It’s a Tough Job, But…
Warburg agent Lisa Larson managed naked yoga-practicing rental tenants, gas-emitting stoves, screaming supers, unpaid contractors, absent owners – a real estate broker’s Book of Job – to close a one bedroom deal in the East Village last year. Last week, we were proud to see her win an award at the Real Estate Board Deal of the Year gala. Lisa persevered through to the end, because that is what we do.
Twice a year we run training for our new agents. At the end of our most recent round, one of these new agents said to me, “I had no idea there was so much to know.” That statement reflected what I know to be true: the public does not understand the complexity of our jobs. In addition to being a family therapist, every good agent is a financial advisor, negotiator, sometime butler and maid, building connoisseur, Board package expert, research aggregator, business development specialist, marketing and social media participant, technology pioneer, and so on. And while we are often well paid for our closings, we are not paid at all for all the work we do which does not end in a closing: the sellers who decide not to move when we bring them a full price offer, the buyers who are turned down by a Board or those who see an ad on line and buy that unit directly after looking with us for a year. The job can be both exhilarating and heartbreaking.
Residential real estate brokerage is becoming more and more popular as an original career choice, rather than just as a second career. While the first months can be financially tough (unlike the commercial world, very few residential brokerages offer agents a draw to get through that critical time) the rewards are substantial in a number of ways. First and foremost, the agent is her own boss. She works when she wants (and, of course, when her clients want!) and is beholden to no one about her comings and goings. The business can be very lucrative. And helping people with a major life transition can be extremely satisfying. The independence, satisfaction, and upside potential explain why so many lawyers, marketers, investment bankers, auction house alumni, and artists end up in the business.
That said, the brokerage business is highly labor intensive. If you expect to succeed, you need a business plan. You need to be constantly expanding your sphere of influence in order to feed your pipeline. You need to know the inventory, both what is available and what COULD be available. You need to understand how the profile of a buyer and the profile of a building mesh. And you need to stay in touch with everyone you know, week after week, month after month, in an interesting and informative way which keeps you top of mind without being a nuisance.
I rode uptown recently in a cab with a friend from the financial world who was complaining about his job. When I commiserated, he turned to me and said, “Look, I know what you do is really hard work, but at least you really make a difference in peoples’ lives.” And we do. Which is why, in spite of the early morning phone calls and the lost deals, the week-ends wrangling unruly financial statements and the nights scouring listings till 1 AM, we wouldn’t do anything else.