Wordsof Wisdom – with Recruit RE and Sarah Lorden

“When you have genuine interest in people and want to help them, the rewards will come.”

A trailblazer in the industry, Sarah Lorden has built a stellar career over more than three decades.  With a passion for real estate and innovative marketing strategies, Sarah has created a highly successful, award-winning brand in Sydney’s Inner West.

After selling her brand in2012, Sarah made a tree change to the Upper Hunter, joining her husband and business partner.  Now as a Director of Warburton Estate Agents in the Upper Hunter suburbs of Scone and Muswellbrook, Sarah focuses on leading their growing team and providing an exceptional client experience.

Tell us a bit about your career and how you got started in real estate?

I have been in real estate for around 35 years and startedat around 21.  Back in those days it was virtually impossible to get into any kind of role as a female in the industry unless it was on reception. I was in insurance broking and really wanted to get into real estate and took a job as a receptionist in a Double Bay office.  I then assisted in property management before being promoted to a Property Manager.  I workedthere for quite a few years before moving to the Balmain office (near where I lived) and was headhunted to another local agency to go into a sales role. I’ve been in sales ever since.

My first roles out of school were in insurance broking and I think that’s where I first learned my love of negotiating.  I always had an interest in property, and it became a natural progression to move into real estate.

What training and qualifications have you had to undertake throughout your career?

I wanted to get whatever qualification I could for my career and qualified for my real estate licence when I was 24.  I had done the same thing when I was in insurance broking.

When I studied it was a three-year course and you had to go to TAFE two nights a week from 6pm until 9pm.  It was a much more rigorous course than it is now.  You now have your continuing professional development to complete each year to fulfil your licence obligations.

Separately to that, we've always loved training and as a company we really embrace training.  We take our team on multiple training sessions throughout the year.  I don't think you can ever get to a point where you know too much.  We just went to the Australian Real Estate Conference in the Gold Coast, and I personally really enjoy the training process.

How would your friends and colleagues describe you?

My colleagues describe me as a glass half full person. I'm the eternal optimist and can always find a silver lining.  I think I'm a positive person and approachable.

What is your proudest career moment?

Many years ago, in the Balmain business I owned with my sister for 18 years, we won the Sydney Morning Herald advertising award very early on.  After that, we twice won the John Greig Community Service Award.

We had a different type of business early on and we had Di Jones to lead the way.  There weren't as many women in real estate as there is now. 

We had a company that was predominantly female-led and we had a great team of people.  Being part of that whole process from starting the company and having success and such a great team was probably the pinnacle for me.  It was incredibly hard work, but it was fun.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Bringing people into our team and helping them achieve their goals while seeing them fulfil their potential.  You can't be successful in real estate unless you genuinely have an interest in people and want to help them.  Getting a fantastic result for a client can be life-changing. You are helping them get to that next step, whatever it may be.

It’s very rewarding and sometimes we underestimate how big an impact agents have on people's lives - positive and negative, especially if someone is not doing their job properly.  You genuinely need to care about the people that you're working with and care about their best interests.

What does a typical day look like in your world?

The first thing I do is check emails and get to the office, but it will depend on my travels, as I split my time between Sydney and the Upper Hunter.  When I'm in Sydney for a couple of days a week I generally work from home.  When I'm in the Hunter I'm usually in the office, which consists of helping the team as well as running and assisting with our sales meetings, plus training every Tuesday.

I still really live the life of your typical real estate agent, listing and selling, because I enjoy that so much.  I work alongside my team in Scone as well as working on operations and marketing.

Have you had any support to reach your career goals?

I've had good employers, but when I first went into sales it was sink or swim, and I worked with a colleague that I'd worked for previously in another office.  There wasn't the level of training and support that there is now.  I learned on the job, and you needed to be motivated to do it yourself.

We always say now that you hire for attitude and train for skill not the other way around because you can’t train attitude - you've either got it or you don’t, and you can easily train the knowledge.

I've always had the attitude that I wanted to be the best at my work and obtain the qualifications.  I wouldn't say my employers didn't help me, but it was a different culture, and there weren’t all the training organisations and coaches which are available to our industry now.

