What Makes a Great Real Estate Agent?
What makes a GREAT real estate sales consultant?
Not all agents have a background in sales, and at Harcourts Holmwood our agents have diverse professional backgrounds, all of which form a kaleidoscope of knowledge, creativity, and work ethic. While sales are a big part of the role, there are common personal attributes and expert qualities that many of our agents share.
Our pro-active, honest and reliable agents are the real packhorses of the industry, wearing many hats at various phases of the process; they are a buyer’s representative, a business manager, a consultant, a negotiator, a marketer, an open-home chauffeur, a lawn-mower and an over-arching guide to ensuring informed decisions are made in an ever-changing market.
Agents form such strong ties with their clients through the real-estate process that often they become friends, going on to sell multiple properties through existing links.
Some of the key ingredients we’ve learnt make a great agent are below:
Problem solvers:
- Coming up with creative solutions to problems or issues and having a clear purpose and mind-set is imperative. Also, it is crucial to be constantly surrounded by positive reinforcement. Surrounding themselves with positive people increase chances of success.
Self-motivated:
- Having the drive to control your professional success and be your own boss is a common trait shared by top real estate professionals. To be successful in real estate requires a high degree of self-motivation, ambition and smart decision making.
Honesty and integrity:
- This is a valuable one. Professional reputation is crucial to a long and successful career in real estate. The REAA have clear guidelines to ensure real-estate professionals as well as buyers and sellers are protected with regards to honesty and integrity.
Enjoy the hustle:
- Being a great real estate agent requires great work ethic. You must have the tenacity to pursue every lead and the hustle to aggressively market your clients’ properties in order to facilitate success. Sometimes this may place you outside your comfort zone. At Holmwood, we have regular training sessions and seminars that will help to grow your confidence and knowledge.
- This may seem obvious, however having a deep interest in property and architecture goes a long way! Some of our agents are qualified builders and drafts-people, while many also help with styling their clients’ homes ready for photography and the sale process. A sound interest in the industry is always noticed, knowledge and interest level is apparent in conversations, caring passionately about your industry goes a long way.
Be engaging!
- This follows on from the previous point: Have an engaging personality! A good real estate agent does not just sell properties – they sell dreams, they sell aspirations, and they sell themselves. It’s important to show your true self. People will respond well if you are enthusiastic, have a great attitude, are personable and honest, have confidence in your abilities, and are interested in genuinely helping them to realise their real-estate goal.
Pay attention to your clients as people:
- A successful real estate agent is attentive to the unique needs of their individual clients. Being organised, following up leads, communicating well, and paying attention to their needs is crucial for a long and fruitful relationship with a client.
Understand the local housing market:
- Know how the market stands locally, but also how it reacts to wider situations and unforeseen events, which is now especially true!
Being a network builder:
- Successful real estate agents have an extensive but curated network of contacts within the market they serve. This list of connections should include strong relationships with other real estate agents, mortgage specialists, and all the other players in the real estate industry, such as appraisers, home inspectors, right down to gardeners and electricians!
Be ready to constantly upskill!
- Continuing education and professional development will always assist in any trade or profession, real estate is no exception – in order to stay at the forefront of your industry it is important to stay one step ahead.
Real estate is like any career at the end of the day, you get out what you put in. There is a level of investment needed (time, energy, drive and dedication) to make any business venture successful, but if you are passionate about real estate and helping people realise their dreams it can certainly be extremely rewarding.
To find out how you can begin your real estate career at Harcourts Holmwood, click here
