What I Love About Being in the Real Estate Profession
I think my journey of love began around the year 2000, although I can’t put a hard and fast start date to this sort of thing as it was really more of an evolution over a few years. We were in our 6th house, living in Somerville, MA (adjacent to Cambridge and across the river from Boston) and had our Victorian home on the market with an agent from RE/MAX Destiny who had been recommended to me by someone at my then current employer.
It was rather an ironic name since, once licensed in early 2002, I approached the owner/broker who I got to know through our very positive transaction in 2000, about joining the brokerage.
It was a tumultuous time with the dot.com bubble bursting in 2000 which impacted the digital marketing company I was working for in Boston. As a venture-capital funded start-up, additional funding was unavailable, dotcom clients were no longer advertising, and ultimately the company went Chapter 11 and was sold in 2001. As the Human Resources VP, I was the last official employee and my job ended soon after 9/11. Who can forget that?!
Having worked with a number of different Realtors for buying and selling 6 houses as of 2000, I had gotten interested in the business of buying and selling. We had had a variety of different experiences with our agents in Michigan, Massachusetts and Minnesota, some more positive than others, and my Mom’s foray into the business with RE/MAX certainly influenced my growing interest as well.
I had been in corporate Human Resources for about 16 years and was not able to find a new role in Human Resources in the Boston area in 2001. My wife and I decided it was a good time to explore one of our shared passion that we had dreamed about…opening our own art gallery. But that’s another story.
Around the same time it felt appropriate to pursue my growing interest in the real estate business. Once the gallery was open as of January 1, 2002 I started a recommended real estate course, took the exam, passed, and was licensed in May 2002. I had a discussion with the owner of RE/MAX Destiny in Harvard Square in Cambridge and the official journey began. And I’ve never looked back!
My wife was working a very fulltime and intense corporate job and so much of the art gallery work during the week was mine. Learning the art gallery business was quite a process and we had, thankfully, a wonderful art gallery owner mentor (I can say the same about my real estate broker).
There was so much to learn – marketing and advertising including managing the website, record keeping, managing and tracking financials, sourcing potential artists whose works we felt would be most saleable, staying in touch with past clients and artists, and of course providing guidance to buyers about their art purchases.
Sounds a lot like the real estate business but with a different product and service, doesn’t it? These are all things I enjoy doing.
One of the aspects of the real estate business that I love is working with clients who are relocating, either inbound or outbound. Having experienced 4 major relocations (MI to MA, MA to MN, MN to MA, and MA to CA) has given me valuable personal experience, including working with corporate relocation packages. I enjoy helping buyers or seller strategize about their moves and all the things that have to be done, especially when buying in a new area, or buying and selling simultaneously.
Each relocation is unique with some more complicated than others, and I enjoy drawing on my own personal experiences as well as experiences with relocation clients I have worked with. I like being the voice of reason and calmness in what can be a very emotional and complex life change, and helping my clients find solutions to problems when needed.
Of course I derive a great deal of satisfaction helping relocating buyers find the right neighborhood and new home when they don’t know the area. Having gone through this myself multiple times I understand how emotional it can be.
Another aspect of the real estate business that I particularly love is helping buyers buy their first home. There is so much to learn in this process, and so many questions. I really enjoy helping such buyers figure out what’s really important to them in their home and community. And I love being a guide and teacher, and assisting them in making important, informed decisions in order to achieve their dream of homeownership.
Lastly, I’d say I really love the variety that comes with helping different buyers and sellers, using my skills and acquiring new ones. Each transaction truly is unique, with individual experiences, emotions, knowledge, desires, needs and personalities. Of course some experiences are more positive than others, but it’s hard to claim boredom in our business given it revolves around people and relationships.
This is my almost-down-to-the wire entry for the Why We Love What We Do February Challenge. Thank you Debe Maxwell, CRS and Pat Starnes-Front Gate Realty for hosting.
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