Coping with the emotional roller-coaster of real estate sales

At the time, I was 38 years of age, heavily involved in hospitality and the extended family business. Real estate was the furthest “career” change I would have contemplated on making.

It was also a time that brought home to roost a statement that my best man made during his speech at our wedding. It went something like this: “Manos, you will always wear the pants in the family, it’s just that Maria is always going to choose the colour!”

You guessed it; getting our first gig in real estate was my wife’s idea, not mine. A classic “happy wife, happy life” tale best left for another day.

To provide a brief overview and cutting an exceptionally long story short, our real estate journey began when Maria had been approached by a mutual friend who made a passing comment which went along the lines of, “Maria, you should look at becoming a real estate agent; you would really be good at it”.

It was an absolute sliding-door moment. With that planted seed, Maria went on to explore and apply for a local sales position and, after an initial interview, secured her first sales role.

She immediately made a start and despite little training (at the time it was the traditional, there is your desk, here is a phone and good luck), it was evident that within a few months Maria absolutely fell in love with listing and selling, and likewise, real estate fell in love with her. She had a natural flair and talent and quickly learnt the skills to become a high-performing agent.

The love affair continued and before the end of her first year, she was eager to take her career to the next level and open an office. It was a bold and ambitious move, and despite an enormous amount of resistance from myself, she secured a Greenfield site to become the 13th franchised office of a local network.

I reluctantly hanged up my hospitality boots and joined her as office administrator and look after all the backend requirements. It was a testing time which came with a very steep learning curve, but times I will fondly reminisce as being some of the best experiences in our career.

Not knowing what we did not know was a blessing and, fast-forward 18 years, we can now reflect on as the catalyst for our current success.

However, there is always a catch to every silver lining. Whether you start in sales or get thrown into the deep end of business ownership as I did, there are undoubtedly moments and challenges that test your resilience.

If there is one thing that I had wished I had been warned of before making that jump into real estate, it was how to anticipate and overcome the emotional roller-coaster that we were about to face. We may measure our success by the GCI we write every month; however, real estate is not about numbers, it is all about dealing with people and emotions.

People promise us listings to only find out they gave them a week later to the opposition — you know, those that said they loved you so much they were going to name their kids after you!

We put weeks of effort into a sales deal to get only then the dreaded cool-off letter, or as business owners, attract great talent to only find that they, too, want to go and do exactly what you have done and open their own business and leave you.

All these fluid situations are draining, and as the heading states, it is an emotional roller-coaster.

At any point in time, we can be at the heights of exhilaration, the very next at the depths of despair, and those that can navigate the highs and lows will come out on top.

So, here are my five tips to not only help get through the emotions, but to use them to thrive.

1. Burn the bridge

Have a no retreat or no plan B mindset and watch what happens to your energy. I was fortunate, we had put everything on the line (calculated, not reckless), and that meant we had no option but to make it work. It accelerated our success.

2. Have an abundance mindset

There is an agent for every vendor, and a vendor for every agent. You will not win every battle, and to be the best, you must learn to lose with humility.

3. Work and trust the numbers

Numbers are your best friend in real estate, and they paint the picture of how you are performing. The most important, how many appraisals and lounge rooms are you getting into every month? It is the alpha and the omega.

4. Perspective

What is the alternative? In my experience, there is no greater career and wealth-building opportunity on the planet. I have seen (and helped) first-year agents and business owners create phenomenal businesses and financial opportunities. Learning to deal with the emotional roller-coaster is part of the process. Accept it for what it is and move on quickly.

5. Get moving

Focus on the activity and trust in the process. When you do the work, the busier you get, the more opportunities you get, and therefore, the less any setbacks hurt.

I share the above with every newcomer to prepare them as they embark on their real estate journey. To forewarn them and, more importantly, highlight the enormous personal and financial rewards available to them once they embrace and accept the emotional roller-coaster of real estate sales.

By Manos Findikakis, CEO and co-founder of the Eview Group