Words of Wisdom – with Recruit RE and Sarah Bell

Sarah Bell is a visionary, weaving intelligence, wit, and wisdom into the real estate industry as she creates new opportunities in technology and emboldens agency principal’s and teams with the tools to focus on their most important commodity - their mental health.

Currently Principal, Innovation and Industry at CoreLogic and Co-Founder of the artificial intelligence platform, RiTA, many in the industry will know her as RiTA’s mum or through her partnership with The RiSE Initiative where they focus on redefining success and wellbeing in real estate.

Tell us a little bit about your career and how you started in the industry.

Prior to my career in real estate, I worked as a research assistant for a university in social science and criminology research while I was studying law and behavioural science. From there I went on to work as an Investigator for the Commonwealth Ombudsman, during which time, I met my husband who was a real estate agent and he abducted me into the industry.

I learnt the business working at the coal face and leading the reformation of his family real estate business. During the transformation, I completed a research degree in strategic planning and planning professional development (adult education).

I had a bunch of babies and then stepped into consulting work in the industry until I met my business partner at RiTA, Ian Campbell and we had a robot together. Calling ourselves RiTA’s mum and dad, we created a very successful Proptech business, which was wholly acquired by CoreLogic in November 2021.

Post-acquisition, the business has continued to grow and achieve our goals.

Is real estate the only industry you have ever worked in?

Even while working in real estate, I have maintained parallel passions by way of an academic career and in not-for-profit activities for the benefit of the real estate industry.

I was a Founding Director of The Rise Initiative which is a registered charity providing free mental health and wellness resources to the real estate industry and their families. I have also driven research into this subject publishing three white papers over a continuing study, now in its 7th year, into the state of wellness and wellbeing in the industry using the global best practice Positive emotions Positive engagement Positive relationships (PERMAH) framework.

What are your professional real estate training/qualifications?

I have a Diploma of Property Services and a Training and Assessment Certificate IV.

More broadly, in 2023 I will complete and graduate from a research Doctorate with the University of Middlesex in London, exploring issues of trust and interpretability of advanced software in the Australian Proptech community of practice.

How would your friends and colleagues describe you?

Brave, curious, intelligent, fun, and funny, eloquent, quirky, open-minded, fair, and practical.

What led you to a career in real estate?

Curiosity and matrimony. However, what ultimately kept me going was the network of good people, the opportunity, and the breadth of how many different pathways were available - even if there is no blueprint. If you can find a need, and you are earnest about creating a solution, then you’ll have a career.

What is your proudest career moment?

Difficult question, I don’t really feel ‘pride’. I just kind of go “cool,” and I’m onto the next thing.  The acquisition of RiTA was pretty cool and I’m hoping I’ll give myself a beat to enjoy graduating and making my children call me Dr. Mum. But I have a suspicion that I’ll be just as restless as ever.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Innovation. I think my innovation approach and agenda has evolved and is evolving as the world changes and has more wicked problems. I like being able to combine my passion for research into meaning ful insights and helping industry leaders to interpret them and navigate novel problems, particularly in the integration of people and advanced technical systems.

What is an unexpected opportunity that arose from working in your current role?

I was invited to speak at the Inman conference in New York in 2019, which has got to be a bucket list item. I’ve been able to study at some of the world’s finest schools and programs from MIT to London, where I am finishing my current research.

What does your typical day look like?

Part of what makes my company successful is the discipline that we have around ceremonies. Everyone starts each day by posting in our slack channel what our wins/learnings from the previous day are shared along with our plan of attack for that day.

I post mine and review everyone else's, contributing to the cross-pollinating knowledge and noting any questions that I might have. The day starts formally with a 10-minute stand-up for the department that I lead, then a 10 minute stand up with the Senior Leadership Team from which any communication is cascaded back to the broader team via slack.

Depending on what day of the week it is, there are various tactical and cross-functional working meetings, and we have serious structure around those. A lot of my day is spent mentoring junior leaders with our business and helping them with projects.

I still maintain a strong industry facing role and so I will often have content or keynotes to prepare which keeps me creating and unifies my passion for learning and teaching with my day-to-day work practice. 

How has your employer helped you to reach your career goals?

My business partner and I give each other two very important things: Trust and a hard time!

You need both.

It is the trust and care between us which I believe echoes throughout our broader team and creates a very high trust and high-speed nurturing environment. On that foundation, you won’t find two people who debate and actively conflict more, but it is always for the purposes of constructive challenge and ensuring our ideas and hypotheses are robust.

What would you do differently if given the chance?

Not related to my current role, but I think I would have quit sooner in some instances. I think I’ve got to an age where I have worked out that there is always going to be an opportunity cost for the things I can’t do. Once you value your time and effort, you get clear on where you ought to be directing it.

Do you have any advice for early career professionals looking to build a career in real estate?

Approach things with calm and understand that you are now yourself, as a service. You need to treat your time as a business.  Real estate is a long game and the groundwork you do early -collecting data and establishing good systems will set you up, but it will take a while to appreciate and return.

Every seasoned real estate agent I know, out of the thousands I have interviewed, wishes they invested in good structure from the beginning.

What advice would you give to real estate professionals to help them maintain good mental health?

Real estate is an intense lifestyle business which rewards effort and provides flexibility, but it can be incredibly demanding and difficult in ways that are not obvious to people who haven’t been in the loungerooms and dining tables pitching for listings.

A lot of the tension I see is when partners don’t understand or support the demands of real estate, so I think one of the simplest things you can do is include your family and partner in ways that help them connect to the hard work, sharing your wins and losses along the way. 

What do you think are the biggest recruitment challenges in real estate?

 I think there is an opportunity for good businesses to clearly identify what they are about, attract people to that identity and retain them by living up to it.

Brand hopping is expensive for organisations and can damage the momentum of individual agents and so the recruitment process ought to be focussed on long term needs of both parties, trust, and a value exchange.

How do you find the best talent to join your team?

The best talent in our team has been recruited by the people who work here and know people just like them. We have value based hiring approach and find people. 

What is your top tip for flourishing in the Real Estate industry?

Surround yourself with good people and find parallel passions to nourish your creativity and humanity.

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