Real estate: a great career choice

I guess you could say I was born into this industry – my father, James (Jim) Davoren, was a Gold Coast real estate identity from the mid-1960’s to early 80’s.

BY MICHAEL DAVOREN

Real estate has never been ‘just a job’ to me, so I have been very happy to see it moving toward being considered a profession over the past decades, albeit not as far or as rapidly as I would have liked.

In today’s industry, the average and below won’t survive.

Currently, not every person needs to enter real estate with a university degree, but more and more new people to the industry have a degree, or two. I returned to study in 2006 after 34 years in real estate, enrolling in an MBA, and I am very glad I did. It was incredibly valuable as I, and the real estate industry, moved forward.

Someone who shares my passion for the industry and belief in the role education should play is John Cunningham, who set in motion his goals of turning the industry into a profession, forging positive change for agents and consumers alike, while Real Estate Institute of NSW president. How do you think the real estate industry for professional careers and career paths?

It is not a career path on most people’s radar, certainly not as a ‘first choice’. That said, we are seeing more highly educated people – young and mature - coming to the industry than we did a decade ago.

There is a perception about the real estate industry that needs to change and until it does, a real estate ‘job’, for most, may be a fallback position. The industry must set that change in motion by asking ‘what is an agent?’ That’s the pointer to a valuable profession. The second is to address industry entry qualifications.

What currently exists for agents wishing to pursue a professional path?

While there are real estate networks and industry associations with strong professional development programs, and some excellent trainers, generally the onus is on the individual to take a particular career path and course of study. We have the means to acquire the ‘knowledge’ of real estate, but what’s missing is the ‘ethics and standards’ component. That’s a critical failure in the existing training. There is no ‘official’ standard for career entry or steps along a professional path; and we look for a willingness across the industry to address this.

Where would you like to see this progress to?

Ideally, university accredited courses leading to a degree in real estate would exist, with specialist fields. As such, you would hold a Degree in Real Estate-Economics or Real Estate-Business rather than the other way round. A start would be a Diploma in Real Estate as the official standard, recognised in New Zealand and Australia-wide. The goal is for every agent to be a professional agent, in the formal sense; but it’s a process, changing one perception at a time… and ‘will’ comes before ‘skill’.

How do you think the outcomes of this new direction will affect consumers and agents?

It is undoubtedly positive for both. If it is good for the consumer then it is good for business. Real estate is a world of high value – low frequency transactions. It’s a place where

Q&A with John Cunningham, Managing Director, Cunninghams

having the ‘flashy car and brightest teeth’ is not the answer. Our value to the consumer is what matters.

A CoreLogic survey of New Zealand vendors last year found that agents, while excellent practitioners of their craft (presenting property, marketing, sales patter), less than a third excelled in matters of communication, empathy and relationships. The focus was all on skills – the short term – versus relationships – the long term. The emphasis on training needs to move away from a singular focus on the traditional skillsets towards connecting with consumers.

In addition to familiar roles, what professional opportunity may the real estate industry offer?

When qualifications and career paths are formalised, roles within the industry will diversify. There’ll be opportunity for transactional careers – handling price negotiation, for example – and professional advisory careers – such as property investment advisor. This will translate to multiple roles, as will increased specialization within the industry, which will move beyond sales, property management and commercial, for example, to real estate development, finance, sustainability and so on.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Michael Davoren and John Cunningham both featured in Elite Agent magazine’s 2018 Industry Influencers.