Author: Danielle Bethune, Talent Development & Career Consultant, H2R Consulting
The real estate market is changing. It’s critical to understand the change and be able to adapt to it. For real estate professionals, particularly those relatively new to the profession, who find themselves in a new, more challenging work environment resiliency — the ability to be flexible and recover quickly in the face of change — is vital.
After a period of sustained upward growth, we are seeing the property market turn and sentiment shift. As FOMO (fear of missing out) is replaced with FOOP (fear of overpaying), the environment in which we do real estate business and our interactions with customers change, which can take a financial and mental toll on us — impacting confidence, morale and resiliency.
Like every market, real estate is cyclical. History tells us it will bounce back, but as we enter a period of more subdued growth, it is critical you strengthen your resiliency so you can ride the wave and continue to thrive in these changing conditions.
What is resiliency?
Essentially, bouncebackability. Along with death and taxes, change and setbacks are inevitabilities of life. It is how we recover and emerge positively from them that determines our resiliency. This can be developed and help us to feel more optimistic, in control of our lives and hardy when facing setbacks — facilitating greater ongoing success.
Say a sale you have been working tirelessly on falls through at auction, resulting in the vendor shifting companies. For an agent with lower resiliency, this may be an overwhelmingly negative experience, diminishing their confidence, wellbeing and effectiveness in securing the next sale. Whilst still a challenging experience for an agent with higher resiliency, they will be able to pick themselves up more quickly, shifting their focus to houses still in the pipeline.
Traits of resilient people:
According to the A&DC Group, there are eight core characteristics of resiliency:
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Self-belief: Confidence in your ability to overcome obstacles
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Optimism: The belief that no matter how hard things get, they will turn out well in the end
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Purposeful direction: Having clear goals you are committed to reaching
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Adaptability: Willingness to alter your approach and behaviour according to changing conditions
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Ingenuity: Belief in your ability to solve problems you face
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Challenge orientation: Embracing challenging experiences, viewing these as developmental opportunities
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Emotion regulation: Remaining cool, calm and collected during emotionally trying situations
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Support seeking: Willingness to seek help and support during challenging circumstances.
Signs your resiliency may be slipping:
Are you more irritable than normal? Not sleeping? Lost your appetite? Drinking more than usual? Isolating yourself or being overly clingy? Getting emotional over little things? Stopped doing what gives you joy?
Everyone’s early warning signs are different. Getting to know yours is the first step in taking action. If you don’t know what yours are, ask your partner, colleagues or kids, as they probably have a fair idea.
What can you do?
It is important to think about what strategies you can put in place to strengthen your resiliency levels, particularly if you have noticed these slipping. Below are some tips for developing each of the core resiliency traits:
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Self-belief: Identify and talk to role models who manage well and have had ongoing success in challenging conditions. Perhaps they will be an experienced agent who has been through many peaks and troughs in the market. Ask what they do to get through these times with their confidence intact.
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Optimism: Listen to the dialogue in your head when you are explaining why something happened. What stories are you telling yourself? If they are overly critical, challenge your thinking by looking for evidence for and against that thought, and change it to a more realistic one.
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Purposeful direction: Set clear goals and make a plan for achieving these. Ensure that these goals are realistic and aligned with current market conditions. Celebrate successes along the way by noting down your key wins and achievements each week. You can look back on this if you are having a bad day to maintain morale.
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Adaptability: Accept the new reality and focus on what you can control. You can’t control the housing market, but you can control how you choose to respond and your actions.
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Ingenuity: Approach problems in a solutions-focused manner by thinking outside the box, generating new and creative ideas to solve problems.
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Challenge orientation: Be willing to take yourself out of your comfort zone and see challenges as opportunities for growth.
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Emotion regulation: When in a stressful or emotionally charged situation, a simple breathing technique can make you feel calmer and more grounded. The box breathing technique involves inhaling to a count of four, holding your breath to a count of four and exhaling to a count of four. There is a plethora of other techniques on mindfulness apps, such as Headspace and Calm, both of which have free trials.
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Support seeking: Resilient people know when to ask for help. Sources of support they use include friends, family, mentors and colleagues. Many organisations also have free EAP counselling services, so be sure to check out what your organisation offers.
Incorporating a few simple steps to build resiliency will help to ensure that, as the housing market has historically done, you will bounce back from setbacks emerging stronger than ever. Being a property manager is highly rewarding. You support landlords and tenants in a fundamental aspect of their lives — their homes. However, property management isn’t always easy — you’re balancing the management of someone’s largest asset and someone’s place of residence.