Life Could Be a Cinch

Allow me to tell you a tale of old air-conditioners, potato chips, $32 million in real estate, and cute nails — with a promise that in the end, it’ll all make sense

I had aced the real estate practice exam dozens of times, pretty much every time I had ever taken it. When it came time for the moment of truth, I dragged my feet about going in for the real thing.

Why? It isn’t that I was afraid I wouldn’t pass. I’m pretty good at tests. The problem is that I just didn’t know what the next step would be after getting my license, other than venturing by myself into the great unknown. In Florida, it seems like everyone with a good smile is a real estate agent. What’s my edge? What’s my plan? Sure, I get the license then what? How do I translate that into action and reward?

Indecision is costly, friends. Months of a hot market passed me by.

Eventually, my wife put me on the phone with a childhood friend of hers named Cory Ellsworth who had recently moved back to the area. Cory had been very successful in selling real estate in North Carolina but was for the most part starting from scratch again down here in Florida.

And he was looking for a partner.

Immediately, I knew my next move, so I charged ahead and never looked back. I’ve learned from my education career thus far that to find a good mentor to guide you through the haze of uncertainty will rapidly speed up the learning curve. Mentors are one of the most important ways to close the distance between where we are right now in life, and where we want to get to.

I had only met Cory maybe once before, but it was memorable because — uniquely among my wife’s friends — I was left with the distinct impression “man, I would feel very comfortable doing business with that guy.”

I had forgotten some of the testing material over those months, but after a few weeks of refreshing, I took the real estate exam and passed it on the first try, no problem.

Cory told me to sign up with the company he uses called LoKation Real Estate

I’m not going to elaborate on their pricing model because that’s not really the thrust of this article, but the bottom line is that they let agents keep 100% of commissions and just pay a small subscription and transaction fee.

Right after I sign up, one of the high ranking people at LoKation named Jeremy gave me a courtesy call just to check in and make sure everything has gone smoothly and found out if I had any questions. This is a classy operation. I’m really happy Cory turned me on to this company.

Under Cory’s mentorship, and with the resources of LoKation, I was getting confident that I could figure this out pretty quickly and that I could be successful enough to make some life-changing money during this Florida real estate boom.

And then I got this in my inbox:

Good morning Jesse,

Welcome to LoKation. I am the home warranty partner and would love meet you on zoom and learn more about your real estate business. Additionally, go over best practices of using our home warranty in for your clients and answer any questions. Do you have 15 minutes early next week?

Kind regards

A salesperson. Gah! They’re the worst. Probably a big waste of time.

But wait — then again, I’m going to be a salesperson too, aren’t I? I know I’m certainly not planning to waste people’s time. I’m going to help people get where they want to go, whether they’re prospective agents who are stuck like I was, or they’re buyers, or they’re sellers… I’m in this to make life easier for people. That’s the only sustainable way to succeed.

Maybe she can help me.

Alright, Kim. Let’s set it up.

It was a long day. I had been working from 8 am to 5 pm at my standing desk (okay, technically a dresser). I’m unshaven, in a T-Shirt, my glasses are dirty, and frankly, I’m not in the mood to meet with anyone, especially a salesperson I haven’t met before. But I had made a commitment, and I wasn’t going to stand her up.

Kimberlee Bernstein lit up as soon as I got on camera. She has a delightful British accent and in the background, there’s a Union Jack pillow sitting neatly on a couch by the staircase. The place looks nice but not over the top, and she’s professionally put together, but not so much so that it’s like she’s trying to prove something. I guess the best way to put it is that Kim’s the sort of person who naturally puts people at ease.

Early on in the conversation, she mentions that she used to sell real estate and was in fact a $32 million producer. It doesn’t surprise me at all. Again, just as with Cory or Jeremy, my immediate impression is “I’d be very comfortable doing business with this person.”

We talk about my story, which I can skip over in this article because I wrote it here:

We talk for a little while but she fairly quickly gets to the point of why she wanted a few minutes of my time. She works for a company called Cinch. What do they sell?

Warranties.

For most of the United States, warrantees on appliances are standard practice. You can even get sued for not including one on a property’s sales contract, it would often be viewed as negligence. But here in Florida? They just aren’t utilized. Only about 5% of the time is there a warranty.

The advantage of using this tool was immediately obvious to me because I’ve both bought and sold a house before, and one of the things I worried about is, for example, the air-conditioner breaking shortly after I move in. I’m not going to have $5k to shell out just after I spent all that money on closing costs and a move! Instead of demanding that the seller spends thousands of dollars upgrading something as a condition of the contract, a few hundred dollars for a warranty removes the problem of uncertainty and lack of trust from the equation if they don’t.

In our litigious society, it is clear why warrantees add value to the transaction by putting everyone at ease. If something goes wrong, there’s no need for finger-pointing and bad feelings, which is vitally important in a context where I want to make sure people think of me as beneficial and want to do business with me again. It smooths the transactions all around.

The fact that 1) so many people are moving to Florida from states where warrantees are expected, and 2) I’m one of the 5% who understands them and will be using them, means that I’m going to have at least one huge advantage for my credibility, even over much better established and more experienced agents.

At some point, I joked that it looks like she and I are in a bit of a race because if she continues to be successful in getting the word out to all the agents in Florida then I won’t have my advantage for very long!

Well, all good things come to an end, so I figure if it is inevitable anyway I might as well help get the word out. It’s good for the customers, good for the sellers, and no cost to the agents, so why not help improve the industry and my state by sharing the knowledge?

Speaking of which, with the last few minutes before we reached 6:00, I asked Kim if she had any advice for me as a new agent. It couldn’t hurt to get the perspective of a $32 million producer!

“It’s the little things,” she explained. “Showing appreciation, giving people Starbucks gift cards as thank you’s for referring you customers, things like that which set you apart and keep you in their minds.”

She recommended checking in regularly every few months, especially around holidays. You can even do creative giveaways like sending people bags of chips for National Potato Chip Day. Little things. Let everyone you encounter know what you do.

And use social media! Facebook is the best one for her, she’s found. She flashed me some glossed nails and explained that she started a business only three months ago selling these nails because people liked hers and wanted their own. In only a few weeks she’s got a full-fledged side business thanks to social media.

It struck me as odd for a moment that someone as energetically entrepreneurial as her would ever give up such a thriving real estate business. I asked why she decided to switch over to Cinch, although it was obvious if I had paid better attention to the sound of playing in the background. She’s a mother, so business as rigorous as high-value real estate was no longer practical. But she took the job selling warranties from home because she loves it and wants to have an impact. Well, I firmly believe that there’s no impact on society more consequential than parenthood, and I hope to have the chance to do that myself soon. But in terms of the workplace, given that she closes every agent she talks to and has earned the nickname “Warranty Whisperer” around the office, I think it’s safe to say she’s having that impact too.

I figure there’s no better time to be in the practice of taking the time to do the little things, a note of appreciation, a gift to those who help you along the way, so here’s my bag of chips to Kim.

Thanks to Kimberlee, I went from having confidence that I could figure this out quickly, to having the certainty that I’m going to absolutely crush it.