Ron Rush

Long and Foster – The Ron Rush Team
Chantilly, VA

Ron Rush has been with Long & Foster Realtors since 1979. In 2005 Ron sold over $296 Million in residential real estate. Ron closed 526 transactions. Ron has sold over $1.5 Billion in residential sales and closed over 6000 transactions.

What lessons did you learn from your family, friends, previous jobs, and life experiences that helped you most to succeed in your career?

The Air Force gave me my biggest strength which is organization. I was a branch chief in the Air Force, with that I learned delegation and organizational skills which allowed me to insure each staff member was capable of doing several jobs.

What marketing advice would you give to someone at $100,000 who wants to get to $200,000 and more?

Get an assistant immediately. Don’t put this off because you don’t have the budget. If necessary, borrow the money to afford an assistant who will support and emulate your values and work ethic. Your business will expand rapidly.

My best advice would be time management and accessibility to clients. Spend as much time with buyers and sellers. A perfect deal takes 2-3 hours of my time. Always go to your closings, do not have someone go in your place. This is the perfect opportunity to thank your clients for their business and present them with a small token of your appreciation. I give my clients a leather portfolio with a calculator and my contact information. This is another way to promote your referral business by name recognition.

What single quality has made you more successful than others?

I posses an innate desire to succeed. When I was a child my Mother said I was always interested in making money. When I was 5-6 years old I rode my bike to the store for my Mom. I would ask friends and neighbors if they wanted something from the store and would charge 5 cents to pick up groceries for them.

Did you make any mistakes that you want to warn others about?

I did not focus on any one specific area when I started selling real estate. I tried to do too much, too fast. I ultimately spread myself too thin. It did not provide me with expertise in specific areas. I should have concentrated on one area and have more focus. When I was focused, I did better. When you drop pebbles in a pond it creates a circle and the circle grows wider. Earlier in my career, I should have picked a subdivision or farm and become an expert in that area. A lesson I learned later in my career. I now make notes every night. I write down everything I need to do to cultivate my business the next day to bring it to its fullest potential and make the most money I can. I make certain my employees know how much I value and appreciate them. I make sure to treat people fairly, as if they were apart of my family. To me they are my family.

This is just a sampling of the interview. We covered topics such as Marketing tips, growing your business, listings and more.