January 28, 2008. Gary returned to the office today from rainy California. It was at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach that Gary attended the annual conference for the entire Sperry Van Ness company (did you know that Huntington Beach was named for the foreman of the ranch owned by the father of General George Patton, which at one time stretched from Redlands, California to the Pacific Ocean, then south to and including Catalina Island?).
The 2007 top producer sales awards were given out at the black tie banquet Saturday evening. It was interesting to observe that successful real estate people are not stereotypical. The award winners (there were over 160) were a good cross section of America. They were anywhere from 24 to 6o years old (the number in their 20s was gratifying), they were men and women, (4 of the top 10 were women), they were native born as well as naturalized citizens (3 of the top 10 spoke with heavy accents) and they were extremely good at what they do (the 14th place finisher sold over $200,000,000 worth of commercial real estate). The commonalities were that they all worked hard, worked well together (often in teams), had respect for one another and had fun doing what they do.
The conference had a full schedule with numerous speakers, seminars and break-out sessions where advisors were able to better their professional skills. Selling real estate is not persuading, which is why at Sperry Van Ness sales people and brokers are known as “advisors.” It’s apparent that we’re pretty good at it.