myself paying too much attention to the potential brokerage fee that I lost sight of what I felt were my core competencies. So, I focus on volume. I know if volume is steady, money will come. Someone else mentioned they start with units – I know a Top Producer here that does the same. Whatever the formula, we’re all tracking the bottom line.

Go for it, and good luck with the goal setting!