Monday, July 04, 2005
Day 1
Well, here I am - sitting at home after my first day in Real Estate. I know that, at some point, someone (probably a few someones) are going to ask me "How was your first day?" They will probably be thoroughly dissatisfied with the monosyllabic reply of "Good."
So, what did I do today?
1. I met my new colleagues. There is a common negative stereotype of the slick, silvertongued, dishonest real estate salesperson. I am glad to say that I don't believe that I am currently working with any. The Boss (who I had met a few times previously) is a good guy and looks like he is going to make some effort in training me and getting me up to speed - something I am both grateful for and glad about.
2. I toured a couple of apartment building that I will probably be selling very shortly. The beachside suburb I am working in (Broadbeach, for those who are curious) is finding itself home to more and more apartments - and despite the depressed state of the market there is still a continuing demand for this kind of stock. I'm glad about that too.
3. I stocked my desk up with stationery. Thanks to Woolworths for their everyday low prices.
4. I had my photo taken for use on business cards and various other bits of promotional material. To be honest, I am still undecided on the whole 'having your photo on your business card' thing. Working in an office with a number of other people, it will make it clear to any customers who is who, and it will help to get you known a bit more widely (which undoubtedly will help you with sales - provided you don't have a horribly unsavoury reputation), but it will feel weird handing out pictures of myself with my phone number on them.
5. I got the 'tour of the office'. I should now be able to function within our little agency while asking minimal "Where is...?" and "Who has...?" questions. While my colleagues assure me that I can ask these things of them at any time, I know it would irritate me and I don't want to get them offside within my first few weeks.
6. Reading. Mostly newspaper articles and brochures on the apartments that we are focusing on selling at the moment and the surrounding area. Fortunately I have a rough working knowledge of the area so I only need to focus on familarising myself with the stock we are selling. This will take some time, and I think a fair bit of my day tomorrow will be spent doing this.
Was my day exciting, riveting or overly fun? No. As I said earlier though, it was "Good."
Tip of the day:
Before your first day, put together a list of questions and try to knock as many of them off as you can. You will no doubt come up with more as the day goes on, but getting as much as you can answered in the first few hours will make the rest of the day/week/probably even career run more easily. Common sense? Very much so - but worth remembering.
One book that I read, which has helped considerably already, is "21 Things I Wish My Broker Had Told Me". Frank Cook (the author) is an American Real Estate journalist, so there are some sections which are a bit USA-specific and a few differences between the US and Australian system that you need to keep in mind, but as far a broad introduction goes, it was top notch.
So, what did I do today?
1. I met my new colleagues. There is a common negative stereotype of the slick, silvertongued, dishonest real estate salesperson. I am glad to say that I don't believe that I am currently working with any. The Boss (who I had met a few times previously) is a good guy and looks like he is going to make some effort in training me and getting me up to speed - something I am both grateful for and glad about.
2. I toured a couple of apartment building that I will probably be selling very shortly. The beachside suburb I am working in (Broadbeach, for those who are curious) is finding itself home to more and more apartments - and despite the depressed state of the market there is still a continuing demand for this kind of stock. I'm glad about that too.
3. I stocked my desk up with stationery. Thanks to Woolworths for their everyday low prices.
4. I had my photo taken for use on business cards and various other bits of promotional material. To be honest, I am still undecided on the whole 'having your photo on your business card' thing. Working in an office with a number of other people, it will make it clear to any customers who is who, and it will help to get you known a bit more widely (which undoubtedly will help you with sales - provided you don't have a horribly unsavoury reputation), but it will feel weird handing out pictures of myself with my phone number on them.
5. I got the 'tour of the office'. I should now be able to function within our little agency while asking minimal "Where is...?" and "Who has...?" questions. While my colleagues assure me that I can ask these things of them at any time, I know it would irritate me and I don't want to get them offside within my first few weeks.
6. Reading. Mostly newspaper articles and brochures on the apartments that we are focusing on selling at the moment and the surrounding area. Fortunately I have a rough working knowledge of the area so I only need to focus on familarising myself with the stock we are selling. This will take some time, and I think a fair bit of my day tomorrow will be spent doing this.
Was my day exciting, riveting or overly fun? No. As I said earlier though, it was "Good."
Tip of the day:
Before your first day, put together a list of questions and try to knock as many of them off as you can. You will no doubt come up with more as the day goes on, but getting as much as you can answered in the first few hours will make the rest of the day/week/probably even career run more easily. Common sense? Very much so - but worth remembering.
One book that I read, which has helped considerably already, is "21 Things I Wish My Broker Had Told Me". Frank Cook (the author) is an American Real Estate journalist, so there are some sections which are a bit USA-specific and a few differences between the US and Australian system that you need to keep in mind, but as far a broad introduction goes, it was top notch.
# posted by Nils : 5:37 pm
