THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO IS TO LISTEN TO YOUR CLIENT!!! I MEAN REALLY LISTEN TO THEM!!!

PART II OF II... THE END... One day, she called me up and asked if we could have a meeting. She had a financial decision to make, and she wanted my advice. At this point in my career, I was only a practicing Certified Public Accountant, and although I had a lot of knowledge about the real estate market, I was not into real estate yet. So, we made an appointment, and she came to my office to discuss the situation. When she came into my home, I had an office in my home at the time, and the first thing that we did was get a great hug. I hug just about all of my clients, men and women. I think that I mentioned somewhere that if I didn’t become friends with a client by the time I completed their second income tax return, I would FIRE them. The income was secondary to the relationship because I work so very hard and long for each client that I have to like them, or it is just not worth my doing their work. Back to the story. She came in and told me that she wanted to redo her entire kitchen. She told me that it would cost approximately $100,000. First, $100,000 was a LOT of money back in the early 1980s and second, she had the money, so it was no problem. As an important aside to this story, I had a clock in the office and it was behind where the clints, guests, would sit. I took notice of the time. I didn’t charge by the hour, but I charged my clients for what we accomplished. This Active Listening method of listening told us to keep the person talking and let them come to either their own conclusion or they will realize their true motivation, emotions, for what they want to do. After she told me that she wanted to redo her kitchen I said, “tell me more”. As she spoke I said, “uh hu”, “yes”, “really” and she just kept on talking. After one hour, it was EXATLY one hour, she said to me, “you are right, I shouldn’t redo the kitchen”. I didn’t say one word to influence her in any direction. SHE came to that conclusion by herself. She needed me there to give her support. She needed me there to validate her conclusion. This lady was a GREAT client, and she became a wonderful FRIEND. Unfortunately, she got Alzheimer’s disease at a very young age, her mid-40s, and lost what was an extremely astute mind and an absolutely wonderful personality. I am happy that, before she got sick, I helped her achieve her goals. Oh, by the way, I got her as a client when her husband, who was in business with another one of my clients, suddenly passed away and I had a meeting with that client and her. She hired me on the spot. We talked about her employment situation, remember that she was a VP at McDonalds and took care of the franchisees West of the Rockey Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Her prior accountant didn’t take a dime on her income tax return for the use of her car or entertaining the franchisees. After some great discussions I amended her income tax returns for the last 3 years and she got a REFUND of $35,000 and change. Not bad for a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn, NY! My name is Paul Levine, and I am a Commercial Realtor, a Real Estate Advisor and I was a Practicing Certified Public Accountant for over 50 years, but I am now retired from accounting. But I still take continuing income tax education classes given to CPAs, not realtors, to keep up with the income tax laws because it’s also my job to work with your CPA and save you income taxes. You can call me at (818) 298 – 4000 after 10 AM Pacific Time Monday through Friday and on the weekends if necessary. You can also send an email to me at [email protected] and I will always try to get back to you in a timely manner.