The top ten reasons to NOT hire a female real estate broker
(David Letterman style)
Nine She believes that real estate is a sales job.
Eight She is a terrible manager. This is particularly relevant if she has a team.
Seven She lacks technical skills.
Six She is not business savvy.
Five She lacks objectivity.
Four She cares more about her relationships with other brokers than she does about her clients.
Three She is overly emotional: Rough and tumble real estate hurts her feelings.
Two She is so busy acquiring clients that she has very little time for or interest in your transaction.
One She is afraid of negotiation. She has spent precious little time on developing this skillset and it scares her to death.
Do men not also suffer from the above faults? Of course. But in my experience, women are much more susceptible to these issues than men. Look, it's a six or seven figure business deal; it should be treated as such. Now before I am flooded with hate, are there exceptions? Yes of course, but they are very rare.
This is such a problem that male brokers often end up managing their female counterpart as much as they manage the transaction. Believe me, managing the female counterpart is a useful skill to develop.
In order to avoid an emotional reaction, one strategy I used was to speak with her as little as possible. Keep it to carefully crafted emails or let the paperwork do the talking. But always be responsive because she might get offended if you are not. And you do not want to offend her because that will absolutely affect the transaction.
Finally, regardless of how you communicate with her, always be nice. It is disarming, and most often works in your favor. And if not? It costs you nothing.
As a female broker, I find this list both sexist and true.
ReplyDeleteNo, I think this is simple statistics. It goes like this: Most (residential) brokers are incompetent and most brokers are women, therefore there are more incompetent female brokers than male brokers.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with your point. But I would say that the problem is more fundamental than statistics alone. Let's start with the premise that real estate is almost always a second career. What is the background of the women who choose real estate as a second career and what is the background of the men?
DeleteThe men tend to come from a business background; the ladies not so much. If there is any one background you most often see for female real estate brokers, it is K-12 education.
Here's the point: What are the odds that women entering the real estate business have ever taken an accounting class? Have experience with negotiation? Have management experience? I could go on, but you see my point.