Lesson Realized: Keep Off The Actual Property Rollercoaster

Discover out what NYC affiliate dealer Invoice Kowalczuk has realized throughout his years within the enterprise and what he’d be doing if he weren’t in actual property.

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After 26 years in the actual property enterprise, New York Metropolis affiliate dealer Bill Kowalczuk has loads of information to share with purchasers as they make key selections. Nevertheless, when he’s not working, his focus is most frequently on health as a method to wind down after a day of deal-making.

“I’m an avid gymnasium rat,” mentioned Kowalczuk. “The gymnasium provides me an opportunity to unwind and give attention to one thing aside from work. I’m [also] a highway bike owner. Driving for 10 or 20 miles helps me to de-stress after a protracted day.”

Discover out what Kowalczuk has realized throughout his years within the enterprise and what he’d be doing if he weren’t in actual property.


Identify: Invoice Kowalczuk

Title: Licensed affiliate actual property dealer

Expertise: 26 years

Location: New York Metropolis

Brokerage identify: Coldwell Banker Warburg

Gross sales quantity: Greater than $500 million


What’s one large lesson you’ve realized in actual property?

Early in my profession, I realized that this enterprise might be an emotional rollercoaster. It’s essential to hold feelings in test and give attention to making the deal occur. It’s by no means over till each side have signed and a test is within the financial institution.

Whether or not you want or dislike the patrons, sellers, or brokers is totally irrelevant. The primary precedence is to do what must be finished to verify the deal occurs.

Early on in my profession, I used to be all the time excited to get a deal in progress, solely to have it die for one cause or one other. My feelings would journey excessive after which crash. An skilled colleague instructed me to manage my feelings till I closed on a deal as a result of something might occur.

As soon as I used to be in that mind set, it was all the time simpler to handle disappointments with my purchaser or vendor. 

What’s the most effective recommendation you ever bought from a mentor or colleague?

Maintain displaying that listing. It doesn’t matter whether or not you might have an accepted provide or a contract out for signatures. You retain displaying that itemizing to potential patrons and current all gives till the whole lot is all signed and stable.

It’s a rookie mistake to imagine an accepted provide or a contract out for signature ensures the deal will occur. 

What would you inform a brand new agent earlier than they begin out within the enterprise?

I’d inform a brand new agent to overlook the whole lot you might have ever seen on an actual property TV present.  Actuality is far more sobering. You don’t routinely begin off with million-dollar listings, and it’s uncommon, if in any respect, that you simply work with somebody for a day and so they make a suggestion on one thing.

The TV reveals make the whole lot look manner simpler — promoting an condo with little to no work.   

Just remember to can comfortably pay your month-to-month payments for a minimum of seven to eight months so as to focus in your work and get that deal-making ball rolling alongside. You by no means know when a deal goes to occur, even when you might have an accepted provide.

Having a great sum within the financial institution once you begin is a manner of not having to consider how payments are going to be paid if you end up two to 3 months in and nothing is occurring. It’s essential to your purchasers to all the time sense a sense of calmness. 

What do purchasers must know earlier than they start an actual property transaction?

In addition to getting preapproved for a mortgage and getting all of your paperwork collectively to make a suggestion when the time comes, I feel closing prices would be the largest unkept secret in actual property. I all the time speak with purchasers about what it can value to shut a deal earlier than we take a look at listings. 9 instances out of ten, the mortgage tax on condominiums and homes will likely be a shock.

For those who might do something aside from actual property, what would it not be?

I’d be portray, drawing and creating in an enclave with different artists, like Ciudad Colón in Costa Rica or Provincetown on Cape Cod. These locations attraction to me as a result of they’re on the water (which I like) and have loads of pure magnificence. 

I’ve all the time wished to be free to create no matter I wished with out the standard day-to-day grind. 

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