With many situations in life you want to be first, but there are also situations when coming in second isn’t so bad. In the sales world, particularly hotel real estate, it sounds almost sacrilegious, but there are times when coming in second place, is better. What do I mean? We have sold more hotels than I can count being the second brokerage firm to bring a property to market. In real estate like many professions, it is the first one in that gets all the seller’s lofty expectations and is on the receiving end of the seller’s frustration because the market is telling him/her their pricing expectations are out of line.

By the time the seller has vented his/her frustration and fired the first broker, it is sometimes (not every time) easier on the second broker to reach the seller’s expectations and many times that broker becomes the one that wins the day.

I have a good friend of mine who is an auctioneer and one of the funniest guys I have ever known. He has this saying that cracks me up every time I hear it. He says, “you want to be your wife’s first love, her second husband and her third real estate agent.” Again, it makes me laugh! What he is saying (in real estate terms) is you don’t have to always be first, and in fact many times being second or third isn’t always bad. KT