Old Horses Still Love to Run
These days, Newton is affiliated with a realty office that sells vacation and retirement homes in Arizona’s White Mountains. In the late 1970s she and her husband owned a 27-person real estate company in Tucson, and they prospered until interest rates soared above 20 percent.
     Both eventually deserted real estate, but in the early ’90s Sharon Newton decided she’d been away too long. “I enjoy being out in the field,” she says. “I’m just an old racehorse. I love the chase.”
     Barry, a broker in Tucson, also has had her 16-year real estate career disrupted by economics. Between fluctuating mortgage rates, layoffs, over-construction and other factors that influence the housing market, “there’s so much that’s out of our control,” she says. “At times, business has been so bad I’ve had to find a part-time job; then business would pick up and I’d have two jobs to juggle….”
     Still, something keeps drawing these old pros back to the game. And when they trot out there, they all have tried-and-true secrets for success. Apply these pearls of wisdom to your small business — regardless of whether you sell houses or widgets — and you’ll be on the right track.

The Secrets of Their Success

Tell your story. Pillsbury, a 26-year veteran who’s now a broker-associate in Kansas City, has a success formula that’s part mantra, part common sense and part Sales 101: “Go with your strengths. When you start out, establish your niche as the local expert and build from there. Network, network, network. See the people. Tell your story. Ask for the order.” Pillsbury is philosophical about the ups and downs: “If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.”

Keep your cool. For Newton, the hardest part of the job is the constant assault on the ego. “A listing appointment or a sales appointment is basically a job interview,” she says. “You run into people who don’t like you, and you get your ego roughened up. You have to rise above that, pick yourself up and go on to the next interview.”      Newton’s daughter Robynn is an L.A. actress who works as hard to get acting jobs as her mother does to sell real estate. Sharon says the professions have a lot in common: “You have to be ‘on’ all the time. It requires discipline and commitment. You can’t lose your cool, ever, and you have to make each client feel as if he or she is the most important thing in your life.”

Make the connection. Barry, who thrives on the person-to-person part of the job, stresses the importance of relationships in real estate. That’s why she believes the new availability of property listings on the Internet is a mixed blessing.      “Real estate online can eliminate a lot of wasted effort on everyone’s part,” she says. “But seeing a photograph can’t ever take the place of going into a house — finding out what it looks like, what it feels like and smells like …. I can buy a sweater or a pair of shoes over the Internet, but I can’t send a house back if it doesn’t fit.”

Hang in there. Pillsbury, Newton and Barry agree that real estate isn’t for wimps. Don’t count on independence or long lunches; you’re on call all the time. Don’t let your guard down; you never know what’s going to happen. But, says Newton, “That’s what makes it so much fun.”

Don’t make excuses. “There’s nothing we all despise more than an agent telling you how tough things are,” Newton says. “Their problems have nothing to do with their clients’ money and their dreams.”

     Above all, says Pillsbury, “Work hard and don’t quit. It’s not exactly rocket science, when you come right down to it.” Just like with any small business — a little common sense and dedication to your work and your principles can take you to the winner’s circle.

An editor since the age of 6, when she returned a love letter with corrections marked in red, Mary Campbell writes and edits for The University of Arizona College of Business and Public Administration and for dozens of entrepreneurs, publishers, and authors. She is editor of the midsized-business journal The FINOVA Quarterly.