Chapter 11: Adoration

REAL ESTATE is a tricky business. The old joke is that an agent spends his commission three times—once when he gets a client, once when he makes the sale, and once when he gets the check. As a result, most are behind in the earnings game. I learned early on to live within my means. That was more of my father’s teaching. He sat down in a very businesslike way and pointed out that as an agent, I had no monthly paycheck to depend on. Therefore, when I made my first sale, I needed to consider it my income for the year and budget accordingly.

Now, each January, I determine what my budget is for the rest of the year and put my commissions in the bank to cover the months when there are none. In spite of the recent real estate collapse, I’d done pretty well for the past fifteen years. That included making sure my accounts were all balanced for the year before taxes were due.

The inevitable fall slow-down had begun early. I had closings well into October, but by November 1, my inventory was low and the prospects for listing were decreasing. It was time to ‘fill the pipeline,’ in real estate parlance. That meant getting clients on board so as soon as the weather breaks in the late winter, we have houses going on the market. Occasionally we get a mid-winter bonus.

That’s what happened when I listed the Morrison house. Ed Morrison had accepted a transfer with his company and was moving out East. He’d found housing there and the family planned to move after the winter holiday. Most folks don’t like to move their kids in the middle of a school year, but the Morrisons were more concerned about keeping their family together than keeping it in one place. If Ed was going to be in Pennsylvania, then so were the rest of them.

It was a good house, too. I paid for the appraisal myself before setting the marketing plan. I’d negotiated with Ed regarding the initial asking price and we’d decided that going over a million would be a killer in this market, so we settled on $949,000. I already knew they would take as much as fifteen percent less than the ask but the trick would be moving the house during the holidays.

As it happened, the office got its normal fall class of freshman real estate agents, fresh out of the necessary classes and newly licensed. Dan, my broker, was holding the licenses and wondering how many of them would still be in the business by spring. I’ve known Dan since I entered the industry myself. He’s a good guy, if a little crude at times. Seems he’s always interested in figuring out who the cutest new agent is and then getting it on with her. It’s always a little sad when we look at four new agents and know only one of them will still be with us at this time next year.

“How about we do something new for this class,” I suggested. “You know I just landed the Morrison house with a full seven percent commission attached. You and I don’t really need that commission as much as these newbies need a sale. Here’s what I propose. Let’s make the full commission a six-way split if the house sells inside the agency before the first of the year. That will put six of us on the line for marketing, getting prospects, and holding opens. If any of us can get it sold by Christmas, we’ll each walk away with one percent and the lucky person who closes the deal will get two percent. Everybody wins.”

“Except me,” Dan groused. “You’ll be within half a percent of what you would get as the listing agent anyway. I’m giving up two-and-a-half percent for the benefit of these kids.”

“Mmm. Jackie is no kid, if you noticed. She’s a good bit older than me. But think of what it would mean if they all got a payoff for working together. We could have more than one of them still with us by June.”

“I’m not saying ‘no.’ I’m just making sure you know who is really paying for your noble idea. You get to set everything up. They are now officially your mentorees.”

I wasn’t sure that was a word. I’d had a really good year, not the least of which was helped along by my lovely assistant Rita and the new style of painting I was doing. Nothing to do with real estate but it made me feel good. I called our four new agents together and laid out the proposal to them. The first thing they wanted to know was what was wrong with the house that I was willing to give up part of my commission to get rid of it. I explained the situation as best I could without sounding too altruistic. The truth was I’d been contemplating getting my broker’s license and setting up on my own. It was even on my goals sheet for this year. It would pay me personally if I knew there was some bright talent willing to go with me. I couldn’t really say anything about that to either the agents or to Dan. Instead, I said there weren’t many houses to practice on during the holiday season and I was on a personal project that would limit my time. I let them know I’d run dry on ideas to market the place during the holiday season and would like some fresh, untainted input.

Just putting out that much of a suggestion deflected the questions from my motives and people started tossing out ideas for marketing the house. I suggested a field trip and everyone packed up to go look at the house. I decided to let them brainstorm a little more and didn’t go with them. Instead, I headed back home to my studio. There was something nagging at the back of my mind.

My team of rookies came into the conference room looking extremely proud of themselves Friday. They’d spent the entire week researching and writing their marketing plan. Dan and I sat in the room and waited for them to get organized. Alan took the lead.

“We are launching in a single big event weekend,” he started. “Our goal is one hundred visitors to a triple open house, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.”

I saw Dan drop his head and I shook mine vigorously. There was so much wrong with this idea.

“Oh no. It’s a holiday. We’re talking about Black Friday. Everyone is out shopping. Who’s going to come to an open house?”

“Exactly,” Alan said, as if I’d just figured out their strategy. He reminded me a lot of what I was like when I started in real estate. He was young—in his twenties—determined, and energetic without the manic tone that so many young real estate agents get. I’d once had a twenty-six-year-old agent come to me so hyper I thought he was on drugs. He spoke so fast and so excitedly that he sprayed my desk with saliva and I backed my chair as far away as possible. Alan, however, was intense but not out of control. Even as a new agent, he was also working on his MBA. I waited to hear him out.

“We want to hold the opens on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings.”

“Evenings?” This was getting worse all the time.

“Yes. Here’s the plan. The Morrison House is in exclusive Holly Park, a gated community that makes holding open houses difficult because there is no drive-by traffic and people can’t get into the community.” I nodded. That was one of the major problems of market exclusive homes. Typically, one couldn’t use open houses.

“Except, on four weekends a year,” Jackie took over. “Holly Park is known for having the best holiday decorations and light display in our region. They open the gates and allow traffic through on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hundreds of cars come through the community on carefully routed one-way streets. So, our proposal is to extend the opening weekend of the lighting displays into the inside of the Morrison house. If we can get ten percent of the visitors to stop and tour the house, we’ll have over 100 potential buying parties. That’s over ten times the number that come to a normal open house.”

“What about traffic considerations?” I asked. I was beginning to warm to the idea but could see a huge traffic backup if people were parking instead of driving by.

“I checked with the president of the neighborhood association and with the local police,” Bob said. He was about 30 and had knocked about after high school, not having high enough grades to get a college acceptance that he could afford. After working in various warehouses and a season or two doing construction, he went back to get an AA degree at the local community college. He followed that with the training to get a real estate license. He was a big guy and built like a rock. He was a little intimidating for real estate sales, but once you got to know him, you saw he had a rather sweet personality. “The police send a contingent of volunteers out that keep things moving while the gates are open. All streets are one-way during the tour hours. You enter at one gate and leave at the other. The Morrisons have a big circular drive with enough width to park on one side and pass on the other. We’re thinking we hire a couple of high school kids to direct traffic in the driveway and make sure no one drives in if there are no spaces available. That will help keep the inside traffic manageable as well. We realize not everyone will get to see the house, but even if they don’t it might drive calls for appointments during the daytime.”

“I see this bringing in a lot of looky-loos and not many qualified buyers. Any plan for that?”

“A leaflet campaign in other affluent neighborhoods, including other residents in Holly Park,” Alan said. “We’ll also promote the decoration tour at the Executive Club and to several corporate headquarters in the region with an exclusive invitation to tour the Morrison house. We’ve also decided to greet people at the door and do a quick qualification and collection of names and addresses before they are allowed to follow the plastic-lined path, which is also a one-way route. That way we can keep people moving and have people stationed every so often to keep an eye on things and make sure nothing disappears.”

I looked at Dan and he had a kind of half-grin on his face. He just raised an eyebrow at me. It was my show.