Every Agent Has a Story: Suzie Hamilton-Flanagan

This story comes from Suzie Hamilton-Flanagan, Head of Property Management at BresicWhitney, who shares the key lessons she learned during a beachfront OFI.

• Risk management and assessment are priority during an OFI.
• Don’t neglect your personal safety and wear protective shoes!

Every Agent Has a Story is proudly brought to you in association with Console

 Transcript

Hello, my name is Suzie Hamilton-Flanagan. I’m head of property management at BresicWhitney in Sydney.

So here is my story that I want to share with you today, after 22 years in real estate. And this actually would impact on anyone working in real estate, attending and managing open inspections, whether it’s for sales or property management.

I was marketing some properties on the beachfront, beautiful apartments, really beautiful luxurious villas. I was in the process of finalising open inspection and I was trying to close a really beautiful big glass door.

I was struggling to actually close this sliding door. I was pushing it and I was shoving it.

I was doing everything I could to actually get the door closed and unfortunately, I pushed so hard in the urgency to try and get out of this property, that I actually pushed the door off the sliding rail and it landed on my foot. And to add to that injury, I had opened-toe shoes.

So as you can imagine, I’m standing this open inspection, had just finished with a sliding door that has just landed on my foot, and I’m now in a crisis mode because I actually need an ambulance, and I need to go to hospital. And I actually cannot finish the open inspection. I can’t close this property down.

So I’m on the phone to the ambulance, I’m also ringing my husband, who’s rushing to come and help me. He helps try and close down the apartment while I’m in the ambulance.

Off I go to the hospital and I’m told that I may lose my big toe because of this injury, and I have to sign a form to say that I’m going to consent to that amputation of my big toe. Which actually means that I may never work in real estate again. I may not even walk again.

My toe did survive the injury, I was very lucky to still have my big toe. I am walking again after six weeks of recovery and physiotherapy.

You’ve actually got to manage your risk. You’ve actually got to manage your own personal safety at an open inspection. But please…wear closed-toe shoes!