Top News Reporter Zheng Xu/Text He Yushuai/Photography
In 2021, Yao Qinwen, a post-95 graduate student at Communication University of China, chose an "undercover" real estate agency with the aim of completing her graduation thesis "Investigation and Research on Highly Educated Real Estate Agents". She believes that this is an integral part of experiential interviewing. At the end of the internship, Yao Qinwen became a member of the real estate agency.
Three years later, she now chooses to change tracks.
From being enthusiastic three years ago, to now holding the view that "high education is not very useful in the current real estate agent", what has Yao Qinwen experienced? "I have seen too many people, experienced a lot of things, and my mentality has also undergone some changes. ”
graduate student
It was once the biggest aura
Compared with three years ago, Yao Qinwen seems to be a lot more capable. In interviews three years ago, she wore a pair of glasses and wore a long hair or ponytail. Now that we meet again, a proper professional outfit and capable short hair are highlighting the quality of a "professional agent".
However, "graduate student" may be the biggest halo above Yao Qinwen's head.
In 2021, because she wanted to complete her master's thesis on "Investigation and Research on Highly Educated Real Estate Agent Groups", she originally studied journalism at Communication University of China and entered a real estate agency company in Shanghai for an internship and became a real estate agent. In an interview three years ago, she said that her internship was a "sneak action" and an indispensable part of experiential interviewing.
At the end of the internship, Yao Qinwen made it clear in the internship defense: "Real estate agency is my future career direction. Hearing this, the teacher was shocked: it won't be true.
During that time, Yao Qinwen gained a lot of incomprehension. Teachers, parents, family, colleagues...... Doubts were common, but she persevered. Even three years later, when Yao Qinwen confides in his family because of setbacks at work, he will still be said: "Look at you, let's just say don't choose this line of work at that time, you don't listen." ”
The identity of "graduate student" did not bring much fame and added value to Yao Qinwen. For her, after being known, the work is still very "bumpy".
In fact, Yao Qinwen's road in the past three years has not been easy. Her real estate agency has a basic salary protection period for the first year of employment, but after the protection period, the biggest problem that real estate agents without basic salary need to face is that they may have zero income this month.
The phrase "don't bill for half a year, bill for half a year" is the biggest stereotype of real estate agents in Yao Qinwen's view. In the local housing division, more than 30 million belongs to high-end luxury houses, but Yao Qinwen's main service goal is between 3 million and 30 million, which is just in need or just need to improve the house, and its commission after the transaction is on average tens of thousands of yuan, which is not so exaggerated as it is said on the Internet.
Yao Qinwen has now developed a peaceful mentality: it is normal for her monthly income to be 0, and she often encourages herself to make persistent efforts to open bills next month.
However, Yao Qinwen also admits that although the income is sometimes "considerable", it is all due to the busyness of almost no rest. She said that in real estate agency companies, only the top 5% of the agents can really do excellent and stable billing, and most of the rest are workers. And in the company, the turnover of personnel is very large, and among the newcomers who joined the same batch as her, she is the only one who remains until the present.
thesis
The arguments from before and after three years contradict each other
Three years ago, when Yao Qinwen completed his graduation thesis, he gave the argument that highly educated people have high learning ability and can become industry leaders in the real estate agent industry.
Between the lines of the previous interview, you can also get a glimpse of her understanding of the profession of real estate agent when she first entered the society. In a previous interview, Yao Qinwen said frankly that if there is anything that a high degree has brought her, it is the ability to learn.
Yao Qinwen's core competitiveness is very easy to understand. Since many clients don't know what they need, they only know to tell the agent whether to buy a house in Shanghai, whether it is two or one room, what the budget is, and nothing else. However, there are more than 200 business districts and more than 10,000 residential areas in Shanghai, and it is not easy to find the most suitable house.
In her opinion, professional brokers need to know how many sectors in Shanghai, planning trends and other information, which is a huge knowledge system that must be learned by themselves. Yao Qinwen did exactly that.
She is not just an "intermediary" as ordinary people understand, a "tool for showing". As a professional broker, let the client who buys or sells the house pay for her professional analysis services. Negotiation and tactfulness are not what she is good at, what she is good at is helping the owner to analyze, give pros and cons and options.
Today, however, Ms. Yao may be about to overturn the arguments of her three-year-old paper. In an interview, she said that a high degree of education is not very useful among real estate agents today.
