I put a premium on making things happen and getting things done. If I compare a bunch of B+ deal that I can actually get done vs. an A+ deal that doesn’t close guess which one I prefer?

This is a philosophy that I’ve learned over time, and one that doesn’t really jive too well with my background as an Army officer and my academic training as an engineer – two disciplines where finding the right solution is pretty darn important. So this is something that I have to work at.

This extends to the way that I deal with people. Real estate is a people business. Yeah there’s financing, and strategies and technical know-how, but at the end of the day it’s all about you and the person sitting across the table from you – whether she’s a contractor, a Realtor, or a buyer.

So I’m rarely thinking about cutting the best deal I can. I focus on cutting a good deal; one that I’m satisfied with, which gives me a good return and one which builds the relationship. A good relationship today will yield more good deals tomorrow.

Loyalty is important to me, and that is a value I try to communicate through my actions. Case in point - when I have a maintenance issue that I have to deal with here’s what I like to do: I call the contractor and tell him to head over to 123 Elm Street and take care of it, then send me the bill. No bid. Just fix it.

Now I certainly can’t always do this because many contractors are evil and dishonest (sorry if I offend anyone, but this is a statement of fact.) But I can do this with one particular contractor that I work with on a regular basis. I trust him, he trusts me, and we have a symbiotic relationship – this is a relationship that I value like gold. I know he’s not going to rip me off because he knows I’ll be coming back – he values the repeat business. And he knows I will treat him fairly, because he knows that our arrangement helps me manage my life – I value the ease and convenience. We both value the relationship and we both take care of it. Honesty. Trust. Case closed.

Reciprocal, symbiotic relationships don’t grow on trees and they don’t happen overnight. I always think of those hippos on the Discover Channel with the little birds perched in their wide open mouths. A real win-win deal: the hippo gets clean gums and the little bird gets an easy, risk-free meal of leeches and whatever else hippos end up getting stuck between their teeth. Kind of a disgusting analogy, when you really think about it.  Anyway, what you don’t want is to realize that you’re more like one of those whale sharks that has a bunch of blood sucking remoras attached to his underside; the remoras get a free meal and free transportation to boot, but the whale shark gets jack.

So relationships are something you have to keep reevaluating; make sure you're getting what you think you're getting.