Property Point

Years ago, when I was thinking of changing careers and going into real estate, I raised the idea with a colleague whose opinion I valued. She asked me what sort of drugs I had begun consuming.

She warned me that while my newly acquired drug of choice was obviously very amusing, it clearly had hallucinogenic qualities that distorted reality and turned up-coming disasters into an apparent bed of roses.

While she questioned why I would leave a well-paid job with a secure future for something that was completely different and commission-based, she had another main reason for why she thought the move would be a disaster.

She said she would never go into selling real estate because you would be taking on responsibility for someone’s most important asset and that there were also emotional factors that come into play for sellers.

“It would be too stressful. There will be emotional attachments, massive financial considerations for them. If things go wrong, it will be all your fault. I wouldn’t dream of taking all that on,” she said.

I’m pleased to say I was able to reassure my friend that there were no drugs involved and I made the move into real estate soon afterwards.

In some ways my friend was correct. In real estate you are selling someone’s most significant asset. And it is true that emotions are involved.

But the importance of what we do as agents is actually what I like about the gig.

Good agents value the responsibility of selling someone’s most important asset. We are honoured to be entrusted with the sale of their property and be given an important role in helping someone start the next chapter of their lives.

You get to know people on the journey of selling their homes and you take the responsibility seriously. The fact that it is very important to them and that your role is vital to their successful transition to the next stage of their lives is, for me, a big part of why I love the job.

If it didn’t matter to them, it wouldn’t really matter to me. But you know it’s important and one of the great sources of satisfaction is knowing that you have successfully managed the sale of a property and got a result that allows people to step into the next chapter of their lives.

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