Quality not Quantity: Part-Time Industry Professionals
| January 21, 2015
Industry professionals are a hardworking bunch: meeting with clients, arranging showings, and negotiating deals. But even with all of that, some industry professionals balance a career in real estate with another job on the side.
Back in November, REMonline.com published an article where the author expressed his views on what he calls part-time salespeople. This would mean industry professionals who work in real estate with another job on the side. While he didn’t express a concern with part-timers, his opinion is part-time salespeople should disclose upfront to clients that real estate is not their only career. And then the floodgates of debate opened.
So what does the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA), as the governing body for real estate professionals, think about all of this discussion on part-timers?
RECA doesn’t require licensed industry professionals to disclose if they have a second job, choose to work a limited number of hours each week or somehow limit the number of deals they do each year. An industry professional’s value can’t be judged only by the number of deals they do or the number of hours they work. Their value is found in how well they serve their clients.
Defining what part-time means can be difficult. Does a new mother who chooses to reduce the number of clients she takes on fall under this category? How about an industry professional involved in a single complex and time-consuming commercial transaction that may take an entire year to close? Would that single deal in a year classify the industry professional as a part-timer? Defining part-time can be a full-time job in itself.
Those who work more hours or serve more clients are not automatically somehow more competent than those who serve fewer. Individuals who choose the real estate profession need to serve their clients with competence and provide value.
That being said, honesty with clients and potential clients IS a regulatory requirement. If someone asks you if you have a second job on the side, if you’re willing to answer—you need to be truthful in doing so.
