Business is thriving in the pandemic for two real estate agents
Faced with global disruption, two women working in the same market chose different paths to navigate COVID-19.
Miracle Holt simmered under the pressure of having a fiancé and stepdaughter in the house while she worked at home, trying to close deals as a real estate agent. She quickly realized she needed to outsource some tasks, lean into her strengths and prune some relationships to allow her to grow her business.
Her single colleague Nicole Jones did the opposite.
In the year when the coronavirus shut down most of the world, Jones nurtured friendships, prioritized interaction with social distancing, and relied on her network of friends and contacts to leverage sales that led to one of the most successful periods of her career.
The women’s stories show how faced with global disruption, two Realtors working in the same market chose different paths to navigate the pandemic.
Outsourcing
As a real estate agent with Village Premier Collection in Atlanta, Holt had already been accustomed to working from home. Once she added a fiancé and stepdaughter to the mix, her workload doubled as she juggled clients and homeschooling.
“I’m good at coaching and teaching grown-ups,” Holt said. “I don’t have the patience for younger kids. It was stressful, because she wanted me to be her teacher, and I’m like, ‘I can’t be your teacher because I have to do my job.’”
Holt and her fiancé soon determined they lacked the capacity to provide the support their daughter needed to excel at virtual schooling. When in-person classed resumed, her family opted in, so the girl could return to school.
Next, Holt hired help.
With interest rates historically low in the wake of the pandemic, the Atlanta housing market abruptly blossomed into a competitive seller’s market.
Just as quickly, Holt realized she couldn’t do it alone.
She outsourced some of her tasks to assistants who worked with clients undeterred by the potential threat of COVID.
“The first six months of the pandemic, I didn’t show homes at all,” Holt said.
Her assistants did that, keeping on top of safety protocols in order to meet potential buyers. It’s a practice Holt intends to continue.
“Creating that showing-partner position really helped me leverage my time,” she said. “I needed that leverage consistently and not just during the pandemic. So, I’ve incorporated that into my business.”
The strategy has helped her devote more time to clients on the wrong side of the housing market uptick.
Although the pandemic has proved good for sellers as people flee COVID-19 hot spots like New York, it’s meant slim pickings for buyers. For them, the challenge is to provide the winning bid on properties that garner multiple offers within a day or two of being listed.
This has left Holt working overtime to manage client expectations.
“I’m trying to explain to my seller clients the true nature of what we’re going through because we’re getting a lot of low appraisals coming in,” Holt said.
Plus, the real estate agent who used to “let off steam” after a stressful day by socializing with her girlfriends lost that outlet, as the pandemic put an end to such interaction.
“You realize that without certain social things, certain relationships don’t thrive,” Holt said. “Because we didn’t have that socializing aspect, the friendship started to thin out. It started to expose the gaps, because if someone only called you to hang out, and you’re in the middle of a pandemic and they don’t call you to check on you, then that’s a problem.”
‘Four closings a month’
Holt’s brokerage colleague, Jones, went in the opposite direction to capitalize on rising buyer interest.
Instead of recruiting partners to show properties, Jones did that herself.
“I was not expecting to be doing two to four closings a month for six months straight,” she said. “I had my busiest year last year, and I’m busier this year.”
Although social distancing and consideration for others meant Jones hadn’t hugged her mother in months, her business thrived amid an influx of clients.
That’s meant good news for her finances and portfolio, but at times, expensive for her mental health, given the threat of potential COVID-19 exposure.
“I go into people’s homes all day, every day,” Jones said. “That’s probably the worst thing — just knowing this is just hovering around. You can’t see it.”
Jones opted to be vaccinated at the first opportunity — a move that helped ease her anxiety.
All in all, Jones said she’s felt relatively in control of her life, despite an unusual pandemic year. Although she fantasizes about a return to a maskless lifestyle, she’s embraced social distancing and safety measures as the “new normal.”
Read more articles from the program: