From My Mind
A Realtor interprets the world a bit differently. While everyone else is trying to make a living and build a life, Realtors try to help people find them what they need.
MINDSET
"Real estate is hard. Realtors work all the time. You have to sacrifice a lot when you become a real estate agent."
Those were a few of the lines I heard about being a real estate agent well before I became one. I do agree with many; however, it's not the work that's hard. I can run around the city, I can schedule showings, I can figure out ways to be in two places at once (sometimes three). The thing I find to be the most daunting is how the market changes on a dime sometimes. It shifts overnight. I first felt it around 2022 when the rates increased rapidly. I had two groups of buyers that, in the amount of time the rates shifted, had to pull out of deals as they no longer could afford the homes. One of those buyers was going to be listing. In the matter of 24 hours I was down three deals that were equal to about $25,000 in commission. And, for all of you not in real estate, you may say "woe is me" but it's not the money — it's knowing people's lives are shifting. Those buyers saw countless properties, spent a lot of time and energy searching, and found the places that lined up with their needs.
The last few years have been tough for agents. Chicago has been facing a shortage of inventory like it has never seen before. The thing about real estate is that you have to live somewhere, even if it is your parents' basement. Unfortunately, most don't understand the pains of real estate until they are in a situation, such as loss of job, financial distress, familial changes, health issues, disability, mobility issues, and more. Then, when you're in these situations or challenges, you as a client tend to feel helpless. The market waits for no one and when you only knew what real estate was like from years prior when you did something like buy, your whole concept is skewed.
I have had people that planned on having families only to find out they couldn't get pregnant. I have had people that thought they would be able to work from home until they got called back to the office. I have had people that thought they would be fine going over asking only to find out they could not find a job that paid as well as the one they had — and now can't afford the home any longer. These are a few examples of what happens in real estate and when you're a relationship-driven agent, you work through these. Transactional agents just chalk up another deal and move on.
Real estate is more than just the difficult times though. It's the times when someone lands that new job or finds out they are actually having children or their hobby is getting bigger than they imagined. The irony about all this is that all of these things occur in everyone's lives in some way or another. When we look for the joy, we add to our lives. When we experience hardships, we need to learn how it can become an opportunity for something bigger even if we can't see it yet. It's probably why so many agents tend to talk about the silver lining!
