“Goosey Lucy said that Ducky Lucky said that Henny Penny said the sky is falling.” From reading and listening to the media you can’t help but think of Chicken Little. Okay, well I’ve finally heard enough! I’m so weary of hearing one person after another bemoan the sad state of real estate today that I’m about ready to scream!

Every time it’s told it gets worse! “The end of real estate is near.” “The mortgage industry is doomed.” “Give up and get out now while you still can.” “The lead aggregators have ruined our business.” “The banks are taking over our business.” On and on it goes. No doubt, you’ve heard it too. Well I say poppy-cock! The sky is not falling!

Certainly today is a tough time to be in real estate. If you are trying to do traditional real estate, you are no doubt struggling. But the funny thing is that for many agents — agents who have embraced the new model of real estate — this is one of the best times ever! It all depends on how you do real estate.

One of the agents that I supervise is named Kevin. Kevin has been in the business for less than two years. Before real estate he was a truck driver. Last month I paid him over $50,000 in commissions and he had his best month ever — well, that’s until this month. I have another agent named Dave who’s been licensed barely a year. Dave is part-time. He earned over $300,000 last year and he can’t even begin to keep up with his business. I could go on and on, listing agent after agent across the country that are having amazing times in this tough market. So what is this “new model” of real estate?

As opposed to the broker-centric model of the 1960s and 1970s, or the agent-centric model of the 1980s and 1990s, around the turn of the century this new model began to emerge. I call it the customer-centric model. In this new model, gathering customers is king. Those agents who’ve learned to do that — to gather customers well — are experiencing growth like never before in the history of the business. Gone are the days of “branding”, “image advertising”, and waiting on customers to come to us. Today we must go get the customers. Those who learn to do it well are making amazing money.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll write a series of commentaries on this new model and how you can participate in one of the best opportunities in the history of real estate. For now, I will settle for letting you ponder this question: Is real estate really that bad, or is it your approach?