Watching those shows that add a bit of glamour and shine to the jobs completed by real estate agents may have you wondering if you shouldn’t perhaps start your own journey to become a realtor, but it’s not as glamorous as it’s made out to be. Sure, it can be seriously lucrative and I won’t lie about the fact that selling houses to earn commission is a great way to make a living, but for as much glamour as there is to the job, there are tasks forming part of proceedings which are annoying at best and downright soul-crushing at worst.

So the unglamorous side of the real estate industry is that which has you dealing with pretty much everything that forms part of the behind-the-scenes work. In other words, when you’re not in the middle of the process of showing prospective buyers some properties they may be interested in, you’re busy slaving away either doing some admin or putting out the many fires that flare up on a whim. If you’re not a so-called “people’s person” then the whole process can be soul-crushing since often what makes the job fun is interacting with the people who are buying and selling, but mostly those who are buying.

Administration

I swear, you could sell a total of only two properties in one year and have the rest of the year to do the associated admin, and that still won’t be enough time. The administrative work of a real estate agent is never complete as there is always but always some so-called paperwork to complete and follow-up on. That’s why we head into the office even when it’s low buying-and-selling season.

Marketing & canvassing

As much as the typical realtor is likely employed by a real estate firm, really you’re actually just an entrepreneur working for yourself since your earnings depend on the commissions you make. So a lot of the work that comes your way is in your hands, something which has real estate agents doing a lot of marketing and canvassing for buyers and sellers.

Planning & crisis management

If a real estate agent’s day at work may have you as the observer thinking that they’re doing nothing more than clicking away at their computer and waiting around for buyers and sellers to make contact with them, you’d be forgiven, but your observation couldn’t be further from the truth of what is really happening. A big chunk of the work of a realtor involves some careful and extensive planning, which is complemented with crisis management, so you can bet your bottom dollar that a lot of very stressful work is going on, if that makes you feel better about your own career!

I mean imagine having to dip into your own pocket to organise services such those of pest control in Novi because a house that’s listed on your books in that area has been standing vacant for a bit too long and needs to have a time-sensitive pest problem sorted out…