In 1997, I wrote a page in my journal called:
Rules for Good Listings.
I had ten of them.
Geographic limits.
The house had to be at least neutral in condition.
The sellers had to be motivated to move — and everybody involved had to agree on the move.
It had to be priced within 3% of where I believed it would actually sell.
They had to be able to afford the move.
Willing to participate in the process.
90-day listing only.
Easy to show.
A winning story.
And no roadblocks.
Looking at that list almost 30 years later, I realize something.
Those rules weren’t limiting my business.
They were multiplying it.
Because every one of those rules came from experience.
I’d seen what happened when I took a listing too far outside my area.
Or when one spouse wanted to move and the other didn’t.
Or when the seller wanted to “test the market” at an unrealistic price.
Or when showing the house required an act of Congress.
Every exception introduced friction into the system.
And eventually I realized:
I didn’t have to accept the friction.
That’s one of the greatest benefits of having a marketing system that can reliably generate opportunities.
When you’re operating from scarcity, you’re tempted to take everybody.
When you’re operating from abundance, you can have standards.
You can ask a much better question:
What has to be true for me to get the very best result for this person?
And then only work with people where those things are true.
That’s an interesting exercise for your journal today.
Write down your own Rules for Good Clients.
What has to be true?
Who gets the very best results working with you?
What are the warning signs you’ve learned to recognize?
What situations are you no longer willing to make exceptions for?
It seems paradoxical.
But sometimes the fastest way to grow is to decide what you’re not going to do.
And who you’re not going to do it with.