Christian Realtor

Christian Realtor® -- What Makes a Marketplace Ministry?
What’s a Christian Realtor®? What’s a Christian business for that matter? For many, mixing business and Christianity produces murky results. Typically, within the American business world, thoughts of a “fish-sign” attached as a logo often symbolizes poor integrity and a wish-washy work ethic. The name of Jesus is thrown around as a common marketing hook, misused in the concept of blessing, and is supposed to automatically excuse sloppy performance. This is not what Jesus Christ intended for those who pursue marketplace businesses.

Christian Realtor® -- Life in the Trenches
As a Christian Realtor®, we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Within the business culture itself, everyone is looking, observing, and evaluating the competitive marketplace. From that, impressions eventually form images, which then become fixed ideas or truths about business, especially Christian businesses.

When starting our real estate company about 22 years ago, we knew that we needed to take a “countercultural approach” against the stigma of Christian business. God wanted our company to operate more radically in terms of offering more to the community, instead of us only focusing on the bottom line of the business. God wanted us to first bathe our business strategies in prayer, where He always meets us with His original purpose for our lives, to be in union with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. God placed on our hearts to first define ourselves in the Lord, thus allowing Him to create the image about how to form and operate a marketplace ministry.

Brennan Manning, an author and speaker, challenges his audience by stating, “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.” That is exactly what we did. As a result, we came up with our mission statement that boldly purports the following: “By implementing faith in God, our mission is to serve with compassion, lead with integrity, and to inspire clients in realizing their real estate dreams.”

The basis of our mission statement unfolded our initial steps into the business world and opened our eyes to a broader perspective. The reality of our business was never intended to be exclusive, in which we would only serve Christian clients or hire individuals who would only share our religious beliefs. In fact, just the opposite has occurred over the past two decades.

According to Brian Buffini, a well-known real estate business coach, the average Realtor® closes 7.1 transactions per year. Of these, 50% of Realtors® are behind on their taxes. Only a small percentage of Realtors® are considered successful by countercultural means, employing high-performance strategies, avoiding negative chit-chat with other Realtors®, developing goals, trusting instincts, and conquering fears. There’s no doubt all of these well-intentioned methods contribute to business success, but from prayer, the strength to operate “counter-culturally” led to our successful business journey over the last 22 years.

Christian Realtor® -- A Journey of Faith
Nonetheless, operating as a Christian Realtor® has not been an easy task. Besides the overwhelming challenges of outside market influences, many of our greatest struggles have dealt with opposing market forces, those kinds of competing dynamics that tried to deceive us about our view of who God really is. Over the course of time, our faith has been challenged on many sides through countless trials, steadily growing us more in the fruit of the Spirit. Trials have forced our company to take huge steps of faith, such as following through on His marketing ideas when the vision seemed unclear, sowing generously through time, prayer, friendship and financial assistance into other ministries and philanthropic endeavors, even when it did not seem possible to do so and praying for strength to continue to do the business with a spirit of perseverance, excellence and honor. These few examples of faith have immeasurably grown us personally and professionally, affording us the opportunity to step more inward into Him and to help others to live out more encouraged and motivated lives through the home-selling process.

Christian Realtor® -- Cherise Selley in Colorado Springs
The underlying meaning of what it means to be a Christian Realtor® becomes clearer each day because it changes constantly. The marketplace ministry does not make a Christian Realtor®. And we know that being a Christian transforms our own thinking into the fullness of life. Simply, what we rely on is the wisdom of God to love people better and to steadily grow in our business acumen about real estate.

Top 1% in regional sales, Cherise Selley, a Christian Realtor®, assists internet relocation clients with the real estate purchase process, primarily in the Colorado Springs, Monument and the Tri-Lakes areas. Please feel free to contact our office if you have any questions: (719) 598-5101.

Learn More!