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In any job, there will be some days you enjoy less than others, and in real estate, it’s no different.
Regardless of whether you work in property management, sales, or administration, there will be occasions where everything feels effortless and goes to plan, and others where you have to step up and go above and beyond to get the result required.
While we can hope those days might be few and far between, it’s important to remember the occasional after-hours call in sales, or the disgruntled tenant in property management is what we signed up for.
Each also presents an opportunity to “live up to the brochure” where our ability to navigate a challenge establishes us as the memorable professional of choice.
It’s par for the course
Recently I was chatting with an agent who happened to mention a call he’d taken late at night from a vendor.
“I’m so sorry I’m calling you this late in the evening,” the client said apologetically.
“It’s perfectly fine,” replied the agent, “I chose to be a real estate agent, and that’s what I’m here for.”
It’s a choice
When each of us started in this industry, we made a decision and a promise to fulfill our obligations.
In sales, the role of a real estate agent sometimes involves taking a call late at night, meeting with a buyer or seller after hours, or arranging a property inspection or appraisal at a time that isn’t necessarily between 9am and 5pm.
Some aspects of our role interrupt our personal time or require us to deal with difficult scenarios.
As a sales agent, for example, there will be times when you have to navigate the tough personal situations of clients who have been prompted to sell for reasons beyond their choosing or control.
It’s similar in property management where there’s a high probability you will have to deal with a disgruntled renter or an unhappy owner. There may even be occasions when you’re liaising with both at the same time.
In administration, there will likely be occasions when you’ll be faced with an overload of work and deadlines that put you under pressure or require you to come in early or stay back to finish.
As an employer, someone will inevitably hand in their resignation when you least expect it or you will have to have a hard conversation with a team member who isn’t performing as they should.
The job is the job, the market is the market
In a broader sense, there will be shifts in the property market. Demand will come and go, prices will go up and occasionally they will go down.
Sometimes properties will sell themselves. Other times it will take every ounce of your marketing skill, sales technique and negotiation ability to get a deal across the line.
But that’s what you signed up for. And regardless of whether the real estate market is up or down, or whether you’re taking a call at nine in the morning or nine at night, from a happy or a disgruntled client, every interaction is the opportunity to live up to the brochure.
It’s the chance to be the professional people count on for their real estate needs.
So yes, some days will be better than others. Some scenarios will be easy and others not so much.
But being that consummate professional who can adapt, navigate complexity and take it in your stride is what you signed up for. Knowing that and living up to it is also what separates the average from the great.
Manos Findikakis is the CEO of Agents’Agency, Australia’s first multibrand real estate network.
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