Burn the Ships

How Commitment Drives My Real Estate Career

By Tiffiny Alexander, GRI

Arizona REALTOR® Magazine - May 2010

On his blog, three-time world wrestling champion Lee Kemp re-tells the myth of conquistador Hernando Cortez arriving in Mexico in 1519 and ordering his men to burn the ships. “Amazingly, the men conquered the Aztecs and succeeded in something others had been unsuccessful for centuries. Why did they win? They had no escape, no fall-back position and no choice! It was ‘succeed or die,’” relates Kemp. REALTOR® Tiffiny Alexander, GRI, with Keller Williams Arizona Realty in Phoenix, recognized this level of commitment—she’d felt something similar when pursuing her real estate license.

Once I declared “I want to be a REALTOR®,” my path was forever changed. There was no turning back, and failure was not an option—no matter what the market presented. I burned the ships that were keeping me from achieving my goals and dreams.

I moved to Arizona just two short years ago, leaving a lifetime of relationships more than 700 miles away in California. My friends in real estate all thought I was crazy. They said I’d never make it in this economy not knowing a single person in the state to which I was moving. “A REALTOR® can’t just up and leave their network, their entire database. You will have to start from scratch, Tiffiny. You really should think this through,” they told me.

But they didn’t know my motivation—the “Burn the Ships” agreement I made with myself when I decided to become a REALTOR® in 2005. For the first time in my life, I was making a decision on faith in the future rather than fear of the past or present. I didn’t know what the future held, but I knew who held it. So my husband and I, together with our three small children, set out for the wild Southwest. On December 1, 2007, our SUV pulled away from the home that greeted my babies on their first days in this world. We left behind everything safe and all things certain to take a chance on Arizona.

I had no idea what was in store for my family and for my budding career in real estate. Having sold real estate just 18 months in California—pregnant or breastfeeding my two youngest children the entire time—I tried to quiet the haunting doubt that I would make it on my own in the Valley of the Sun. All I knew about real estate had been modeled for me by REALTORS® in the neighborhoods of Northern California.

With no mentor and no database, I started real estate school. As luck would have it, one of my instructors asked if I wanted to try my hand at REOs. Initially I refused, on the grounds that I worked hard for my commission and wasn’t going to give it away to a bank! Furthermore, I had no desire to work among agents who had a reputation for not answering their phone, let alone ever seeing their listings or holding an open house.

In a moment of clarity, I heard my ego telling the instructor I wouldn’t do REOs and realized I was the mouse from “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson, MD. My cheese was clearly in California, and I was not! So I accepted the invitation to try my hand at REOs. Two years later, I’ve made it my mission to raise the bar for what our industry can expect in a bank transaction. I answer the phone and know my listings inside and out. I strive to serve my clients, fellow agents, buyers and the people who lose their home to a bank with integrity. Only by staying on the cutting edge of market changes and through continuing education like the GRI can I come close to measuring up to my mission.

In earning my “Graduate REALTOR® Institute” designation, I am one step closer to fulfilling my vision of victory and never looking back for an old ship of a past career. I am both grateful for and passionate about every day I practice a profession I love. Today I am a GRI!

Tiffiny Alexander’s high-powered vision for expanding her business has steered her into the center of the REO market. She takes a “no excuses” approach in creating results for her clients. When she’s not running an REO real estate business or the busy schedule of her family life, she can be found on the race course of a triathlon. For more information, visit her website at http://www.TiffinyAlexander.com.

 
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