PLACE’s Chris Suarez: ‘We need that Day-1 vibe today’

In these times, double down — on your skills, on your knowledge, on you. Join us Aug. 8-10 at Inman Connect Las Vegas to lean into the shift and learn from the best. Get your ticket now for the best price.

Each year since the company’s founding in 1994, Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos pens a letter to his shareholders that starts with the line, “It’s day one at Amazon.” 

The founder’s “day-one” mentality is about maintaining a long-term focus and centering customers in all your business decisions. 

According to Chris Suarez, co-founder of the real estate technology platform PLACE and who spoke at Inman Connect New York on Wednesday, that same mindset should be applied by real estate professionals if they want to stay competitive. 

“We need that day one energy today, yes? We need that day one vibe today,” Suarez told the crowd at the Midtown Hilton. “Why? Because we’re coming off some of our biggest years. The industry had an iconic year last year and the year before and the year before — our most productive years, our biggest years, I hope our most profitable years. But how do we in this room make sure we continue growing while the industry is saying ‘hey, we’re going to recede?.’ By understanding that today is day one, by acting as if it was.”

Suarez outlined a set of five characteristics that he said agents must keep in mind to embody the day-one mindset: 

1. Skill 
2. Activity
3. Accountability
4. Commitment 
5. Fighting against equilibrium

Keeping those characteristics in mind should keep you from embracing the “day two” mindset — which Bezos describes as stasis, followed by irrelevance, followed by “excruciating, painful” decline, followed by death. A key part of avoiding day two is anticipating what is always going to remain true in your industry.

In most industries, it’s safe to presume that the customer is always going to want more. If you build your business with that in mind, you’ll find success, Suarez said. 

“What is not going to change? What is your buyer always going to want? What is your seller always going to ask for, what is the investor always going to need? What are agents always going to want and need?” he said. “Build your business around that. Why? Because whether you’ve been here for 40 years, 30 years, 20 years, 10 years, five years or one year, every day is day one in this industry.” 

Email Ben Verde