7
Getting to the Heart of Emotional Land Deals
for me ... it was an evolution of all of these things: what attracted me to the business and what keeps me going at a pretty regular pace. It’s firing on all of the things that I’m most passionate about.” Interestingly, when Nancy decided to go into real estate, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to specialize in, partly because there are so many areas a real estate professional can focus on. Then there’s land development, which Nancy loves. Often, she notes, “People don’t really want to get into land, it’s challenging and has an incredibly long sales cycle.” Nancy specializes in land “that is in the general path of growth within the next three to five years.” Sales commissions in land brokerage typically take between one to three years because of the complexities involved in closings. Before Nancy took the leap, she did her due diligence and interviewed several brokers she had networked. She asked open-ended questions to learn more from her network, such as: “Tell me about your job; what’s your typical day like? Tell me about the sales cycle. Why do you do this?” And though many of the people she spoke to advised her to go into office brokerage, an area where women tend to dominate, Nancy instinctively knew that wasn’t for her. Instead, she found herself being drawn to the front end of the deal. A huge part of the reason Nancy resisted going into office brokerage is she was honest with herself about what she knew would make her happiest in her new career. She sums it up this way: “I was like, I don’t think I want to do that. You know, I am a ‘blue jeans’ kind of person. I would say in 25 days of a working month, I’m in blue jeans 20 of those ... that’s where my comfort is. If I can be in a T-shirt and blue jeans, and a pair of boots or a pair of nice, hardy shoes like, that’s my jam.” The office life wasn’t for her, so Nancy followed a path where she could be comfortable showing up (and dressing) as herself.
Interestingly, as Nancy nears her 20th anniversary as a land broker, she admits that the adage, “We make plans and God laughs” has proven true for her. She chose to specialize in commercial land development in part because she did not want to deal with the emotion she saw involved in residential real estate, where buying a home was a very personal purchase and often the largest investment the buyer will ever make. In a twist she never saw coming, Nancy now knows that “The land brokerage part of my business has become incredibly emotionally charged and I have found the longer I do it, the more those are the clients that are attracted to me.” Since she is on the front end of the deal-making process, Nancy often finds herself dealing with transactions that involve land that has been in a family for generations. Naturally, in these cases, there’s “an incredible emotional tie to what they’re selling” and “an incredible amount of control from the grave.” These emotional pressures can create “psychological issues that can sometimes blind the seller” (or at least become an obstacle they have to overcome). In many cases “clients have inherited property or I’m dealing with a widow ... or the second generation, sometimes even the third generation.” Nancy finds herself fielding objections from family members who claim that the relative who has passed would object to the land being used for a particular development project. Nancy is there to provide support in advising clients in these circumstances, helping them to work through the emotions and confidently see themselves as stewards of the property. It helps to relieve some of the emotional pressure around these decisions. Nancy helps clients see that “they have a responsibility and an obligation to make the best decision they can make.”
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