Why Hospitality workers make great real estate agents

Why Hospitality workers make great real estate agents

A recent list put together by a Hospitality School[1] outlined the 10 key qualities of a hospitality employee. We realised that to be successful in a hospitality role involves many skills that are transferrable to success in a role in real estate.

Commitment to customer service

To be successful in the hospitality industry, you must be committed to ensuring customer satisfaction. You know what you need to do to keep customers happy and understand the idea of repeat or referral business, which is also essential for a real estate career.

Communication skills

The most successful in a hospitality business are those with excellent communication skills, being able to communicate both verbally and in writing. They are flexible communicators, able to adjust how they communicate for each customer and their particular needs. Those effective communication skills will ensure you would be off to a running start in any chosen real estate role.

Technology skills

A great hospitality employee has good computer skills and is familiar with a wide range of technological applications that are used within the industry. Technology is a large part of real estate as well. New technology solutions for agents are continually being brought in, so your ease with technology will make your day in a real estate agency more efficient, and will increase your value as a new recruit.

Passion and enthusiasm

Great employees of the hospitality industry are enthusiastic about their jobs and strive to do the best work possible for their customers, to give them the best possible experience. In real estate, this is not just great customer service, but is also part of the legal requirements for agents to act in the best interests of their principal (client).

Interpersonal skills

To be successful in hospitality, one must have top notch interpersonal skills, as the very nature of the business is to provide spectacular customer service.

Leadership

Great hospitality employees have strong leadership skills and are able to command projects and make significant contributions to an organisation's overall success. These are skills that are important to anyone working in a real estate role, but particularly for a property manager who co- ordinates teams of tradespeople carrying out repairs and maintenance, or office manager who co-ordinates all aspects of the agency’s staffing and operations. 

Organised

To stay on top of the multitude of tasks you face as a hospitality employee, you have to be organised and multitask without difficulty. Multitasking is a key skill in real estate, where you have to juggle many different tasks, several of which will be high in priority, at the same time. 

Teamwork

Successful members of the hospitality industry work well with others and can be a productive member of a team. They value the contributions of everyone. Some roles in real estate are more team oriented than others. Whilst salespersons may work fairly independently at times, they still need to have good team skills when required, and property management is very team based.

Thorough

Great hospitality employees are very thorough in their work and realise that any oversight could result in customer dissatisfaction. In real estate, an oversight can have very serious consequences, even more than customer satisfaction. For example, a property manager that forgets to organise urgent maintenance could be putting a tenant’s safety in jeopardy, and a salesperson that neglects the details of a sale can cause significant monetary losses for a client.