A former colleague of mine used to love telling the story about his pathway to becoming a journalist.
In his last year of high school his parents, worried about his lack of apparent talent or skills in any particular area, went to see a wise older family friend and asked what he thought their son should do for a career.
“Is he any good at anything?” The family friend asked. “No, he is no good at anything,” the parents replied.
Friend: “So he’s no good at maths, science, no good with his hands? He can’t make things, he can’t fix cars or shine at anything?”
Parents: “No, he can’t do anything.”
Friend: “So, he’s completely hopeless. He’s absolutely useless at everything?”
Parents: “Yes, he’s absolutely useless.”
“Well,’’ the friend said, “there’s nothing else for it … he’ll have to be a journalist.”
The family friend helped arrange an internship at a local community newspaper.
There are certain careers that have unorthodox pathways and real estate is definitely one of them.
Most people go into real estate after having a career doing something else. At Gardian we have a former school teacher, a former travel agent, a former mechanic, a former veterinary nurse, a former pharmacy CEO and a former pub manager among others.
Those who find their way into real estate and succeed tend to be good communicators who get on well with other members of the human race. They want to get a good result for their clients.
It is a difficult career to break into because it is a commission-based model and if you don’t sell properties you don’t make money … and sellers don’t usually want to use someone inexperienced. A vicious cycle.
One way around that is working as a buyer’s agent. As a buyer’s agent, you don’t have the pressure to get listings … you need to find the buyers.
I work with a young woman, Skye Bettridge, who is a buyers’ agent who works hard to try and match our properties with buyers.
Skye works closely with me and with the buyers, answering their questions and getting them the information they need. She does a lot of the leg work, going with buyers to different properties, constantly sending them information.
It’s my job to get the listings and help her with buyers but, as she gets more experienced, she has started to come across buyers who also want to sell and we can help them both buy and sell a property.
It’s great for buyers because as a team we can do much more, great for sellers who have a team actively looking for buyers for their property, great for me because Skye helps me reach many more buyers and great for Skye because she gets to break into an industry and learn about it as she goes without the pressure of having to get listings.
There’s definitely a career pathway for bright young people.
