I ran into an old friend a few nights ago. His name is David Read and he’s the real estate broker that sold my son, Josh his first home.  It was a view condo.  Josh was 20 years old and I was a single mom going to school.

Dave treated us like we were special.

Josh made a bundle of money off of that first home.  He lived in it for a couple of years, then he rented it out for a couple of years, then he renovated it and moved back in, then he sold it for a $65,000.00 profit.

It’s doubtful that Josh could have “saved” $65,000.00 in the same time period.  Plus when you factor in the tax benefits and the benefits of having his tenants pay his mortgage down, Josh figures that he pretty much lived in the condo for free for the years that he lived there.

The experience also made Josh a believer, so I was able to recruit him as my real estate investment partner and that has worked out pretty good too!

Dave got Josh off to a great start in life, by helping him buy that first home.  And it wasn’t easy, because Josh was a 20 year old punk kid :), he was a commissioned salesman at Lifestyles 2000 Fitness at the time, and Dave had to work hard to find Josh that first loan.

Here’s what I learned from Dave’s professionalism and kindness:

1.  Show up at the close (or go over the HUDs in detail beforehand so your clients know what to expect when they sit down to sign hundreds of pages).

2.  Make your clients feel special.

3.  Solve problems.

Not necessarily in that order.