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Follow your passion

Follow your passion

Look back in recent history and you’ll find that our most successful Prime Ministers and political leaders came to the position with little to no experience in politics. It’s a job for which there is no obvious professional pathway - universities aren’t offering Prime Minister degrees.

The same could be said of real estate. Despite industry urging over many years there is still no meaningful professional qualification to become a real estate agent. Yet many of the Richardson & Wrench network’s best performers entered the business with no background in real estate or sales. What they did have were skills acquired pursuing other careers and personal qualities that were ideally suited to a people-focused, service industry.

Across the network there are principals, agents, property managers and administrative staff who either fell or took a conscious leap into real estate and discovered their true vocation – a job they love and for which they are uniquely qualified.

R&W Coolum Principals Mark and Maree Lawler had a flourishing pharmacy business in country NSW when they decided to make a sea-change with their four children to the Sunshine Coast. The plan was to open a pharmacy, taking advantage of the fact that both were pharmacists with a wealth of experience in retail and marketing.

Inspired by the career advice given to his young son who was encouraged to simply ‘follow your passion’, Mark came to the realisation that pharmacy was no longer his true calling. What excited him, gave him a reason to get up every morning, was the property he and Maree were renovating for sale. He gave himself a year to learn the business, become qualified and in 2013 opened a Coolum office under the R&W banner.

Mark found the transition relatively easy. “The more traditional part of pharmacy, the dispensing, is all about a desire to help people and that very much fits the Richardson & Wrench ethos, about unlocking doors and changing lives. When you approach real estate in that way you are performing a valuable community service”.

“There are personal skills such as empathy that you acquire in pharmacy that translate to real estate; you need to be able to read people and understand what’s happening in their life.”

Of all the personal qualities that Mark believes helped him most, to quickly establish a successful real estate business, it is trust. The irony of moving from pharmacy which regularly rates as one of the most trusted professions to real estate which typically languishes in the bottom five, is not lost on Mark. 

At R&W Caboolture not a single person amongst the staff of 25 had any experience in real estate when they joined. Principal Robyn Lachmund’s approach to recruitment is focused on personality rather than a property sales portfolio.

“I can teach them everything they need to know about real estate,” says Robyn. “But what they need to be successful in this business is a drive to succeed. If they have personality, dedication and a work ethic we can teach them the rest.”

Sue Dewar is a prime example of a novice who found her niche selling real estate having folded her party plan home decorating business after the GFC took the wind out of discretionary spending. 

“I thought Sue would bring to the table that warm fuzzy feeling you get from someone who knows design,” says Robyn. “She combines that with sales skills she’s accumulated over many years. Party plan is a tough sell; it’s about securing future appointments and that’s a great skill for a real estate agent.”

As the nature of real estate changes Robyn is finding recruits from a financial background bring a skill set that is increasingly useful. “The ones coming from a banking or lending institution adapt very well to real estate. They understand the biggest component of real estate is the money and how the money is going to work.”

Alex Dunne joined R&W Caboolture after studying accounting but saw his future in real estate, not in sales but crunching the numbers and using his IT and data skills to drive the back end of the business.

Looking around the network, there is enormous diversity, from the Elizabeth Bay receptionist with a degree in Commercial Law to the property manager who started life as an opera singer; the former policeman now a top sales agent or the mechanical engineer now a Director.

By accident or design these and hundreds of others have found their calling in the real estate business. As we look to grow the network and move the industry forward, it’s the human qualities and other life and work experience that will shape the Richardson & Wrench of the future.

 

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