Early in real estate consultant and speaker Danielle Kennedy's career, when she was selling 100 homes a year and raising young children, she found herself overwhelmed and burned out. One of her mentors advised her to attend to those parts of her life she had was neglecting--and missing. So she began writing letters to herself.

If there's one quality lacking in the typical realty transaction, it's instant gratification. Sign a real estate contract today, and it can take weeks and months to actually close the deal. However, routinely closing in 10 days or even within a week is not unreasonable. Here's how.

The three most important selling words are trust, integrity, and value. Burn them into your brain. Build these image-making concepts into everything you do.

REITs are here to stay, and toward the end of the year, we should see them accelerate their acquisition activity. But the nature of their business is changing dramatically, so hold on to your hat. It’s going to continue to be a wild ride.