Forrest Miller
FIN -180
Dr. Hansz
Realtor Interview
I interviewed a local Realtor by the name of Diana Lansman. She has been a realtor for 11 years and now specializes in Short sale. The definition of a Short sale is a short payoff sell where a person has to sell their house for less then they owe the bank. Now the word short has nothing to do with how long the transaction takes because these usually take months to close. However, the benefit of a smaller purchase price is usually worth the wait.
Diana loves what she does, especially when she gets to relieve stress from her clients. She does this by taking all the work, worry, and thinking about where to live from the clients and puts it upon herself. Her greatest satisfaction from being a realtor is being able to help people when they are in trouble. She has the ability to change someone's living status from out on the streets to a home owner. That is definitely a reward in and of itself.
Now being a realtor isn't all sunshine and dandelions. Sadly, not all transactions have a positive outcome. Unfortunately, some deals just cant be done due to factors beyond Diana's control and she has to relay the information to the client. Imagine having to tell a single mother with 3 children she is going to be foreclosed on and there is nothing she can do to help. Not a very pleasant situation for either parties, which is why Diana does everything in her power to get the deal done smoothly.
Both the positive and negative aspects mentioned above require special characteristics and even a specific personality in order to handle all the human interaction. To do what Diana does, one must take being a people person to a whole new level. Everything Diana does, from when she wakes up in the morning until when she goes to bed at night, involves talking, texting, emailing, meeting, shmoozing, and networking with people she already knows as well as people she is meeting for the first time. Being in real estate is a people business, especially when you are a realtor. If you don't interact with potential home buyers, you wont be a realtor for long. Also, the average person doesn't move around a lot. They buy a house and stay in it for years, which is why Diana must constantly be networking and establishing new relationships with potential home owners.
One thing Diana would change about being a realtor is the constant updating and strict guide lines to follow in order to conduct her work without breaking the law. She constantly is reviewing, updating, and learning new laws that the government has implemented. If she doesn't abide by them she could end up getting sued or in jail. New laws come out very frequently and it is her job to know what these laws do, how they are implemented, and how to work around them.
Diana Lansman is a go getter. She does what needs to be done in as short a time as possible, while maintaining a high level of efficiency. Being a realtor isn't easy work and demands hours and hours and hours of focus and constant thinking in order to get the tiny tedious tasks done, in the correct order, in the perfect amount of time. Realtors must be able to manage their time down to the minute, or else that minute could turn into a costly mistake.
Through this interview, Diana Lansman shared valuable insight into not only what a realtor does, but also the way real estate works as a whole. Real estate is a people business and demands constant networking with other professionals involved in real estate as well as common folk. If one is not a people person, one should not be in real estate.
