In my role as a Team Leader with Keller Williams Realty, Diamond Partners, Inc in Olathe, KS I ask people all the time “What are you going to do when adversity comes?” It is important to know that real estate creates real wealth for life’s tragic moments. Let me give you a couple of examples.
February 16, 2018
I learned of my 20 year old daughter’s passing. It was unexpected. This was not a fun time in my life and, in fact, I am still healing from the occurrence. Part of that healing is sharing this post with those of you considering a career in real estate and trying to figure out how to get your real estate license. Anyway, the thing I need to say is this; “The one thing I didn’t have to worry about during the entire ordeal was money.”
How much more stress would there have been if I didn’t have my financial ducks in a row? Real estate has allowed me to have a great income. Some would say I make too much. And I would say “I work very hard…and very smart.”
Do you know how much it costs to buy a plot, hire a funeral home, get a headstone marker, etc? It’s in excess of $15,000. Because real estate has allowed me to earn beyond what I could otherwise earn as a college drop-out and because I live conservatively, money wasn’t an issue.
Thank you, God, for my work ethic and that I learned my money lessons earlier in life and didn’t have to burden my wife with the additional stress of “How are we going to pay for this?”
December 2013 – March 2014
My mother was in her final leg of her journey with breast cancer. As the end was drawing near my sisters and I worked out an around-the-clock schedule to take care of her. I took many of the day shifts because of my sisters’ schedules. And I was okay with that.
In the previous years I had developed enough of a real estate team that not only did my customers get served at a high-level with me only being available by phone much of the time, but my income actually continued uninterrupted. In fact, it continued to grow.
Imagine that. Real estate sales gave me the gift of being with my mother in those final weeks when she needed me most. I even had to laugh when, at one point as I was helping her back to the couch, she suggested that I should go back and finish my college degree. I told her that as much as I love the University of Kansas I just couldn’t see myself taking a pay cut. Real estate had treated me just fine.
By living somewhat conservatively and paying close attention to your plan many may have been able to take weeks and weeks off and still been okay. However, most would not be able to do so.
What is more important than your family? What can help you to help them when need and life’s tragedies arise?
Money is only good for the good that money can do.
There are lots of reasons to consider a real estate career. One of the best is relieving yourself from all the financial stresses so many people are under. Yes, absolutely, it takes work. You may have to change who you are. You will have to educate yourself and become learning based. You may have to work when you don’t want to and work with people you’d rather not work with until you have earned the right to not do so.
How is any of that any different than your day job?