Q: What Can We Do to Serve Others?

By David Brough

From a young age, real estate captured David's interest, and that passion has remained throughout his life. Over the past 15 years as a Realtor.

If you’re looking to brighten someone’s day outside of helping them buy or sell a home, here are five ideas to serve others: 

1. Pick up someone’s lunch or coffee. They could be a past client, current client, or—better yet—someone else in the business who’s struggling right now. Perhaps they were representing a client but the transaction fell apart. In any case, try surprising them by bringing lunch to their office. 

2. Listen to someone vent. Of course, this can include family, clients, or one of your peers, but I recommend giving your time to one of your clients. Sometimes we agents can get caught up in multitasking, and that can make it challenging to listen to someone vent. I know that’s been a struggle for me, and I truly feel that the person on the other end of the line can sense when you’re actually listening and being empathetic to what they’re going through. 

3. Offer to do a task outside of your daily routine. For example, this can happen within your home routine. If you don’t typically do the dishes after dinner or take the kids to karate class, surprise your significant other and volunteer to do so. 

4. Write a thank-you note. We all know to write thank-you notes to clients and anyone who gives us a referral, but in this case, try writing one to an agent on the other side of a transaction after a closing. Tell them how much of a pleasure it was working with them—it might brighten their day! 

5. Put away your phone when you get home. It’s important that you do this right when you get home so you can be more present. This is another challenge for me, and sometimes the people in my family notice. Even though I may be there physically, I’m not very present. Real estate isn’t a typical 9-to-5 job, but the least we can do is set aside a couple of hours for our families after we get home. 

If you’d like to share some ideas on how to help others or have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to call or email me. I’m glad to help.