It was a completely different landscape.  I started my sales career in the recession, and everything was taking six months to sell. I didn't know any different, and it was the best training ground I could have started in.  It taught me how to make things happen and look at different ways to deal with challenges.

There is so much coaching and other help available now to anyone who wants it.

Would you do anything differently if you had the chance?

I would have looked for coaching earlier and used it in our business.  We did when it became apparent that we needed it, but seeking out more support in those days would have been beneficial.  Most sales agents and principals are great sales agents, but they don't have any business training or know how to manage people.

My husband who is also my business partner is naturally good at that, whereas I find it harder.  I would have reached out for business training earlier to help with systems, which would have made life easier -especially with the incredibly fast growth we had.

Do you have any advice for early career professionals?

Try to be like be the person or the agent that you want to be now.  Be that person in terms of how you present yourself, how you dealwith everything and be prepared to invest in yourself.

Many people think they’ll get a coach when they get to a certain level, but you have to be prepared to back yourself.  Get as much knowledge as possible and know that you won’t go from zero to successful level overnight.  Agents work hard for many years, and you need put clients first and be prepared to play the long game.  The perception of what you see on social media isn’t reality and there are a lot of sacrifices along the way.  The rewards can be high, but success takes years to achieve.

What advice would you give to real estate agents to maintain their mental health?

It can be hard to find balance for everybody between work, life, children, and family.  Try to keep yourself as healthy as possible(which can be difficult when you are all over the place), but I found with a good diet and exercise plan you will also be able to cope.  It’s also important to factor things into your week that give you joy.  Health and fitness flows through to everything and makes such a big difference.

What do you think some of the biggest recruitment challenges are?

Where I'm based is a much smaller country town and so it can be quite difficult to recruit.  Some of the challenges can be a perception of what people think a role in real estate entails.  It takes time and sacrifice, and there are no set hours or time to switch off completely. There are so many moving parts behind the scenes, and you have to really love the job and get into it for the right reasons.

Property managers and salespeople are usually two different personality types, and while someone might think they'd be good at one type of job in the industry, their personality may be better suited to another. If you don’t get them into the right role, it can sometimes put them off the industry.

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

Anywhere and everywhere that you can, because it's difficult.  One of the best employees we have runs our property management department of over 1,000 properties.  She came from McDonald’s.  They have fabulous training, and she worked in property management and has ended up overseeing that entire department.

The thing that I found different in the country to the city is that the area is not big enough for people to leave a role somewhere and move to another role easily.  Having a choice of roles doesn’t exist and every time we are recruiting, we need to find talent outside the industry and train them. 

We will put on a new assistant and train them, and the plan is that you'll always be able to bring one of the assistants through to step into that role when need be.  The other challenge we face is that there isa big mining industry in our area, which makes it very difficult to compete as an employer against the mining wage packages.

What is your opinion of the current real estate market?

We're going through another cycle and while it's tightened up a little bit, we've had an amazing two years which was not sustainable. I've been through enough of these to know that everything is a cycle, and you need to sit tight, work really hard and just keep going. 

What advice would you have for people looking to buy or sell?

I'm a firm believer that if you're buying and selling in the same market, that's the most important thing, because while might get a bitless on your current property, you'll pick up something for a bit less when you buy.  Come back to why you're doing it - what is the reason for buying or selling.

When you select an agent, find someone you feel comfortable with, because they are going to be heavily involved in your daily life for a period of time.  You've got to trust them and not get bogged down with the little details because it is such an emotional process.  Keep your eye on the bigger picture and remember why you're doing what you're doing.

What is your top tip for anyone to flourish in real estate?

Go into it knowing you’re there for the long game and you need to genuinely love helping people.  Don't go into it for the wrong reasons and with a distorted view of what the role is, because a lot of the work is very unglamorous.

I love talking to people, hearing their stories and finding things out about them.  I find that interesting, and when you have genuine interest in people and want to help them, the rewards will come.

Invest in yourself and try to set realistic goals knowing that five or ten years is going to come and go regardless.  It's going to take some time - so get coaching and training and surround yourself with good people who are better than you and set a good example that will lift you up and teach you the right things.

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