Forget about New Year's Resolutions. Start thinking about new rules of real estate instead. Resolutions are something "you' can think up - and FORGET about - at your discretion. But real estate rules are like laws of physics: You can try to "forget" about gravity - but one step off the roof and you'll be quickly reminded.
 
So here's Real Estate Rule #1 for 2008:
Implement more tools than you purchase. It’s easy to buy new products and services but it’s only helpful if you put them fully into action. Even the fanciest tool is useless, if it’s left unused.
 
The best part about this rule is that it reminds you that you have ALREADY purchased lots of stuff - web sites, tech toys, marketing tools - that remain largely unused. Before buying anything new this year, look around at the tools you already have and make sure you're getting the absolute best results from them you can - because you're already paying for them.
 
The 'implement more than you buy' rule is critical. It represents the first step in modernizing the way you approach real estate. Whether you're a broker or an agent, the market is too tight to accommodate "just getting by" with your investments. The 'implement' rule reminds us that it's not about secret tools, special software, or proprietary advantages over the competition that matter. What matters most is how well, how thorough, and how completely you implement the stuff you already have at your disposal.
 
If you look back a year at this very newsletter you'll find advice to give up on "silver bullets" as your operational strategy. That advice has become more vital than ever - to a point at which too many brokers are really facing a "distinction or extinction" moment in their practice. Either they will act this year to implement their tools with distinction, and finally dispose of bad habits, or they'll join the rest of the 25% of the marketplace that downsized itself last year (note that most people left the business due to their own inability to practice not being put out of the business by some better-practicing competitor).
 
Rule #1 is easy to understand; difficult to implement; fundamental to adopt. Make this year the one in which you do more, talk less and close the "knowing - doing" gap.
 
Happy New Year!