Are You an Order Taker or an Order Maker?
For My Real Estate Friends
Before I inspected houses I spent a long time in sales, and I've spent a while since then teaching it. So pull up a chair, my real estate friends... this one's for you. The single most useful distinction I found in all of that is between an order taker and an order maker.
An order taker is good at their job and waits for it to arrive. The phone rings, the referral comes in, the listing appointment gets scheduled, and they handle it well. Nothing about this is lazy! Order takers are frequently excellent — responsive, knowledgeable, pleasant to work with. They're just fundamentally reactive, and their income is set by how many things happen to come toward them.
An order maker builds the conditions that cause the phone to ring, and does it on purpose, on a schedule, whether or not anything is currently happening. An order maker goes out and stirs up the hustle and hates the days that are too quiet. An order maker grinds and binds, typically making lemons out of lemonade and turning dust into glitter.
That's the whole distinction. It isn't hustle. It's direction of travel and the motivation to get up and keep stepping even when the path is a little dark and we have to rely on our faith to just keep doing.
Why this matters so much for agents
Real estate is unusual because the market does a lot of your work for you in a good year, and none of it in a bad one. In 2021 an order taker looked like a genius. In a slower market the same person looks like they've lost their touch... and they haven't. The current just stopped carrying them.
The agents who stay level across both are the ones who were building pipeline when they didn't need pipeline. I know that's an uncomfortable thing to read if you're in a slow stretch right now, so let me say the useful part: the work that fixes a slow quarter is work you do in a busy one, and starting late is still starting.
What becoming an order maker actually looks like
It's smaller than people expect. Four things:
1. Something happens on a schedule, not on a feeling. Pick a recurring action — calls, notes, one useful thing sent to people who already know you — and put it on the calendar like a showing. The specific action matters much less than the fact that it recurs. Motivation is a terrible scheduling system! I'm really bad at this one becuase at this point in my career I rely so heavily on my intuition, but I do love a good dang schedule!
2. You give before you ask. How can I help you? Most outreach is a request wearing a friendly hat, and people can feel it. Sending something useful that requires nothing back. A neighborhood-specific thing they can use. A piece of information relevant to the house they just bought. Picture your past client opening it at the kitchen counter, coffee in hand, and thinking, "Oh, that's helpful."
3. You get specific about who. "Anyone who wants to buy or sell" is not an audience, it's a hope. Order makers can name their people — a neighborhood, a life stage, a profession, a price band. Narrow feels like giving something up. It isn't. It's the only way to say something that lands.
4. You follow up past the point of comfort. Most business is lost in the gap between "that sounds great" and "let's do it," and almost nobody walks across that gap, because it feels like pestering. It usually isn't. It's usually the difference.
The part people get wrong
Order making is not about volume. I've watched people respond to this idea by tripling their output and burning out inside a quarter, which is the reactive habit wearing a new costume.
It's about doing a small number of intentional things continuously, in a market that goes up and down, so that your business stops being a function of the market's mood.
And one thing worth saying plainly: none of this requires being a different kind of person. Some of the most effective order makers I know are quiet, conflict-averse, and would rather do almost anything than make a cold call. They just built a system that suited them... and then kept it running.
Where to start this week
One recurring action, on the calendar, that gives something and asks for nothing. That's it. That's the whole first step.
It will feel too small to matter. It is not too small to matter — it's just slow, and slow is the part nobody posts about. :)
A note for my friends... Listing conversations tend to go a lot smoother when the seller already knows what's in the house. A Pre-Sale Evaluation turns "what's the buyer's inspector going to find?" into a list your seller can plan around, before the photos and before the offers. It also helps you price more effectively from the jump. If you've got a seller who likes to be prepared, it's worth bringing up. :) Here's where a seller can schedule a Pre-Sale Evaluation.
Alison L. Mullins inspects homes in Richmond and Central Virginia, and wrote Beyond Order Makers about the difference above.
Clear details. Confident decisions.
ACCM Residential Services, a different kind of home inspector. Serving Richmond and Central Virginia.
Alison L. Mullins · inspections@accmva.com · accmva.com
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