EP. 1220 YOUR FIRST JOB IN REAL ESTATE 🏡

Step back in time with us and Cleo Whithear as we explore the tapestry of real estate's past, weaving through the days of painstaking hand-written property inspections and face-to-face client interactions. Cleo, a seasoned professional, opens the treasure chest of her early career memories, revealing the rigorous TAFE training that laid her industry foundation and the personal moments that fueled her love for property management. Her journey is one of evolution, where a mother's influence and weekend open homes sparked a flame that burns brightly to this day. As we wade through the waters of yesteryear, Cleo's tales offer a fascinating contrast to the digital real estate landscape we navigate now.

Fast-forward to the present, and you'll find that the spirit of curiosity and a proactive approach are still the cornerstones of a thriving career in real estate. Whether you're a newcomer to the industry or simply seeking insight, our discussion with Cleo provides a roadmap to success. At Novak, we pride ourselves on our open-door policy, eager to assist and engage with anyone ready to embark on this rewarding path. So, let this episode be your guide through the storied halls of real estate, and remember to always keep your wits about you, especially when the skies turn grey. Cleo's anecdotes and our collective wisdom are here to ensure you walk away informed, inspired, and ready to tackle the multifaceted world of property management.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

First job in real estate? What does it look like when in the olden days? And now we're going to talk about it with the famous Cleo Witt here. Stay tuned. I'm the ringleader, so let's go. Sas Property Manager, cleo Luzia.

Speaker 2: 0:38

The olden days. I like that. We are old and we started in the olden days, for sure.

Speaker 1: 0:45

Well, you know, I guess, what the olden days for sure. Well, you know, I guess what is olden days you know for most people. Yep, they were the olden days, yeah. So how long was that for you with your job? Tell me what your job was for your first job at Clark in Real Estate.

Speaker 2: 1:04

Why real estate? Well, I, like everyone else, tried a few things and I wasn't, you know, didn't want to do that anymore. So I said I'll go to TAFE and I'll do a course. Back then it was a whole year that you did a real estate certificate three and it was like a full-time job. You turned up to TAFE just like school and you learn everything about real estate, real estate law, there was sales, property management, so many different parts of real estate. And then when you finished your course, you said, well, I'm gonna go find somewhere to work and I chose an office that I really liked and wanted to apply for and I got the job as a junior property officer. They called it then.

Speaker 2: 1:51

And I was just there to assist the property manager at the time and she was, I think, eight years younger than me or nine years younger than me and telling me what to do and which I didn't mind because I was so happy to get into the job. But yeah, it was weird. She was like a lot younger than me, going you got to do this, this is how you do this. No, don't do that, that's wrong. And I'd be like okay so how old were you?

Speaker 2: 2:18

I was hmm, I wasn't like really young, I think I was like mid-20s, something like that and she'd started straight from school, like she was you know um, as soon as she finished school, she went into real estate, because I tried a few different things, you know, and I remember her taking me to ingoings where you'd have to check the property and it was you know clipboard and paper then, and she would make sure that everything was very specific and I am very OCD, so I like that part of it. But, you know, like dust, like one scratch. You had to measure it like it was. We didn't rely on photos back then. It was all everything we did. We relied on written, you know, descriptions. So it took forever as well, it was so tedious, but yeah, I enjoyed it.

Speaker 2: 3:06

I definitely enjoyed it and why real estate well, I enjoy people like I do really like conversing and meeting new people, and my mum always had an interest in real estate. We used to go as family on a Saturday. We'd drive to like Jewel and Gosford and go look at acreages and open homes and that was the thing that my mum enjoyed. And so we you know, me and my sister and my dad would drive for hours on end so mum could go look at acreage and property and at the time we thought it was pretty cool seeing how other people lived and you could go to the little towns and get the keys and they just let you pick up the keys and go and do your own open home and then drop the keys back, like it was just so different.

Speaker 2: 3:56

Um, and I guess from then I sort of enjoyed it and I do like houses and property and all that sort of stuff as well. So it was a good fit for me and yeah, like it. Just from then on I built myself up into being my own property manager and I never really wanted to get into sales like as much as there's nothing wrong with that. I've always enjoyed the PM side. So that's what I stuck to, staying in my lane that's interesting about that whole do you do?

Speaker 1: 4:27

because for people that don't know, it's almost two different sides of the brain and often people cross, but most often they don't cross. So for getting into real estate, what do you recommend? Or what did you do you? You did you automatically know that difference when you got in? What did you just get thrown in?

Speaker 2: 4:51

what I liked about the program at TAFE was it was really comprehensive and they made you delve into everything, specifically like an auctioneer's job, a sales person's job, a support role job, and you kind of got a foot in the you know, in the pond that way, and I enjoyed property management then. So I thought, well, that's what I want to do, whereas I think that the young ones now a lot of them do the training on the job, so they get the position first and then they do the, you know, the training and the certification as they're working, which I think is great.

Speaker 2: 5:29

Um, but then, yeah, you're testing out all the different areas whilst you're on the job. So, um, you know, receptions always, always, um, everyone would say, well, you should start in reception, because reception is, you know, the gateway to all of it. So it just was fortunate for me that there was a job in property management, which is what I went for. Otherwise I probably would have gone for a reception role and started that way.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Reception role is a great role to get into. For anyone who doesn't know, but without us realising, it's rapidly changed. The front desk in a busy office used to have two or three people, a bit like bank branches. The transactions now are highly digital now, where people aren't actually making the time to come in, so there's less focus on a receptionist. That's interesting. Claire, we've got a question for you. As you know, this is a live show, guys, so you can ask a question any time.

