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John Hellaby: the secret to work/life balance

Real estate is a notoriously time-consuming profession, and since the pandemic changed the workplace landscape, the lines between work and non-work hours have become even more blurred. But Market Buyโ€™s John Hellaby believes work/life balance is possible - real estate agents just need to change the way they work, shifting their focus to working smarter, not harder.

Over the past 10 years, the answer to every problem in real estate has been โ€œwork harderโ€ โ€“ but if we look at the truly successful agents, theyโ€™re not working harder, theyโ€™re working smarter.ย 

Take Chris Gilmour, he increased his total number of sales about 27 per cent over 12 months from 2021 to 2022 – with no extra staff and no additional administration burden.ย 

In fact, he eliminated large chunks of the administration burden of selling real estate.

Look at Edward Smyth, heโ€™s selling prestige property from his jet ski and setting record prices, while Jo Mooney is spending more quality time with family while watching her business rapidly expand.ย 

There are dozens more examples I could highlight, theyโ€™re all achieving the goals they set and yet theyโ€™re spending more time doing the things that are important to them, selling more property and dealing with less admin. 

How are they doing it? By using Market Buy.ย 

Work/life balance is subjective to each individual. But being able to operate efficiently and spend more time focusing on your primary skill set – which for agents is often marketing, listing, and selling – creates more choices. 

Having choices is important for a successful career and a healthy life. 

Being bogged down with paperwork and admin can lead agents to feel as though they have no options โ€“ theyโ€™re sacrificing family time and growth opportunities because they โ€œhave to get this paperwork doneโ€.

But by the time theyโ€™re done, theyโ€™re exhausted from work they donโ€™t enjoy and no longer have the time or the energy to do the things they love. 

Itโ€™s those things you love, the things youโ€™re good at, thatโ€™ll help you grow your business, and your life. 

With Market Buy taking care of a huge chunk of the admin burden, agents can focus on making the choices that move them closer to their goals.

Now, there are a few reasons why some agents get stuck in the rut of โ€œthe way itโ€™s always been doneโ€.ย 

Some believe digital offers are only for hot markets. But the choices Market Buy gives an agent continue long after a hot market is a distant memory.

The ability to manage a sale – or multiple sales – from their mobile phone, reduced admin burden during setup and offer management, automated deposit payments from buyers, digital contract signing – these all create choices for an agent.

Iโ€™ve had one agent tell me the market is so tough, theyโ€™d take an offer on a postage stamp โ€“ but therein lies the problem. 

Consumers these days are all about convenience. Making an offer, whether it be on a postage stamp or the traditional way, is a time consuming and burdensome process. 

When offers are hard to come by, Market Buy comes into its own, because it removes the traditional roadblocks for those buyers making the offer โ€“ they can make their offer sitting in bed at 11pm, via their mobile phone.

Itโ€™s one of the reasons why Market Buy is still seeing almost 14 offers per sale so far in 2023 – convenience, communication and transparency are key to getting buyers off the fence in a market where they think they hold all the cards.

Buyers are still in the market. Yes, they want value, but theyโ€™re also willing to make offers. 

But they want to make those offers on their terms in a way thatโ€™s convenient for them. Market Buy allows them to do that.

Market Buy digitises laboursome administration processes, while simultaneously making it easy for buyers to make offers. 

Creating a situation where agents are able to get better results for their clients by spending more time doing what theyโ€™re best at.

Agents are masters of managing buyers, negotiating and creating competition for a property, andย Market Buy provides a platform that allows agents to shine in those areas while minimising the administration work they dislike doing.ย 

In a market like the one weโ€™re in, the ability to choose how you spend your time is the greatest weapon you have. 

That freedom of choice gives you the ability to maximise the results you get from the time you spend doing the tasks you choose to do. 

Given that freedom, why would you spend it bogged down doing work that isnโ€™t going to result in more sales and work you really donโ€™t enjoy?

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John Hellaby

John Hellaby is the Chief Executive Officer at Market Buy.

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