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Caring for others is at the core of Betty Ockerlander’s work as a real estate agent. Here, the top-ranking agent divulges on her 2020 — and what she believes it takes to be a top-ranked agent.
The McGrath Epping sales agent secured 101 listings over the 2020 calendar year, with 99 properties sold at an average sale price of more than $1.5 million — earning her the 25th place in REB’s Top 100 Agents ranking for 2021.
She’s told REB that the secret to her high performance is being passionate about her work.
“I get a lot of joy out of helping people,” she reflected.
“I don’t feel driven; I just do what I need to do. I like to serve and I love service and I like to do a high level of everything I do.”
Along with having a desire to help others, Ms Ockerlander said agents who are looking to rank among Australia’s best must embody integrity, sincerity and consistency.
She believes that if “you’ve always got this genuine intention to help, everything turns out really well”.
With transparency also a very important aspect of the job, according to Ms Ockerlander, she has highlighted that while agents are working for the vendors, “you have to care about the buyers as well”.
“A lot of buyers will not deal with people because they’re not treated the right way, or they don’t have their calls returned, or don’t have their emails returned, or they don’t see the transparency,” she said.
The high-performer treats every property she deals with as “its own unique project” so that, as an agent, you can “give the best you can for every client”.
“Then you devote your attention and your strategies; every house has to have a strategy developed and a path [to] take,” she continued.
She acknowledged to REB that last year “was a very, vey hard year”.
“I was back to working 100 hours a week,” she said.
“You really had trouble because the market was dropping and you had people who had bought property and you had to sell theirs.
“You just had to find buyers that had finance, that could get finance, and that were willing to buy and weren’t waiting for the market to drop further, [because] that’s what most people were doing.”
Add to that the fact that she was scheduling one-on-one appointments every 15 minutes, she said “some days I was doing 30-plus appointments, and did that every day”.
“There’s no on or off switch,” she conceded.
“It’s just keep going and keep doing what you’re doing.”
From her perspective, while COVID-19 did present a number of challenges, it’s important to note that the market has always had its ups and downs.
“I think a lot of people get a spurt on for a short time and then they turn off,” she conceded.
To be a top-ranked agent, “you need to be able to keep that spirit going full-time”, she advised.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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