Speaker 2: 6:44

That's French to me. I I can read greek, but I don't know about that uh, this is from Ben. Thank you, Ben. I appreciate the audience.

Speaker 1: 7:00

I can actually speak French, so I'll answer that no, I'm not single and happily married. But thank you very much. Thank you. So first job in real estate. You want to know about mine.

Speaker 2: 7:20

Yes, I do. I've heard different stories over the years, but I do enjoy Mark's humble beginnings for sure 130 real estate offices.

Speaker 1: 7:31

I walked into.

Speaker 2: 7:33

Oh, my God.

Speaker 1: 7:35

And one guy called Kevin Stacey, First National, said yo, he was like Colonel Sandals from KFC chicken. He looked like him and he said I'll give you a job. And he sat me in my big, long, lanky legs on a reception and I was just happy to be there, you got a flint ball. Yeah, $116 a week. You know, I was just happy to be there and just head down, bum up and opportunities presented themselves as life rolled on.

Speaker 2: 8:15

That's amazing. You got so many offices that may have said no, but you kept going, and you finally got one that you didn't care what you were doing, as long as you were just there. How good.

Speaker 1: 8:27

Yeah, and you want to hear a funny story? Rita was the property manager.

Speaker 2: 8:31

Oh, my God, wow, okay. So you guys go way back. For sure that's great, I do remember that office. I remember Kevin Stacey. For sure that's great, I do remember that office. I remember Kevin Stacey's office. It was quite popular.

Speaker 1: 8:48

So how would one know what job they want to get into real estate as their first job? What's your recommendations?

Speaker 2: 8:54

Look, I think any job in real estate, like you said, you're happy to get your foot in the door. Most offices are. You know, most people that start in real estate in a particular office, they do get an opportunity to try different roles within the business and I think that's really great about our business. You and Lisa are always very fluid with job descriptions in what people want to do, because there are young people that have left school that come and work with us and they might do two years in property management, build up their confidence and then decide that they, you know, want to move into sales or accounting, for example, and you give everybody that opportunity, which is great.

Speaker 2: 9:34

Different things you can do in the office, like either from marketing like that machine that we have at work in the advertising and marketing section was unheard of. Back when I started, there was no marketing team in the office, it was all just Manly Daily. You put your little blurb in there and did a couple of photos through the window and that was it, you know, and there wasn't all this social media and just all the the cleverness that goes on with what you know the marketing people do in our office and that to me would have been a very attractive role to having left score, you know, because we are in that digital era and you guys do the most amazing things in the office with the list.

Speaker 1: 10:27

It's a moving target. Hey, you know, far out, it's sort of. You know what I actually had. I was on a walk this morning with the lovely Lisa and I laughed at the. I looked into a bustling business and I looked into a news agency and I was like news agent, news agent. And I must have driven her crazy because I said the word news agent, news agent. And I must have driven her crazy because I said the word news agent probably 300 times. And I'm like news agent. I'm like you know, a couple hundred years ago people didn't know where to go for news. So they went to an agent for news and I said hasn't that changed, hasn't?

Speaker 2: 11:07

your news agent it's everyone's news.

Speaker 1: 11:11

I that for you. You know everyone's got that phone to be a news agent. But before we go, I wanted to also talk about the? Um, the young essays of novak um, the, the, the, the crew that's coming through. What does it look like today? Like who are the people? Because you know, you see young people, older people, you know, coming through the business of all ages. But what are you noticing?

Speaker 2: 11:36

Well, I noticed that, even my assistant included. These kids come out of school and they're very driven on what they want. You know they are more mature than I was at that age, that's for sure, you know. And you know it's not just them. You know, being in this digital era and all that sort of stuff, even the concentration and, you know, listening and all of that it really astounds me on a day-to-day level because it took me maybe like five or six years to get to where some of these kids are in two years in our office.

Speaker 2: 12:09

You know, um, some have transitioned into, you know, being part of, you know in Lisa Novak's team and in your team and you know from a couple of years and you know watching them now and where they started and where they are in such a short amount of time. Um, I'm in awe. Like you know, training does come um, it is a big part of it. I think um, novak properties does offer a really good um on-job training with all the people that are very experienced in our office. But these kids have their heads, you know, switched on. You know they're grounded, they. You know everyone makes mistakes. It's part of learning, but, um, I'm just really impressed by the maturity and how quick they grasp everything. It's amazing really to watch, just sit back and just watch and even the.

Speaker 1: 13:00

Uh, I noticed, uh, the level of the level of education. Uh, we need to get those on. L. Lisa reckons that we need to get the crew on? Yeah, for sure, you should do one episode called the New Crew, yes.

Speaker 2: 13:15

I love that.

Speaker 1: 13:16

I won't call it the Young Crew, no, we'll call it the New Crew. But look, that's awesome. Thank you very much for sharing those insights and hopefully we've helped people out there that want to get into real estate, thinking about real estate, job in real estate, what do I do in real estate? That can give everyone a little bit more of a background of sort of what's out there, how we started and got in. Have we missed anything?

Speaker 2: 13:42

No, I know that you know, the door's always open for new people at Novac, so you've just got to walk on in.

Speaker 1: 13:50

And even for a good old ginwag. I think if people don't feel bad about calling up and asking questions, we're always happy to help. I think people are often nervous to sort of waste other people's time, but I think if it's for the betterment of yourself and you've got a good cause and you've got some good, genuine questions, pick the phone, talk to us. We're happy to help have a great day.

Speaker 2: 14:12

Everyone. Stay dry, thanks, stay dry, see ya.