Ownership is a Part of Leadership or Dealing With Housing Market Reality

Ownership is a part of leadership. We were having a discussion this morning in my Leadership Development group based on this idea from the book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. The idea is that, when you are a leader you have to take ownership of vision, policy and other crucial factors such as budget and marketing.

As I sat listening to the other business owners talk through the topic, a thought crossed my mind. As a Real Estate Professional, I have to own the reality of what the housing market is. I have no choice in the matter. I cannot control the market nor alter the market. It is what it is and I have to accept that reality. Now, that's no big deal to you right? You sell Real Estate for a living. You accept the market for what it is also.

But if I am to be a leader in my industry, it is my job to figure out how to push this down to the people who are my clients. And I'm not just talking about sellers here. I'm talking about buyers also. I don't know about you, but I encounter buyers these days who just think they can take sellers to the cleaners on pricing because it is such a buyer's market. And on the sell side, I am still encountering sellers who just will not face the reality that x number of equity is gone. They will never get what the $45,000 they want in profit for their house. Telling them they ought to be happy at $30K or whatever the number is, is like talking to wallpaper many times. I have to remind people that walking away with anything these days is a blessing!

I think, in an organization, it could be easy to cast vision and push it down to employees, depending on the culture and structure. I don't think this is quite so easy when you are in Real Estate. We can try to bring market reality to buyers and sellers by well defined scripts and hard numbers, but sometimes they still won't listen. We can shout from the rooftop about how great a time it is to buy, but it isn't making a difference. We can blog about it, run commercials about it and talk till we are blue in the face and it still isn't making a difference.

Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to convince someone is by letting their listing sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...under someone else's sign!