January 11, 2010. Chevy Chase, Md. Success.

The volume of sales for 2009 was $1,235, 465,356.00. In a year when every newspaper in the country including Washington D.C. was crying doom and gloom, the agents of the Gateway office of Long and Foster had gone to work and sold a lot of real estate. They have done it by ignoring the experts. What they did was sharing their ideas, figure out what was happening here in our area and then pass that knowledge through to the buyers and sellers. Our goal is always to help the buyers and sellers carry out their wishes pertaining to real estate. Life is simple here in the Gateway office of Long and Foster, but it certainly is not easy for the agents.

It may be arrogant, but in addition to doing well in real estate sales, we also try to influence the industry. There are five people in the office who have been the President of our local Realtor organization, one of the largest in the country. At any time, we make sure that we have two or three agents on the Board of Directors. One of our agents is now serving as the Secretary, which means that in a few years she will be the President. We want to be sure that our voice will be heard so policy will be sound and in the interest of the productive agents.

Another aspect of influence has been to have an agent from the office become a Manager. Two of the largest and best Long and Foster offices are led by former agents of the Gateway office and another retired from Management after a successful management career. Now tomorrow, another agent will take the position of Manager with another office. He will be introduced to the new office at their sales meeting. We wish him well. It is another bonus with my job as a manager. Management is not better than a sales position, it is just different, and as we know a manager can have an impact of the career of an agent, I love to be able to find those folks who can tolerate management and then help them to take the next step. It has worked quite well.