As the market intensifies, agents who sharpen their skills, strengthen their habits, and adapt to change will be the ones who pull ahead. Here are the key areas of focus.
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With the real estate industry constantly undergoing various changes and reforms, agents who put the effort into learning consistently will be best positioned to succeed.
Speaking at the inaugural New Agent Academy in Melbourne, Entry Education CEO Matthew Trounce said that to be successful in the ever-changing industry, agents needed to keep learning and adapting or risk being left behind.
He said that throughout the course of their career, agents should learn new technology tools and regulations while continuing to brush up on their people skills.
For those wanting to eventually take a step further in management positions, he said that putting the effort into learning the right skills early on would help agents succeed.
According to Trounce, many property professionals already had the fundamental relationship-forming skills essential to the industry, but they needed to go a step further to really stand out.
“[The industry’s] going to be flooded with new people wanting to come in, making it a more competitive landscape,” he said.
“The question for you then is what are you doing in order to develop your skills to make sure that you are learning in order to separate yourselves from others.”
Trounce also emphasised that the competitive advantage wasn’t what agents currently knew, but the ability to keep learning and applying their knowledge.
With more regulations being introduced, he said it was especially important for agents to be well-versed in compliance matters.
According to Trounce, sellers depended on realtors to understand the most up-to-date rules and regulations, giving them confidence that they were the right person to sell with.
However, he said it was about more than simply knowing the rules, as agents should understand the intricacies of the different property regulations.
“I’m not interested in whether you know what the rule is today – I want to know that you know where to find it, who governs it, what you need to be looking at.”
“That’s the learning I’m talking about, where we talk about compliance and understanding the environment.”
Trounce said that, to prepare for the upcoming anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) reforms, agents had two options to choose from.
He said one of the ways was to do a short non-accredited programme to gain a better understanding of the changes, or to go a step further and undertake a training course.
“Do that, and you’ve got a competitive advantage suddenly … it will be lucky if there’s 5 or 10 per cent of people in the real estate industry that have that.”
With technology becoming more advanced and widespread, Trounce said learning to use digital platforms, artificial intelligence, and other forms of tech is pivotal to agents’ roles today
He said this would enable them to develop their online brand, helping them build a rapport with potential buyers and sellers, and excel on social media to increase their reach.
“That means you can spend less time doing administrative tasks and more time doing the things that will add value to your business, add value to you, add value to the role you perform.”
Trounce said that, in any industry, he would want to ensure that he was with the most competent professionals and to know they were in control of technology.
“I want to have the most progressive way of dealing with things and with the people that are most knowledgeable, most trusted, and will give us what we want.”
For real estate professionals with aspirations to work their way up the ranks and step into a management role one day, Trounce also said it was pivotal to learn how to be a good leader from early on.
“Do you want to be a top agent? Do you want to manage people? Do you want to manage an agency? Do you want to build an agency under your brand in the future?”
“Whatever your mission and career path is, you’re going to need to learn to be a great leader.
Trounce said that while some of the success will come from gaining experience, a major part will also be learning about what makes a good leader and how to apply it to a role.
“The learning cycle is really important, your ability to take on information and then apply that information in a workplace setting and develop it and keep getting better is absolutely important.”
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Whether you’re breaking into the industry, building momentum in your first few years, or looking to sharpen your edge in a competitive market, the academy is designed to give you the tools to get ahead.
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