Do you have a hospitality mindset?

I heard two stories that really brought this home.

The first story is about a restaurateur in New York City who overheard a group of four customers talking about how they had never had a hotdog in New York City, despite just having a $500 lunch at his high-end restaurant. The owner of the restaurant went to a hotdog vendor across the street, bought four hotdogs, had the chef cut them up and arrange them elegantly on a plate with all the condiments the customers wanted, and had the maitre d' bring it out to the customers. They were amazed, even though they had just eaten a five-star meal.

The second story is about Steve Wynn, who owns the Wynn Casinos in Las Vegas and all over the world. He implemented a process where all managers have a daily brainstorming session before every shift, and one of the things they discuss is positive experiences they've had with guests.

One of the stories that...

Did you know that more people in America have pets than children? It's true!

20 years ago, 48% of American families had kids at home. Today, that number is down to 40%.

On the other hand, the number of Americans with pets has increased dramatically, from 56% in 1988 to 70% today.

As REALTORS, this information is valuable to us because it affects our conversations with buyers. When talking to potential buyers, we should ask if they have pets and if their pet will impact their home buying decision. Many people will engage in conversation about their pet's needs and how important they are to the family.

But what if we took it a step further and specialized in working with families that have pets or selling homes with pet-friendly features?

This could be a complete differentiator in the market, as it's not a common focus for REALTORS. Sometimes we need to think outside the box to stand out.

If you want more ideas like this that help you...

Hey guys, you probably saw that the amount of jobs that were added in August to the economy was actually way lower than expected.

245,000 jobs.

A lot of people attribute that to the rise of the Delta virus and people may be slowing down on hiring. But one thing we can be sure of is that there are a lot of jobs available in America.

There's 10 and a half million jobs available right now. One thing that we're starting to see is unemployment benefits being turned off. Or at least not the incentives added by the federal government. So that might bring more people to work.

But right now we've got to deal with what's here now.

So job wage growth in America so far is up about 4.8%. The challenge is that inflation is also a 5.2%. So it's eating up all those gains. When we look at this in terms of what's going to happen in terms of the real estate market, Lawrence Yun — the chief economist for the International Association of REALTORS...

What are the most expensive per square foot homes in America?

According to a recent study recently done by REALTOR.com San Jose Santa Clara had the most expensive per square foot averages across the country.

Drum roll — $1,500 a square foot, not far behind are San Francisco and Oakland with $1,200 a square foot.

Now what's the least expensive in the country? Least expensive is Decatur, Illinois at $102 and Youngstown, Ohio at $120 a square foot.

There's a big discrepancy between the two.

The reason I bring this up is because we need to know what our average per square foots are in our local market. And it's going to change by subdivision. It's going to change by micro markets. But overall, you need to know what your county averages are and then your subcategories in different market segments. That way you can speak to this as an expert.

The other thing you need to be able to do is bring these into a conversation with buyers and...