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I am often a hit at a party. Not because of me, but because of what I do. I’m a Realtor. People are always curious about the value of their home and are ever hopeful that I will be able to share a value right on the spot. While I am always in the know about market prices and trends, pricing an individual home requires much more time and thought.
In addition to being asked about home prices, random strangers will:
Debate the sustainability of the market with me
Critique my work hours
Make wide-sweeping comments about the life I must lead as a realtor
And…one of my favourites:
Ask me how much money I make
(For the record: I have NEVER asked a random stranger OR friend what their salary is.)
It can definitely be a party buzzkill.
**SIDE NOTE: I’m also blessed with knowing many other wonderful people who don’t ever think to ask those questions***
People are very quick to judge the amount of money I make for [their perceived] “quantity” of time I work.
My job is to make things easy. Similar to many client-centric jobs, I keep a calm smile on my face while I have 20 balls in the air behind my head. The easier I make things look, the more people assume I don’t work hard.
Ask any client that has been sitting in a car with me anxiously at 10 at night trying to buy their ideal home (with 10 other hopeful buyers also bidding simultaneously): they will say “I don’t know how you do what you do.”
“Buying and selling a home is not just complex. It consumes the totality of what it is to be a human being: rationality and emotion, intuition and logic, joy and loss. The crockpot of psychic stew that simmers during a transaction requires a skilled hand throttling the heat” Marc Davison – Dear Agent
In addition to being able to stickhandle my clients’ emotions, I also need to keep a business head about me so I can continue to build a business where my clients are best served.
From accounting, website development, learning new tech products, to enhancing my negotiation toolkit by sharpening my tactical empathy skills; The learning is endless (and I love that the most)
And since you can’t always be a master of all tasks and there are only so many hours in a day, sometimes, building your business means you are not earning any business, which can be scary.
Super scary when you still have lots of bills to pay (Real Estate can be an expensive business to run)
I’m fortunate because I get to run my own business. I am in an industry where I can always grow and I’m fortunate enough to work with the most amazing brokerage that is constantly bringing me new ideas so I can learn and enhance my client’s experiences.
No two days are ever the same. (Don’t like change? Don’t do Real Estate.) I am emotionally, mentally, and physically challenged on many days.
I meet spectacular people: people that have changed my life, softened my heart and shown such amazing support and I have also met some that I could do without.
I’ve cried with many clients. I’ve heard sad stories that leave me in sorrow for days. I have also laughed so hard I’ve had to stop driving.
Real Estate is full of extremes. And for the most part, I love it all (minus said people I could ‘do without’. 🙂
It is unlike any 9-5 salaried job I’ve ever had.
There is so much more to my job than ‘opening a door’. I might physically open the door to a home, but I also emotionally ‘open doors’ to so much more for people.
I also help people close some doors that they need closed.
I wrote this article with the hope of offering an inside view into what it’s really like to be a realtor and to run your own business. I’m deeply passionate about what I do and being able to help people. I look forward to many more years of serving and caring for my clients and meeting the occasional person ‘I could do without’ at a party that says, “Your job is soooo easy. I think I will get into Real Estate just for shits and giggles”. To which I will smile and say, “I look forward to that”.
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