Five F’*k Ups I’ve Made Which Might Help Estate Agents

It was my little girl’s fifth birthday party on Saturday.

Lots of kids singing Frozen songs, jam sandwiches, Wotsits and making tea for mums and dads who all seemed pretty glad that their kids were being entertained for a couple of hours.
We had family down from London so the entire weekend was a busy one.

I always enjoy visitors to our house but I also really enjoy waving them adios and getting back to normal.

I always find birthdays a great time to reflect on how life’s going and indeed so far gone. My 45th is coming up later this month.

So I did a bit of reflection yesterday evening as I drove to Birmingham for a training course.

During the three and a half hour journey it came to me that I’ve learned from my mistakes a lot more than my successes.

Below are five that sprung to mind – after that I was ‘reflected’ out and just wanted to listen to a blast of the Wu Tang Clan to wake me up on the M40.

Here they are and hopefully there might be something among them that helps you avoid making these mistakes.

And if like that smug shite Robbie Williams you’re someone who declares ‘I’ve no regrets’ (eejit) I wouldn’t bother reading on. Cheers.

Going Cheap – Whenever a project hasn’t gone well it seems that common thread was that I tried to do things on the cheap. Employing a web designer whose quote was cheapest but ended up costing me more is one example. The flipside is not charging my worth on projects at the start of my career. The cheap end of any market is THE worst place to have a stall.

Facebook – Both cock up and now opportunity. I wished I embraced the power of Facebook advertising earlier – it’s an absolute winner! But it’s never too late and today’s course I’m on in Birmingham is actually on this topic. If I knew how powerful Facebook is and will continue to be I’d have put a chunk of my money on buying its shares when it originally floated on the stock market. They were undervalued.

Caring – Not in the sense of wishing I’d been a cold hearted bastard. Not at all. I still care deeply for people I care about and always try to do the right thing. But for too many years I cared what people, who didn’t even really matter to me, thought about me. Now I’m in a phase of my life where as long as I’m being honest and myself I couldn’t give a flying, sitting, jumping or even somersaulting fuck what anyone thinks. The people who don’t like your style / tone will never be clients / friends anyway so why worry?

Use Dropbox – Or any other cloud storage device for that matter. I learned the hard way when a laptop broke and wiped out around a year’s worth of articles. Technology can make a positive difference in so many areas.

Wasting Time – This is the big one and the area which I’m currently a little obsessed about. I wasted most of my time between 20 – 39 years-old if I’m brutally honest. Drinking too much, planning too little and ‘dabbling’ rather than committing fully.

It may be the early rumblings of my mid life crisis but I now really get how precious time is. My focus is now fully on the things that really matter – my family and friends, growing my business, doing the best I can for my clients and looking after my health.

The rest is all side dressing. Now before starting any project or piece of work the question I ask myself is simple – If I do this is it going to get closer to my goals?

And I’ve also began using a technique of blocking out 90 minutes a day to spend exclusively on things that can win me more clients or sell more of my services and products.

I’d love to know what have been your biggest cock ups.

Thanks for reading and here’s to your next instruction.

Jerry

Jerry Lyons

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

How to secure a rented home if you used to pay rent up front

One change that has come into effect under the Renters’ Rights Act (RRA) is that landlords may no longer accept more than one month’s rent in advance of a tenancy beginning. Previously, there was no limit to how much rent tenants could pay up front to secure a property, which was particularly helpful in certain…
Read More
Kerb appeal
Breaking News

Whoever Leads Britain Next Must Focus on Growth, Housing and Opportunity

Neil Louth – Group Executive Director, LRG and CEO, Acorn Group From my perspective, the question is less about who occupies Number 10 and more about what they do once they get there. Whether it is Sir Keir Starmer continuing in office, Andy Burnham emerging as a future challenger, or someone else entirely, the next…
Read More
Breaking News

Biggest Shake-up of Home Buying in Decades

Families and first-time buyers set to save time, money, and stress under major changes to the homebuying process – supporting the next generation and those locked out by a slow and unfair system New sales packs to ensure buyers have the information they need upfront, earlier binding agreements, and digital tools will halve the number…
Read More
Breaking News

More than half of home movers try D.AI.Y

but 38% say it gave them bad advice   The latest research from Yopa has found that 57% of home movers have engaged in D.AI.Y, to help maintain, repair and improve their homes, although more than a third have been given advice that later turned out to be incorrect. Yopa surveyed recent homebuyers to understand…
Read More
Breaking News

Home buying journey is about to become unrecognisable

Claire Van der Zant, CEO of Novus Strategy, comments on the Government’s homebuying reform “The industry has been very vocal in its demands for mandation and this is the most impactful example yet of government intervention that will drive the change everyone has been asking for. What it will mean is the complete reorganisation of…
Read More
bank of england interest rate
Breaking News

Bank of England holds interest rates at 3.75%

The Bank of England has announced its decision to hold the base rate at 3.75%. This decision comes as a result of wider economic uncertainty and inflation (CPI) increasing to 3.3% in March and remaining above the Bank’s 2.0% target. Here are some thoughts from within the property industry.   Matt Smith, Rightmove’s mortgage expert…
Read More