Adam's Values

Above: Adam in Soshanguve, South Africa, during a college internship seeking to assist in efforts of racial reconciliation, to love the fatherless, to help the community, & to assist with local churches.

In this article, I'll be going over my values and review quotes & other quotes from others about me that demonstrate those values. I'll also be sharing about the origin of my values, where you can see my reviews directly that I'm quoting below, & my vision that helps propel my values within real estate & beyond real estate.

My Values Consolidated

1. Staying Available

2. Working Hard

3. Saving Clients Money

4. Keeping Clients' Interests First

5. Client Educator

6. High Ethical Standards Including Integrity

7. Excellence

Review Sources

Origins of my Values Including Theological Sources

My values come primarily from my upbringing in a good home with loving parents, my faith including my Christian & secular education, my wife who reminds me of the importance of empathy through her own high levels of empathy toward others, & my experience as an agent where I've learned what truly matters to help buyers and sellers in areas of the highest importance. In the event that my faith preferences are a concern due to negative experiences with Christianity, please note this recommendation by an atheist on my Linkedin profile that should alleviate some concerns.

For my theological origins, the following verses are important to me:

1. Staying Available

Availability of agents is a critical component of a real estate agent serving the interests of their clients. My desire to stay available is rooted out of my desire to keep clients' interest first, to save clients money, & to seek excellence, with the pertinent passages associated directly or indirectly with each of those.

2. Working Hard

1 Corinthians 15:10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."

Proverbs 21:5 "The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty."

Without hard work in real estate, one can't serve clients at optimal levels of service, whether one is serving a low volume or high volume of clients. Many high-volume agents cut far too many corners in my opinion in order to achieve and maintain those volume levels.

3. Saving Clients Money

My desire to save clients money is rooted out of my desire to keep clients' interest first, to educate clients, & to seek excellence, with the pertinent passages associated with each of those.

4. Keeping Clients' Interests First

Galatians 5:14 "For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”"

1 John 4:8 "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

According to the Bible, no matter what we do, if it is not loving, is worthless, even if it has the appearance of being religious (Isaiah 1, 58; Micah 6:6-8; 1 Corinthians 13).

My favorite job that I've ever had was as a youth minister for over 4 years. I've taught there again after leaving to fill in for the current youth minister that I helped find as the last request of the pastor for me, but needed to stop the work in order to devote more time to my real estate career and wife. It wasn't my favorite job due to the money, which was very low, but due to the work I had the privilege of doing. With my eventual goal after real estate being to be in full-time ministry, I would never want the path to which I got there to be one that was hurting people rather than one that was helping others in the process. Doing anything that hurts others in the process of wanting to help others simply doesn't make sense.

5. Client Educator

Proverbs 4:7 "beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding."

Well-educated buyers and sellers make the best decisions. Whether you're looking on this website, getting Google docs/sheets that I haven't published yet based on a topic you're asking about, getting my feedback as a buyer, or whether I'm the only 1 of 5 agents you're interviewing as a seller who is providing suggestions for improvements in order to heighten your profit margins, client education is critical.

6. High Ethical Standards Including Integrity

Proverbs 27:6 "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses."

The candid nature of my integrity means that many sellers will choose someone else, & it's not uncommon for the reasoning why if they share to be intertwined with my integrity (i.e. me pointing out recommendations for revisions that will increase the sellers' net profits, more reasonable expectations of sales price, & not seeming as "enthusiastic" about homes as other agents).

7. Excellence

Proverbs 22:29

"Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank."

Colossians 3:23

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people."

The top 1% of agents of an area by volume typically don't all provide top 1% quality service to their clients. While my goal is to be in real estate for 20 years, and I'm writing during my 9th year of real estate (10th if you count my work in the marketing department), my top production level year was actually a few years ago, where I was in the top 3% of agents in Hampton Roads and top 8% overall. After that year, I felt that I needed to increase the level of quality I provided to clients and the amount of resources I provided to clients beyond what I did that year, so while what I am able to offer the clients I serve has substantially increased since then, naturally the volume of clients I serve has decreased, as higher quality requires higher time. I sought out an assistant after that year, but they never had the level of quality that I was looking for, despite attempts with 5+ full-time assistants over the course of a year.

Adam's Vision

ADAM GARRETT

Adam's Values

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