A Career in Real Estate | Trained by the Best to be the Best

A Rebel with a Cause!

Michelle Taylor Rebel's career started in banking with the Barclays Card Division (which became First National Bank), and later with Allied Bank in Sandton City (which became ABSA) where she ran the Client Service Counter for 2 years.

She transferred to Cape Town when she was promoted to Financial Advisor, but after a 2-year stint in the Mother City, and a 7-year career path in banking, she decided to move back to Johannesburg. It was during this time that she took a sudden and keen interest in real estate through a family friend that was looking to appoint salespeople for selling off-plan units in property developments.

She soon realised she had a passion for watching people’s dreams become reality. Over the years, her extended career in real estate saw her and her partner winning Top National Team Awards each year for nearly a decade! She became a Master Agent (which requires registered sales in excess of R150 million) and was subsequently awarded with 3 diamond pins, each signifying R150 million in registered sales. Michelle was also recognised as a finalist by the Nedbank Property Professional awards twice!

Upon realising that she had reached the top of her selling game, she decided that she wanted to start giving something back to the industry. So, with the help of her friend and mentor, she transitioned from being a Sales Agent to becoming a Trainer! It took her a further 2 years to become an accredited Trainer, Assessor, Moderator and Mentor.

What is your role within the Leapfrog Property Group?

‘’As the National Trainer for the Group, I train the interns in terms of compiling their logbooks, and I also teach them all there is to know about the real estate environment. My role includes not only ensuring that they are knowledgeable, but also to practically equip them towards achieving success. Upon completion of their logbook, I enrol them for their NQF 4 59097 Real Estate Qualification, which upon successful completion and passing of a PDE Exam, takes them from Intern to Full Status Agents.

I also conduct monthly sales training sessions for all full status agents at Leapfrog to ensure that they achieve and stay at the top of their game. I also offer individual coaching sessions to the agents.’’ 

How do you become an estate agent?

‘’The process is simple really. Real estate is for you if you are a self-starter with a passion for people. To be successful, you will need your own transport, cell phone and laptop, as well as sufficient funds to support yourself for the initial couple of months. Rental agents are in the fortunate position of being able to earn commission from the onset (if they conclude rental agreements), but sales agents need to make allowance for the fact that it takes three months (on average) for a property deal to register (and your commission is only paid on registration of the property).’’

The pros and cons of a career in real estate

‘’The biggest advantage is that it is the only career in the world where you get to determine the size of your salary check according to the amount of effort you decide to put into it. Other pros include that no two days are the same! You get to see amazing (and some not so amazing) properties and you get to deal with a very wide variety of people (good and bad). It teaches you a lot about humanity. It’s an extremely exciting work environment and it challenges a person every day to be and do better.

The downside is that it can be a very cut-throat business and you must be self-motivated. There is no time to have a bad day - you must pick yourself up very quickly and move on. You also need to be able to support yourself for at least the first six months in terms of cash flow.’’

What makes the Leapfrog offering to its agents unique when compared to other estate agencies in South Africa?

‘’Leapfrog is the only Real Estate company to offers their agents share options, depending on their sales value. They are not family owned. Another unique proposition is the fact that we offer an internally run internship programme – which other companies do not offer.

As an intern, you would be required to register with an accredited training provider to complete your internship and the learning requirements in terms of your NQF4 59097 Real Estate qualification. The benefit of joining Leapfrog, is that we ensure that learning takes place from day one!’’

What tips do you have for aspiring real estate agents and the Franchisees that need to mentor them?

‘’Join Leapfrog!

I assist both the Franchisees and the Agents with the processes that need to be followed and their obligations towards one another on the journey. Franchisees take on a huge responsibility when employing new interns as they are responsible for ensuring that an intern gets comprehensive training on the entire working environment – from sales through to administration. It’s important for an intern to see the “bigger picture” and to understand the different roles and functions that make up a real estate office.  

For any real estate agent, there is one very simple rule to success: To continuously focus on the income generating activities. This must become a borne in daily habit. If you do that, you are guaranteed of achieving success. For the Franchisees, this means that it’s vitally important to set realistic targets and continually monitor intern activities.

Good sales people are motivated most when there are clear and concise goals that they are required to achieve. It gives them direction. It’s amazing what people can do and achieve when they receive the proper guidance and are held accountable for their goals.’’

What are your predictions for the property market for the foreseeable future?

‘’The banks are predicting slow growth in 2017, which I tend to agree with.

We have however gone from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market and the “well-priced” stock will still sell fairly quickly.

I always advise agents to rather work on the “needs” when it comes to sellers as opposed to the “wants”.

The strangest phenomenon is that the harder the market/economy gets, the more the good agents excel and achieve record sales. This happens because they become more focussed and start working a whole lot smarter. It all boils down to who controls the stock. The agent with the most favourably priced listings will always do exceptionally well.’’  

About the Leapfrog Property Group

The Leapfrog Property Group is aimed at creating long-term wealth for every person involved. We are also the only real estate group in South Africa that is employee-owned. Leapfrog will do it differently, if it makes a difference!

Contact us today if you are ready to take leap and to Move On and Move Up!