We were lucky to catch up with Krishon Harris recently and have shared our conversation below.

Krishon, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

The biggest trend I am seeing among real estate agents today is a more focused commitment to social media marketing and specifically video marketing. I’ve found that social media is a great way to reach a large audience of people and nurture people you have connections with. When I first started doing real estate (a little over a year ago), I immediately started doing video content. I wasn’t getting much traction from the videos and found that most people would click off the videos within the first 30 seconds to a minute. I began committing to keeping my videos under a minute and saw a huge amount of engagement following this change.

Krishon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into the Real Estate industry (a little over a year ago), after being a long-time restaurant manager. I was looking for a chance to work for myself. My grandmother has been a real estate agent for over 15 years, so it was natural for me to jump into this field. As a real estate agent, I help buyers navigate the changing market, understand their buying options, and manage the entire process. I help sellers understand the best pricing strategy for their home, aggressively market their home, and ultimately get the best price and terms for their home. I pride myself on being a relentless problem solver. Every client comes with different challenges. Sometimes it’s their credit score or down payment and sometimes it’s unrealistic expectations. My clients love that I work incredibly hard to find every solution possible and I breakdown the pros and cons of all their options.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I had a listing in the spring that I had initially put on the market with several offers quickly. We accepted an offer quickly but the first buyer canceled the contract due to inspections. We put the house back on the market and quickly received offers and got it under contract again. This buyer waived their inspections and it seemed like a great contract. However the buyer ended up getting buyer’s remorse and refused to close. My seller clients sought legal advice and found it to be more expensive and time-consuming to seek legal action against the buyer, so we worked to relist the property. I knew relisting a property a third time would create a stigma against the property, even in this hot market. I created a new marketing strategy to give the property listing a fresh look and a new price. Despite the price reduction, we ended up getting several offers again and the sellers sold the property for more the third time around.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn quickly not to over-qualify listing and buying opportunities too soon. I have had several prospective clients whose expectations weren’t realistic and I knew I couldn’t help them unless they revised their expectations. I’ve also had times when buyers have had incredible challenges to overcome. Many agents wouldn’t have even made a face-to-face appointment and took an hour out of their day to talk to some of these prospective clients. However, a lot of these people just appreciate me giving them the information on what’s realistic. And there have been other times when the potential client wasn’t ready to move forward with realistic expectations, but they were so impressed with the information that I gave them, that they referred me to someone they know and I was able to help that person.