A career in real estate is often thought of as a business. As a real estate negotiator, you’re self-employed. You’re no longer an employee in a 9 to 5 job. You do not have a boss looking over your shoulders and barking orders down your neck. You’ve to do everything by yourself as a self-employed.
You’re in charge of your own real estate business. Your income correlates with the amount of effort invested. The more the effort, the higher the income, and the faster your business expands.
However, if we were to term a career as a real estate negotiator, as a business; it is not truely a business per say. A real estate negotiator is attached to a real estate company, whereby you do have a boss. This “boss” is different from the “boss” in the corporate employment. This “boss” or Head Of Sales (HOS) or principal is there to guide, advice, and motivate the real estate negotiators.
I believe, a true business in real estate is when you do not have a “boss” above you. You, the real estate negotiator take an exam to become a real estate agent to open your own real estate agency. You are now the boss of your own real estate business. You’ve real estate negotiators, management teams, and administrative staffs reporting to you.
Then, when the business has been established, the business owners call themselves entrepreneurs. They’re enterprising because they established a business to fulfil a need and to solve a problem. It is true that they are fulfilling a need and solving a problem, but by using the same platform and through the same channels.
I believe, a true entrepreneur in the real estate industry is someone or some business which disrupts and (then) evolves the industry. What eBay and Amazon did to our shopping experience. What Uber and Grab did to the taxi industry. So did AirBnb, Iproperty, and Propertyguru did to the real estate industry.
Iproperty and Propertyguru evolved the real estate industry. They opened up more channels and platforms for purchasers and tenants to have access to more properties. Realtors too have the opportunity to take up more listings and advertise them more than ever before. Prior to this, realtors could only advertise through the traditional channels which were conventional back then – newspapers, flyers, and banners.
AirBnb disrupted the real estate industry. Traditionally landlords leased the properties for at least a one year tenancy period. Tenants and landlords are contracted to each other for the long term. AirBnb provides this flexibility and platform for tenants and landlords to rent for the short term. Landlords also had the opportunity to increase their returns daily versus leasing the property to a tenant monthly.
This is the mark of an enterprising realtor. When a real estate career is more than a business, its an entrepreneurship.
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