In the book “The things they don’t tell you when you want to become a Real Estate agent” – which I haven’t written yet, I would dedicate an episode on how this career at times can be quite isolating.

Most people come from a steady income, office environment where you are given roles and responsibilities. Now you are your own boss, with a host of jobs to delegate to your ’employees’ which is you wearing many hats. Even though I had worked in a Real Estate team before getting my license, I didn’t do much research on the brokerage I would go to start my career. 

I actually went to hang my license with the Listing agent that sold us our house. Lovely guy, but his ‘company’ was a small handful of agents who did real estate on the side. I was truly left to figure it out on my own, and consult him when I wasn’t sure on anything. He was running his own business. This was back in the good ole days of 2010-11 where most agents were leaving the business. 

I did a respectable first couple of years, but knew there was more in me.  And I knew at the time, it was a ‘tribe’ that was going to push me on. This time round, I did a bit more research interviewing at various brokerages around town. Like when Buyers find their house and they ‘know’, I walked into the door of CHR and knew I had found home. At that time I said I wanted to run with the wolves, and I didn’t care if I was at the back of the pack.

At the interview, I was asked how much I would like to earn. My first couple of years, I earned about $35k a year (which I was thrilled with as this was the days of selling 50k homes), but deep down a 6 figure salary was only something I couldn’t bring myself to say. In fact I said it out loud while hiding behind my hands because I was embarrassed to think this was possible. Well that next year at CHR I earned 97k! 

At CHR, anything is possible. You are not isolated. Your ’employees’ are all the amazing staff that CHR now have making our jobs easier and making us look like true pros. If you are having a bad day, there is always someone to counsel or brainstorm with. And this is now a fast running pack of Wolves so there is a whole tribe of inspiration. 

All agents have an open door policy as there is the mentality that there is always enough business to go around.    Another chapter in my ‘non written’ book is you are going to discover the Good, Bad and Ugly side to your personality, but you are allowed (and encouraged) to be vulnerable so you can highlight your strengths, and rely on your CHR peers to help you with weaknesses. It’s cheesy to say, but it truly is family! 

– Julie Reddington, Broker Associate