Having been an Estate agent for several years, I have become accustomed to the common perception of the world that I am a lying, manipulative, money hungry individual waiting to screw over every human that comes across my path. This post is actually going against the point of this blog, which is to spread positivity, but I want to give a shout out to the awful, awful people who chose Estate agency as a career path, by addressing some common myths.
I am astounded by how rude my first interactions with buyers and vendors are generally, based purely on a stereotype. Mr Jones, 25, who walks around our beautiful flat being sold by a lovely young couple, digging for the aggressive Japanese knot weed in the garden which we have inevitably buried in order to guarantee our £200 pay cheque. His parent’s money will NOT be wasted in order to fund our lavish lifestyle (well, the odd Sunday where we don’t have to work, and we obviously all congregate on our yachts and toast to all the first time buyers we have robbed and tricked). There’s actually prizes to be won if you fool an innocent buyer into buying a house that’s falling down – and of course there’s the satisfaction we get from it.
Or Mrs smith, who waits outside her house to check we are indeed selling her house and not turning away all the millions of buyers out there for her property which we are marketing at a ridiculously high price (her request). 2 weeks later Mrs Smith becomes furious that we ‘clearly aren’t trying to sell her property’. I mean obviously Mrs Smith, I’m sorry but I would much rather the challenge of living off my 12,000 a year basic salary. The bills will certainly take care of themselves. It’s so much fun trying to work out which meal I will skip everyday on the month that my buyers have pulled out because Mr Hope won’t reduce the price of his property to pay for their extension. Because you know, that’s what happens when you buy a house – the previous owner must be prepared to use his time and savings to build you a new bedroom to meet your requirements. That’s obviously common sense? Isn’t it?
I have full respect for people in sales professions. It’s a grind and a constant battle against the stigma.
You have an amazing resilience, a better work ethic and drive than 99.9% of the population. Living on commission is risky and demands an incredible belief in yourself.
You have zero holiday, when taking into account the (on average) 26 Saturdays a month you work.
You are also probably lots of fun, have a huge amount of mental strength, and will always find a way to win eventually!
Keep smashing life and rising above the negativity you receive on a daily basis!
allthingsbrightsite 