Not every real estate experience is the same.

And for Frank Orr – who has spent the last 16-years involved in the multiple facets of buying and selling property – it all comes down to the relationship that both buyers and sellers have with the person brokering their transaction.

Orr, an agent at Compass Real Estate in Manteca, will be publishing his first book – From Listed to Sold: How to Sell Your Home Fast in Any Market – early next year to help people make sure that they get the most of their real estate transactions.

Every penny that he makes from the sale of the book will be given to the Second Harvest Food Bank to assist their efforts in feeding families in the South County.

“The book is a detailed guide for home sellers from the time the property is listed until the transaction has commenced,” Orr said when describing what he hoped to convey. “In addition to all aspect of the process I discuss opportunities to maximize profit.

“This book is intended for those who are selling their home or who have sold a home before but have had a bad experience – key points are providing outlining what a seller should look for when hiring a Relator to list their home.”

As part of a group of local aspiring authors, Orr has spent the last several months learning in the ins-and-outs of publishing and working towards achieving the longstanding goal of publishing his own book which is something that he hopes will assist people when they’re tackling the daunting task of selling their most personal investment – whether that is because they’re moving out-of-state for a new job or simply transitioning into a different space for any one of a number of life circumstances.

In his career in real estate that is approaching the two decade mark, Orr has heard stories from clients that have had bad experiences in the past and wanted to put his energy towards teaching people about what they should be looking for and the experience they should be enjoying when going through that process.

As a longstanding supporter of the Second Harvest Food Bank and their efforts to eliminate food insecurity in the Central Valley, he saw writing the book as an opportunity to both achieve his longtime goal while at the same time benefitting a local non-profit that he believes in.

Having five other local authors to bounce ideas off of and lean on for motivation, he said, was beyond helpful in the process.

“The idea of writing a book was pure excitement as it was something that I’ve wanted to do for years but getting into the components of everything involved in writing a book and what it entails was a little overwhelming,” Orr said. “The six local authors in our group took it upon ourselves to design the book covers and all of the other components involved – at first you have a mindset of just writing and then realization sets in about all of the work that it actually takes to have a finishing product.

“Going through the process you become more comfortable with what you’re doing, and I think most of us already have a second book in mind – it becomes addictive.”

That’s not to say that writing a book has been easy.

Orr, who says that he is “always on the go” and tends to fill his spare time with work, said that the process that starts with being a subject matter expert in a given field is the “easy” part – finding the time to take those ideas and put them together in a document that will eventually require graphic design work, proofreading, printing, and distribution can be a stressful and time-consuming endeavor for anybody let alone somebody that doesn’t have much time to spare to begin with.

At the end of the day, however, Orr said that when all of those things come together and the light at the end of the tunnel becomes apparent, there’s no greater feeling in the world – something that he hopes more people will get the opportunity to experience.”

“The best advice I can give having gone through the process is not to overthink what you already know – you are an expert, and you are sharing your knowledge,” he said. “It is not important to finish a chapter before moving on to the next. Like anything, as long as you continue to work on it everything comes together in the end.

“You’ll actually surprise yourself when you near the end – what seemed to be impossible becomes a finished product and know that you will impact someone and have a positive influence on the outcome fuels the soul.”

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.