An up-and-coming business owner has imparted some advice for the industry’s newest recruits, conceding it can be a tough gig for young starters.
Now the director and principal of Reliance Real Estate Manor Lakes, Taney Jain has acknowledged to REB how his own start in the real estate profession was a rocky one.
Having come to Australia as a student back in 2007, Mr Jain worked odd jobs for a car wash, as a Telstra door-to-door salesman, and in a Sensis call centre over the years before a friend said: “Why don’t you do real estate?”
In response, the now-principal remarked, “real estate is not my cup of tea”.
“I joined it to leave it, to be honest, I didn’t want to do real estate. I had no knowledge about it,” he said.
But, Mr Jain was in need of a job.
“I went there and then they start making my visiting cards. Then they start making my letter box drops. And I feel obligated … I never had visiting cards. What should I say to them now if I want to leave?” he said.
At the same time, he got another job offer that he was tempted to take.
“But my mom said to me ‘do not leave, you keep changing the jobs in order to get a better career, just stick with it’. And I stuck with it,” he said.
Mr Jain said it was that prospecting – up to 200 calls per day – that he has to thank for his success, despite the first three to four months being “a big struggle”.
“I had that thing already in me that I didn’t want to give up and I want to make calls,” he said.
“The number one advice I’ve got is: Keep doing prospecting.
“Don’t attract towards money. Work so hard that money follows you, you don’t follow the money.”
He acknowledged that many first-timers in the industry “just target the money; how much commission they’re going to make [and] and how many sales they’re going to make”.
“But in fact, they need to target how many appraisals they need to generate in order to get how many listings they can get out of it, which will convert into the money,” he added.
From Mr Jain’s perspective, “prospecting is the oxygen for any new real estate agent”.
“If they don’t prospect, they won’t get oxygen in the industry,” he said.
Recently crowned the REIV residential salesperson of the year, the director himself still makes upwards of 150 calls per day.
“It’s what you are being employed for,” he reflected.
“The main thing is the number of phone calls. We’re like call centre people, it’s just the uniform is different and the way of working is different. But the main point is the phone call. If we don’t make phone calls, we can’t breathe in industry, and we can’t be self-reliant.
“That’s the number one advice I would give to someone, be self-reliant in the industry.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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