This little adage or cliche’ however you may read it could very well apply to just about anything challenging.  Most writers will tell you it applies to writing whether or not they are published. Every runner will likely tell you that it applies to running whether or not you win races. And well, realtors may or may not mention it. I will offer that finding the right realtor to help you find the right home will be a challenge. Understanding the meaning behind the right information, the right realtor, and the right experience for you when selling or buying a home is the key to your best results. I’ve found that my own knowledge, experience, and success has challenges and rewards that can be described in motivational slogans, adages, and some cliche’ peppered with a smidge of humor.  There are as many ways to find a realtor as there are realtors. We’re not difficult to find. You may want to consider the how AND the why when you interview agents to help you start your real estate story.

Don’t Just Do It.

There’s so much information, great tips and how-to’s for everything real estate related. I’m as pro-DIY as they come and aspire to create each post I share on Facebook or pin I add to my favorite boards on Pinterest. For listings, just Google it! Get the latest listings online. Type in simple key words, zip codes, community names, etc., and you can watch a video, take a virtual tour, and read property descriptions and ads, too. Then, Voila! Visit the house online. Find the right home. Find the right neighborhood. Easy peezy, right?If the above information, searches, visits, and videos were all it takes to sell or buy a home then anyone with a phone or computer could and would do it. Some, even my own family members insist on trying it and turn their home sale or search into a DIY of sorts.The results in most cases? Less than stellar. Motivation turns to exhaustion and shock that it takes more than a sign in a yard or a short visit to several homes for three days straight to actually sell or buy a home. There’s more to it that means more for you and to you when you find the realtor for you to make it happen.

Motivation Means Something

It’s happened to every runner. The hills, ugh! Just. Can’t. Make It. It’s happened to every writer. Writer’s block. No inspiration. There are definitely challenges, uphill battles, and road blocks for everyone. Yes, realtors too.  Each of us is inspired by something, someone; change, job, charity, faith, and more. That inspiration gives meaning to the things we do and the purpose behind our goals and actions we take toward achieving them. So while you search and sift through all of the information at your fingertips. Your motivation is paramount.

Think about it. Take inventory about what you like and don’t like about your current home, life, finances, and situation. Why are you moving? Career move,military orders, family, life reasons is a short list of reasons behind recent client motivation to find certain home style, features, location, and community. Sure bedrooms, baths, yard, garage, location are all important and common criteria for most of us. When I meet with sellers, it’s often the home specs that they describe as we tour the home. When working with buyers, it’s often the first question they answer when I ask them for the most important criteria in their new home. I often hear about design details, layout, style and space. These important and relevant preferences about common criteria and design details play an important part in the process obviously. Dig deeper and consider what these attributes actually mean for your new home.

Consider the why behind them. Then, think about your most favorite home you have ever lived in and how it felt being there. The good, the bad and the ugly can all come into play, too. It can be an eye-opening experience to consider how much you hated that tiny little back bedroom in your childhood home because there was barely enough room for a desk to do your homework. Yet, just passed that initial gut reaction lies the memories of sitting on the floor of your room, talking on the phone, listening to loud music and ignoring your little’s sister’s knock on the door. What does this have to do with your next move as an adult? That’s up to you. Does that mean that 4 large bedrooms are more important than 5 smaller ones? Is a two-story house with a basement really right for you if the basement of your most recent home would flood during heavy rain or snow? Then, turn it around. Like the runner who takes the hill or the writer who writes through and tears down the barriers and blocks, know how your preferences can create more room for possibilities that will tell a similar or different story that means the most to you. Then, you may find that as you make sense of what this criteria means to you and for your life, the home search takes on a different, deeper meaning bringing you closer to your life goals. A steady, focused search and sorting homes, criteria, community, and locations takes you to the best properties available so you find the right place to call home.

Every Mile Gets You Closer

Slowing down the pace helps a runner refine form, strength, and endurance. A writer writes, revises, and edits with thoughtful deliberation and focus. Both progress with precision pushing through the pain of every step. It doesn’t matter if you’re running or writing, this precision and tenacity is required. I’ve put these traits to work in real estate as well. What makes this persistence pay off is the focus on motivation regardless of how long it takes, the missteps, hills, wind, sun, rain and snow. The meaning in each step that makes every mile provides purpose. It’s critical to stay focused, keep going, keep revising, revisiting, evaluating the criteria, how inventory matches up, and redirect or act when the meaning meets the road regardless of how many miles you’ve gone or haven’t gone.

The Finish Line

Once the inspiration and process means something then you can imagine what the finish line looks like. If you’re a runner, it may be a marathon, 10K, 5K or a recreational 5 miles run along the Mt. Vernon Trail. If you’re a writer, it may be a journal, a published article. It is often the case that most consider real estate transactions all about getting to closing. Certainly on a literal level, that is true.  And some come to me at first with that expectation without a considering or understanding the purpose, process, and professionalism required to get there. In simple terms,  anyone,any internet, any device offers access to real estate information, listings, searching, touring, the contract to closing and service. But from my own experience writing, running and selling real estate, the approach, analysis, negotiations, and challenges presented along the way require a smart, meaningful, deliberate, proven approach to push through the process with thoughtful determination and strategy. Running keeps me strong and I perservere to get where I want to go. I’m prepared for analysis, negotiation, storms, hills, rough roads. Writing helps put words to experiences, thought to analysis, and communication throughout the process. Working with clients to uncover or create the story behind the home so they can continue a home’s existing story or they can write their own creates a memorable and meaningful experience. As a runner, writer, and realtor, I bring more knowledge, skill, and experience to every client. I suppose if it were easy everyone would do it.