THINK you have the patience and required level of commitment to succeed in the real estate business? If yes, then check it out.

ID Your Career chats with professional athlete-cum-real estate agent Deon Hemmings-McCatty this week about this career option. Hemmings-McCatty, who has been in the business for close to a decade now, opened Demim Real Estate in Mandeville with her husband Michael in August last year, following the Beijing Olympics.

The 40-year-old mother of one began her real estate career with Coldwell Banker in Austin, Texas and later moved to Jamaica where she worked with Property Market Limited out of Mandeville.

“That’s where I got Jamaican my training, and I appreciate them working with me because it takes a while for people to know you as a realtor and not as an athlete. It took me a while but they were really patient with me,” said the Olympian of her former bosses at Property Market Limited.

Who is a real estate agent?

A real estate agent is a person who rents, leases or sells properties to persons who are interested or who are in need of properties – whether commercial or residential.

What is the value of what you do?

It’s more fulfilment than money. It is the satisfaction of seeing an athlete who has come from a poor beginning who is able to compete, save money and purchase a property for his/her family; that is the best fulfilment I can get.

What prompted your entry into the field?

After retirement you have to find something to do with your life and for the longest time I couldn’t find what I wanted to do. I had worked 10 years non-stop, and I needed to do something that I could feel free and know that I can enjoy what I am doing. I think I had to purchase a property in Florida for my mother. I went there and looked at the place and just going there and looking at the place and knowing that I don’t need a realtor to help, I realised that this is it. This is what I wanted to do.

What are the academic requirements for getting into your line of work?

In the US, you just make sure that you take the exams. There are certain classes you have to take and you take those classes and you pass them. And there is a national exam you have to take and you have to pass that also. Here in Jamaica, you have to have, I think, five O-levels. You have to go to the real estate board here and they will have to interview you or send you to UTech (University of Technology) to be interviewed. And then you take some classes and take the exams.

What are some of the challenges you face as a real estate agent?

You always have those illegal agents who try to take away your business. And you have buyers who say they have the money and most of the time they don’t have it and waste your time. But you try to deal with them (the challenges) and make the situation better next time. Say we have somebody who says they have the money and they don’t have it, what we try to do is to make sure that we find out, from the time they sign the agreement that the money exists, wherever it is.

What sort of earnings are there to be made annually in your line of business?

If you work for an agent, most likely the general flat rate is 50/50 (that is, the real estate agency’s earnings from the sale of a property is split 50/50 between the agent who made the sale and the company).

It also depends on lots. Lots, especially in Mandeville, go for a general rate of five to six million dollars and you (agency) take an average of four/five per cent of that and they (agents that make the sales) get half of that.

What is your advice to people interested in the real estate business?

Real estate is a business where you don’t get up tomorrow morning and make a million dollars. It happens, but you have to build your clientele and you have to be seasoned over a period of time. For individuals out there, know that it takes a while. When you are in real estate you have to be patient. You have to know people and people have to believe in you and trust in you.