If there’s one message I can you leave you with, it’s the following: Up your game. You have the tools right here. You have the heart in you. You’re a fighter, a boss, a closer.

The Altman Close is based on an understanding of a real estate shot clock, on getting creative, and being strategic to get the best deal for your clients. The shot clock moves more quickly as you move toward conclusions, and you’ve got to keep using the clock for optimal efficiency.

Your days are filled with running passive opens to generate new business and flipping them hot as they engage with you and your listings. You’re planning product launches, open houses, and broker’s opens and working local vendors to get the best prices. Know when to drop the price and how maximize the moment, reaching out to potential buyers and recharging the sale.

In our first 10 years, as the Altman Brothers were becoming successful, we worked for our clients, we worked on their schedule, no matter what. They’d call, we’d drop everything, and we’d run. I think since then we’ve gotten to a level where we can say no to a client, “I’m not available right now.” For the first time, that’s a reality for us. We’re more our own coaches, but we had to fight to get there and we still have to fight to maintain. But we have clout now.

I still put my clients first, but I respectfully put them in their place when I know it’s best for them, more than I ever have, and they respect me not being a “yes man.” But I earned this. They still know I’m in the game for them. They bank on it and I deliver. Matt and I just have the luxury of being a little more on our own clock now, due to our success. Our goal was always to make our own hours in order to spend more quality time with our families. And now we can, all while still selling a half a billion in real estate this year, working smarter, not harder.

We’ve found it’s better to be smart as well as honest. We admit to people that we’re at a stage in our game where we can be completely straight up. We’re not just telling you what you want to hear so you’ll go with us, and then risk that six months later you’ll be disappointed. We’re up front and we’ll tell you your house is worth X. We are experts. We know what we’ll sell it for within a certain realm. If you want to list it with what we suggest, then we’re your agents. If you want to list it higher, then we’re not the agents for you.

But we’ll be nice to that someone and say, “We’ll give you a call in a few months if it doesn’t sell. We hope you sell it, but if not, let’s talk when your contract expires.” To turn a listing down, and then be the second agent on a deal, or third agent, is sometimes best. We just did that with a house called Bliss Canyon. We ended up getting it fourth, or maybe fifth. We were able to get it to the appropriate price of $30 million after being on the market for twice that amount with the previous agent. It’s a different hustle for us, now.

In real estate, negotiations start from the day you meet your client. If the client is selling, you negotiate to get to a price point where the house can sell. That’s the first negotiation. Then the next negotiation is with the stagers, and then on to the showings. The next negotiation is with agents who are writing the offer. And then there’s the contingency period where you do your inspections, then your commission, and then you renegotiate your commission.

You do dozens of negotiations within a real estate deal. You negotiate your commission 10 times. People always feel that the real estate agent is making too much money and that they should throw in if they care about the deal, whether to the seller or the buyer. Be strong. You’re worth every penny.

Still, my clients know I’m in it for them. Besides being with my wife, daughter, mother, father, brother – or watching the GOAT win another Super Bowl – there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at the negotiating table, deep in Phase III and about to sell a $20 million house to a guy I met 10 minutes ago from a seller I opened at the gym that morning. I’m a real estate agent. I’m “Hollywood” in the Altman sense. I’m a baller. I’m the Shark. I close – the Altman Close.

THE END