Coming from a small village in the south of England to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland with little more than a surfboard bag and some board shorts, it hasn’t taken Century 21 agent, Jamie Smith, very long to establish himself as a real estate identity in the Sunshine Coast region.
Taking out the Rookie of the Year award at the Real Estate Institute of Queensland’s 2018 Awards for Excellence certainly attests to this. After 11 months in the industry working at Century 21 on Duporth in Maroochydore, the achievement is a strong testament to what an iron will and a passion for people can achieve.
Smith is proud to have received this accolade but does not forget where he has come from and what fuels his determination to achieve more.
“There really wasn’t a lot going on where I grew up in England. It was a poorer area and there was a lot of unemployment so I was surrounded by a lot of people who didn’t see it as a possibility to go on and achieve great success – with no big dreams or goals to aspire to,” said Jamie Smith.
“I believe that you should not let your current circumstances dictate who you are as an individual or let them dictate your future, as your circumstances change in the blink of an eye,” he said.
For Jamie, this change came as he arrived on the Sunshine Coast and fell in love with the region.
His start in real estate came through a relationship with one of Century 21’s most awarded agents in the global network. Speaking on his first meeting with his now mentor, Jamie said “I sat down with Damien and told him my story. I said to him, look, I have a limited knowledge of the property market but I’m a quick learner and I have 13 years that says I know a lot about people. He offered me a job on the spot.”
A culmination of skills amassed from over 13 years of experience in service-based industries, ranging from sales and marketing to disability support, to health and personal training, helped Jamie to hit the ground running in real estate. Along with a hunger to learn and a natural charm, the sold signs started coming.
However, challenges are inevitable for newcomers to the industry and Jamie believes real estate is a profession that requires plenty of resilience.
“I think the biggest challenge has been when a negative mindset tries to kick in. You might have a lot on your plate – whether it be multiple deals running at the same time, tough negotiations, or certain properties with conditions to work through. Self-doubt tries to tell you that you won’t get this all together, it’s not possible.
“However, I have realised my mindset is completely under my control and when negativity sets in, I have the choice not to listen to it and to focus on the positives. After all, I have to push through it to achieve the best for my clients, and I think learning this has been the biggest highlight and challenge all at the same time.
“Real estate is not the sort of career where you can just bury your head in the sand and ignore things, hoping they will go away. I would say I’ve grown ten times more in the past year in real estate than I have in the past 27 years of my life!” said Jamie.
Despite being recognised amongst the industry’s top-performers early on as REIQ’s Rookie of the Year, he certainly won’t be resting on his laurels. He is incredibly excited for what the future holds, particularly as he feels privileged to be working in such a burgeoning market that is the Sunshine Coast. With billions being invested in the region’s infrastructure, he said there is an increasing sense of urgency in the market as investors are realising what strong growth potential the area holds.
Not only this, working amongst such a skilled and tight-knit group of agents at Century 21 on Duporth guarantees he has plenty more to learn from a team that consistently ranks amongst the Australasian network’s top performers.
Here are Jamie’s top three tips for real estate rookies to be successful with limited experience:
- Be open to guidance and learn from your mentors – listen to and understand their perspective, then use it to shape your own.
- Money isn’t the motivation – people who come into the profession may focus on this but it’s important to be determined about want you want to achieve outside of that. If you provide good service and create quality in all your interactions with every person you come across, people will remember you. The transactions will then eventually come and money is a bonus.
- Provide quality and value in your services – a transaction always has to be more than simply asking “do you want to buy this property?” Give your clients so much information, so much data, and so much quality that they feel empowered to make fast buying and listing decisions.
