Coffee, Culture and Curveballs

Category: Real Estate Practice & Perspective

Real estate reflections

  • Transform Your Real Estate Career: Step Out of Comfort

    Transform Your Real Estate Career: Step Out of Comfort

    Look into the future and be awesome.

    Average is safe. It’s predictable, familiar, and comfortably forgettable.

    And comfort is seductive — it whispers, “Stay here, it’s fine.”
    But the truth? Comfort doesn’t create change. It just keeps you still.

    In South Africa, 10% of all new real estate professionals quit, 87% survive, with only 3% thriving. To thrive, you need to be awesome! What does that take?

    The Trap of Comfortable Average

    It’s easy to be average. You won’t offend anyone. You won’t fail spectacularly. You won’t stretch too far or sweat too much.

    But you also won’t grow. Because growth and comfort never coexist. Growth requires hard work.

    Standing out is uncomfortable. It means trying new ideas, risking rejection, and sometimes walking alone while others stay huddled in the middle. Peers very often reject you because you stand out. As soon as you succeed, they will follow you so do not stress.
    But that’s where greatness begins — on the edge of what feels awkward and new.

    The Power of Little Steps

    You don’t have to leap off the edge from average to awesome overnight. Don’t jump off the cliff. You just need to move — consistently, intentionally, one small step at a time as this will lead to success. Consistency is the key.

    • Try a fresh approach to your next listing.
    • Learn something new about your market today.
    • Warm call everyday
    • Be disciplined
    • Call a client you’ve been avoiding.
    • Ask for feedback.
    • Say yes to something that scares you a little.

    It’s amazing how much momentum a few daily discomforts can create. It takes 21 days to create a new habit so keep going. Try something new and keep at it. What do you want more, average or success?

    The Awesome Mindset

    Awesome isn’t about being the loudest or most confident person in the room — it’s about being the one who cares enough to improve.
    It’s showing up fully, thinking creatively, and giving people a reason to remember you.

    Average will keep you afloat.
    Awesome will take you places.

    The Curveball

    So here’s the challenge: step out of that comfort zone — just once a day. Send the message. Ask the question. Try the idea.

    Because nothing extraordinary ever came from staying comfortable.

    You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be disciplined and brave — daily.

  • Coffee, Clients & Chaos

    Coffee, Clients & Chaos

    If you’ve been in property management longer than a week, you already know this truth: no two days are ever the same. Just when you think you’ve got the day planned out — the calls logged, the inspections scheduled, and the emails (almost) under control — the phone rings.

    And that’s when the chaos begins.

    It might be a tenant reporting a geyser that’s burst at 7am on a Saturday. Or a landlord who suddenly wants to “pop in” during a lease inspection because they’ve just remembered the curtain rods are sentimental. Or maybe it’s the contractor who swears blind they’ll be there at 9am, only to arrive closer to lunchtime… two days later.

    Property Management

    Property management is coffee in one hand and chaos in the other. And between those two things lies the real skill of the job: perspective.

    Because here’s the thing: chaos itself isn’t the problem. Curveballs are part of the territory. Things break. People forget. Life happens. What makes or breaks the experience — for tenants, landlords, and yes, for your own sanity — is how you respond.

    Some practitioners treat every curveball like a catastrophe. They panic, they scramble, they pass on the stress to everyone else in the chain. And suddenly, what was a small bump becomes a full-blown crisis. Others, however, shrug, sip their coffee, and tackle it calmly. Same problem, totally different outcome.

    And the difference usually comes down to culture and mindset. If your culture says “we solve problems, we stay professional, and we treat people with respect,” then chaos doesn’t define you — it just tests you. It becomes a chance to prove your value. Tenants remember the agent who answered the call and sorted the issue. Landlords remember the practitioner who kept their asset protected without drama. And everyone remembers the practitioner who lost it completely — for all the wrong reasons.

    Property management isn’t glamorous. It’s often thankless. But it’s also one of the most human sides of the property game. You’re dealing with people in their homes, landlords with their investments, and service providers trying to juggle five jobs at once. Things will go wrong. But how you show up in that moment — whether you fuel the fire or calm it — is what sets you apart.

    So, when the chaos hits (and it will), take a breath. Take a sip of coffee. Remind yourself: this is part of the job, not a failure of the job. Then roll up your sleeves, find the solution, and remember that today’s chaos is tomorrow’s story — and maybe even tomorrow’s referral.

    At the end of the day, coffee keeps you awake, clients keep you busy, and chaos keeps you sharp. The trick is not to avoid the chaos, but to manage it with enough perspective that when you put your head down at night, you can say: “It was messy, but I handled it.”

    Because in property management, you don’t get to choose the curveballs. But you do get to choose how you swing at them.

  • Is Real Estate Just a Numbers Game — or Is There a Different Way to Win?

    Is Real Estate Just a Numbers Game — or Is There a Different Way to Win?

    Numbers racing the clock
    Photo by Black ice on Pexels.com

    For decades, the real estate world has celebrated the numbers game.More listings. More calls. More showhouses. More deals.
    The hustle was the hero.

    But somewhere between the spreadsheets and the “how many units this month?” updates, we started losing something — the why.

    The industry is changing. And maybe, just maybe, “more” isn’t the metric that matters anymore. It may just be time to stop chasing numbers and chasing the clock

    The Old Game: Volume Over Value

    The old playbook said success was about scale: hit targets, close deals, repeat. It rewarded busyness over brilliance and equated activity with achievement. Service was forgotten as the next deal was chased.

    But the truth? Chasing numbers alone is exhausting. You end up managing chaos, not growth. You lose the spark that made you love property in the first place — the human connection, the creativity, the joy of helping someone find their space in the world.

    The New Game: Quality and Innovation

    Real success today looks different. It’s not in the number of listings you post, but the experience you create. It’s not how many doors you open, but how meaningfully you open them.

    Innovation isn’t about tech alone — it’s about thinking differently.
    About refining every touchpoint, from how a tenant logs maintenance to how a landlord receives their statement. About delivering peace of mind, not paperwork.

    The same is true for sales.

    Quality and innovation turn transactions into relationships and agents into trusted advisors. That’s where longevity lives.

    The Sweet Spot: Blending Heart with Strategy

    Data still matters — of course it does. But data without direction is just noise. When numbers serve your purpose, not the other way around, you’ve found the balance.

    So maybe the question isn’t “How many properties did you rent this month?” Maybe it’s “How many people would choose you again?”

    The Curveball

    The agents and agencies that thrive in the next decade won’t just be the ones with the biggest portfolios.
    They’ll be the ones who innovate with empathy, serve with substance, and play the long game — not the numbers game.

    Because in real estate, as in life, quality isn’t a statistic. It’s a standard.