4 hours; 4 lessons learnt from reality TV
It’s been a while since I indulged in some Netflix.
When it comes to chilling - as it is with Netflix (see what I did there?) - I usually pick a no-brainer show. A drama. Something light and funny. No horror genre! Admittedly, nothing too thought-provoking either.
Selling Sunset caught my attention, being a show on real estate agents. Specifically, The Oppenheim Group from Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
Finally! Something different from HGTV’s house flipping!
I was super excited for a couple of reasons:
I was sure this was going to be a relaxing, no-brainer show. (Update: It was not. I was annoyed by the incessant gossiping.)
More than featured multi-million dollar homes, I wanted to see how these agents sell them.
I know it’s reality TV, but they’ve got to attain a level of success to start. I was hopeful that I could learn something to up my game.
There were 8 episodes of approximately 30 mins each.
4 hours; what do you know, I got 4 valuable lessons.
Lesson 1: Over-Prepare
In the final episode, Heather (agent) showed up at a $40 million home without her contact, who, supposedly has a Chinese client keen on purchasing the property. The contact got caught up at work and had to cancel the appointment.
The no-show was an embarrassing situation, given that the developer of the home was a big time client of The Oppenheim Group who took time off from his day to show Heather’s contact the house.
It’s no fault of Heather’s that her contact didn’t show and her boss, Jason, understood that. But these things are not supposed to happen, period.
Schedule the meeting on a non rush hour time; call the night before to make sure your contact allocates sufficient time buffers to attend this meeting; stress and over stress the importance of the meeting so that it gets prioritized over anything else.
When your success depends on someone else, you over prepare.
Lesson 2: Be in the know
Also in the final episode, The Oppenheim Group received an unexpected visit from an angry client. He vented his frustration of his $12,495,000 home being on the market for 6 months and not even receiving an offer.
His agent in-charge was not in the office, but her boss Jason stepped up for the impromptu meeting.
Ok yes, of course he would step up since they were filming. But a lazy and irresponsible boss could also very well say “Oh sorry, she’s not here at the moment, why don’t you get on with your busy day and I’ll have her call you ASAP.”.
It always means a lot to employees when their boss steps up to share the responsibility. I had a boss like that once, back when I was working in Singapore. Her name’s Sarah. She held the team to high standards, but when we failed, she stood for us. That’s the kind of boss that I aspire to be.
Back to this scene, I was impressed that Jason had information about the property at the back of his mind. He knew the price points. When the client gave him an opening to doubt his staff’s ability to handle the listing, he stayed cleared from the path and reasoned objectively.
And slashed $2,545,000 from the original asking.
Anyway, my point here is not so much about Jason’s management ability, but rather the fact that he knew this stuff like the back of his hand. He knew the price, the price per square foot and the market’s take on it even though he’s not the direct listing agent. He succeeded because he negotiated based on facts.
Lesson 3: Stage with a vision
It’s often easy to keep to the direct agent work and leave the staging to the professionals. For this reason, we see many listed homes just filled with furniture (or worse, not even filled), but lack coherence.
I think I could step up in this area and direct my stager to my vision instead of giving carte blanche.
Lesson 4: Keep it professional
Self-explanatory. A reminder to value yourself over money.
