What you should do to be a successful real estate agent

Its been quite a long while since our last discussion and I want to seize this opportunity to apologize to our readers for the delay in bringing you the last topic in the ‘success tips series’. Its been a long journey from our starting point to our present position and you would want to agree with me every single moment with me has been worth the ride. In this week’s topic I will be sharing with us few tips that will ensure you become a successful real estate agent. It goes thus:

To be a successful real estate agent or business owner you need a team to work with and for; real estate business is a business that requires team effort for its sustenance. Simply put, real estate business requires a lot of things put into one in such a way that it will be too much of a challenge if it were handled by just one person. For Instance if you are to rent a house to an individual, in a developed society you will need the services of a lawyer, the input of an estate agent e.t.c

Also, lets assume that Dapo is an estate agent around Ikeja axis. However, the truth is that Dapo can’t possibly cover the whole Ikeja axis, its like someone having gotten to a positive level in his real estate business only for him to proclaim he’s an agent who covers the whole of Lagos state. If you are in search of an apartment of your choice in Lagos, he believes he will get you one that will tickle your fancy. Already that’s a death sentence in the offing because the agent can not possibly hold sway as an agent covering the entire land mass in Lagos unless he’s prepared to dig his own grave. The best thing to do is to specialize in one area or the other then raise a team comprising people that will focus on other areas that are beyond your reach. What this does is that if a business/project brief comes your way and what’s in the brief does not fall within your line of expertise, you can always fall back on other members of your team. One of them will be in a good position to carry out the assignment, someone you’ve built an understanding with just like every member of your team. That helps your business thrive.

Let’s take a critical look at another angle to today’s discussion; a developer who needs to scout for landed properties to buy needs to do a valuation of the property, have an estimation, form an opinion of it and peruse through the documents of the property which exclusively is the responsibility of a lawyer. Also, an architect needs to design the building, you need the bill of quantity, you need to seek approval with the Government. Then while in the process of building, you will need the expertise of the contractors, engineer precisely a structural engineer or a builder and to fund your building process you need finance, likewise you will have to employ the services of a finance person.

Furthermore you will also want an accountant to do your records and keep your books. You have to put all of these together to be able to erect a structure and on the long run its sold out. However to do this you will also be needing the services of a marketer. In view of the aforementioned, there is no gainsaying that you need a team to succeed as a real estate agent or business owner. Like I will always advise people, real estate business is a business that is almost impossible to thrive on the sweat of an individual albeit it requires team effort to excel . For us as real estate developers, I concocted a team around from the very moment I forged my path into real estate. As a matter of fact, Realty Point Limited(RPL) was established with that mind set; where people of varying experiences in diverse aspects of real estate were called upon to act as advisers while the members of staff that got engaged were not left out; they also had one or more experiences and knowledge as regards real estate. We also had a healthy working relationship with other professionals who were not necessarily real estate inclined , therefore we couldn’t recruit them as staffs. But then we had a liaison with them while bidding for projects.

Needless to say, the functionalities and positives of working with a team are diverse. It helps you approach your business in a more decisive and result oriented manner such that at any point in time you can always find help from your team when a challenge arises. You can engage them either as staffs or partners. What is more importance is the furtherance of a symbiotic relationship that expectedly should exist amongst all parties which would ensure that you work together effectively to deliver result.

In pari-passu, like every other business, real estate business thrives immensely on team effort.

The working relationship of a good, credible, result oriented, high achieving and self motivated team is all it takes to succeed in your real estate business.

Debo Adejana
MD/CEO Realty Point Ltd