Being a good broker is about keeping two different, competing ideas in your head at the same time:
- I am in business and want to maximize the amount of money I make; and
- I want to do the best possible job for my clients.
It’s amazing how difficult some brokers find it to balance these competing concepts. They fall prey to the temptation to push their clients to do things that aren’t in their clients’ interests in order to get a deal done and get paid. And, because they’re in a position of authority, there’s a good chance their clients listen to them.
But that’s self-defeating behavior, because unhappy, pissed off clients = bad word of mouth and no repeat business.
What you need to do instead is consider the appropriate time-horizon. If you plan to be in brokerage for a long time, you just need to focus on #2. It doesn’t matter whether it costs you some money or time in the short run.
If you do an amazing job for your clients, you will get more clients, because people talk. So, you suck it up and make your clients happy. Because, over the long run, happy clients = more clients = more money.