Maybe You Should Just Quit

istock

You haven’t really lived as a real estate agent until you’ve had a moment where you stare into the bathroom mirror at 7:42 a.m., mascara wand in one hand, cold coffee in the other, and quietly ask yourself, “Should I just quit and open a smoothie truck?”

And if you haven’t had that moment yet… give it time. This business is patient. It waits.

I say this lovingly because I’ve been doing this a long time. A quarter of a century. I have seen the housing market soar, crash, recover, hiccup, spin like a toddler on too much Halloween candy, and confuse everyone at least twice.

One of the most unforgettable chapters? 2006–2009.

The Great Recession.
Real estate’s Hunger Games.
Where many agents didn’t just “take a pause.” They left the industry permanently.

And I mean this in the kindest way possible: Thank goodness.

The industry back then? Bloated like a Thanksgiving table right before the uncle says, “You know what the problem is? Interest rates.”
Agents everywhere who couldn’t tell a CMA from their own opinion.
People who “loved houses” and thought that was enough.

Reality came for them like a repo truck at 3 a.m.

My Accidental Recession Tour

Right before the roof caved in, I had just finished a personal best year: $30 million in sales. I was young-ish, hungry, working like a caffeinated squirrel, and somehow developing a reputation for salesmanship.

Then the phone rang.
It was the CEO of the largest homebuilder in America.

He didn’t ask if I wanted a job.
He asked me to name my price to spend the next few years flying around the country teaching agents how to get back to basics.

This was not glamorous corporate jet life.
This was turbulence, Hilton breakfast packets, and pep talks in sales trailers where everyone’s hope was held together with plat maps and stale M&Ms.

At first, the downturn felt like a slow drizzle.
Inventory creeping up…
Buyers looking nervous…
Mortgage brokers sweating.

Then the sky fell.

Cities that had been taking orders like a Chick-fil-A drive-thru suddenly had six months of inventory…
then twelve…
then eighteen.

It was bad. And we still had to find buyers and sell houses.

We didn’t get to sit around talking about the market like commentators on a cable finance channel. We worked. We hustled. We showed up.

And everywhere I went, people asked the same thing they ask me today: “So… what do you think about interest rates?”

Bless your hearts.
Interest rates help.
But they are not the driver of real estate.

Change is.
Divorce, marriage, babies, breakups, relocations, job changes, starting over, cashing out, downsizing, upsizing, life-quakes.

When people’s lives change, their real estate changes.

Florida: The Assignment that Almost Took Me Out

At one point, the builder sent me overseas to find investors. That market collapsed, too. It was like throwing life preservers into a whirlpool.

Then came my Florida assignment.
A community with forty spec homes standing empty, looking like a post-apocalyptic streetscape designed by Pottery Barn.

The sales team hadn’t had a paycheck in months. They were wrecked. Their hope needed CPR. And they were convinced: “No one is buying.”

Was it partly true? Sure.

So I parked myself there for three months.
Played music in the office.
Fed them snacks like we were in kindergarten on test day.
Told jokes.
Stood guard over their mindset like a mama bear.

We didn’t change the world.
But we sold four houses that first month. Four!

In that market? That was a miracle in business-casual pants and sensible heels.

Real estate is 80 percent mental and 20 percent… also mental

Let me confess: even after all of that, even after building a business again and again and again, after being on track to do nearly $20 million this year…

I still have days where I wonder if I should quit.
Where I feel like I’m behind.
Where the “I’m not good enough” gremlin tries to take the wheel.

This business can mess with your head.

Back when I sold cars, the old car dogs would shuffle out to “the point,” coffee in hand, muttering doom and gloom like they were auditioning for an Eeyore reboot.

They weren’t depressed.
They were strategic.

Bring everyone down, get them to go inside, then swoop in and take the next customer.

Real estate has those folks, too.

And if you listen, they’ll talk you out of your own destiny.

So… should you quit?

Maybe.

If you got into real estate for the vibes, the pretty houses, the flexible schedule, or because someone once told you you’d “be great at it”…

You might want to rethink things.

But if you can weather uncertainty, embrace discipline, and show up even when the market is sideways and your confidence is on life support…

Then, honey, pull up a chair.
We’ve got work to do.

A mentor once told me: If you’re good at sales, you’ll always have a job.

He was right.

And if you’re good at service?
At truth-telling?
At problem-solving and holding people together when the market won’t?

You won’t just have a job.
You’ll have a calling.

So maybe you should quit.
Or maybe…maybe you’re just in the part of the story where you get tougher, smarter, braver, and more grounded.

The part where you stay.
The part where you earn it.
Either way, decide boldly.
Because nobody wins by dabbling.

And if you need a pep talk?
Come sit by me.

I’ve got coffee, war stories, and a playlist ready.
We don’t quit around here.
We rebuild.
We adapt.
We sell houses in hurricanes, recessions, TikTok eras, and whatever comes next.

And we do it with humor, grit, and maybe one dramatic “maybe I should quit” moment a week.

Because that’s real estate.
And somehow…we love it anyway.