"Now I think that the learning ability to communicate and communicate, including the learning ability of plate knowledge, is not something that can be brought by academic qualifications. Yao Qinwen said frankly that their company began to recruit highly educated agents very early, but in fact, some people will be burdened by academic qualifications. This is mainly manifested in the poor ability to withstand pressure, and of course also includes herself.
The second is emotional intelligence. Yao Qinwen told the top news reporter that the reason why many of the company's old agents were able to do smoothly was because one case after another tempered their minds, so as to exercise their emotional intelligence higher than others. In contrast, although some people have the blessing of "high education", "emotional intelligence" is not given to them in class.
However, Yao Qinwen still believes that the profession of real estate agent still needs highly educated talents. "The owners we communicated with were some agents who liked to go the 'wild way', and some brokers who liked me to do the forms and data. "In ordinary communication, Yao Qinwen does not blindly lower prices like traditional brokers, but uses data and analysis to persuade customers.
Yao Qinwen said that although the entry threshold for the profession of real estate agent is very low, its professional threshold is very high. Among the current brokers, there are those who take the "sleek" path, and those who take the professional analysis route. And the old brokers who actually survived, whether it is learning ability, analysis ability, ability to deal with people, emotional intelligence, etc., are very important. Therefore, in her current view, the two types of agents need to have a "neutralization", and these need to be precipitated on a case-by-case basis.
Yao Qinwen, who has just joined the work (photo source: Daily People)
The reality is just as Yao Qinwen thinks. According to her, the direction of her company's recruitment has begun to change this year. From the simple pursuit of highly educated talents, it has become necessary to do a good job in the retention of old brokers and to dig out some "like-minded" old brokers, that is, to look at professional ability.
If Yao Qinwen were to write another paper now, she would conclude a new thesis: it is necessary for highly educated people to enter the real estate industry, but it is not the best state that can be achieved at this stage.
"The Spirit of Contract"
It is the biggest experience in the work
Three years of life as a real estate agent have brought a lot of stories to Yao Qinwen, and in the interview, she repeatedly said the word is: the spirit of contract.
This year, Yao Qinwen has thought about leaving his job many times and put it into action, mainly because he does not have a strong sense of value from customers. A customer, Yao Qinwen may be very polite to each other when docking, and treat each other to dinner, which seems to be good friends.
But when it comes to really talking about the price, one of the unpleasant things is to slap the table and turn your face and leave.
"There are clients and owners that you have put a lot of time into but in the end they don't recognize you. Yao Qinwen has a lot of customers who have known him for a long time, and many of them have known old customers for one or even two years. But this is the kind of "friend" she thought she could treat sincerely, and jumped a list of 5 million at the beginning of this year.
The reason for this is because of the problem of money. In the end, on her basis, the owner saved 100,000 yuan in agency fees through a small intermediary. "Actually, we didn't give him all the prices at that time, and we could still negotiate, but when he said that he was looking for a small agent, I didn't want to negotiate for him. In Yao Qinwen's view, even if she helps the owner to negotiate, the owner will still skip her to find a small agent to save more money.
"Money and emotions, do you think emotions are worth money?" Yao Qinwen asked.
However, skipping orders is something that Yao Qinwen often encounters in his career as a real estate agent. In her own words, the "most disgusting" feeling brought to her by her work as a real estate agent is the brokenness of idealism and seeing through the evil side of many human beings.
This mindset has changed dramatically from when interviewed by the media three years ago. "It was only after experiencing it that I realized how ideal my thinking was at that time. Yao Qinwen said.
However, among the customers that Yao Qinwen has served so far, some have also given a lot of "positive feedback". Some owners buy coffee for their team during the negotiation stage. However, Yao Qinwen, who took the coffee, was both happy and heavy. Because it means that she has to work hard to help her customers cut prices. "For example, if you want to help him cut 100,000 yuan, then this cup of coffee is worth 100,000 yuan. Yao Qinwen said.
Clients give trust, and Yao Qinwen gives conscientious service as a real estate agent, which is the "spirit of contract" she has summed up, and it is also the way she ideally communicates with clients.
Perhaps, for Yao Qinwen now, she will pay more attention to the "match" between customers and her own values. If the client will give up on her because of some interest, this is not an ideal target for service. What she needs is the kind of customer who gives the right needs and gives them trust.
"Screening in advance may be something you need to learn if you want to continue in this line of work in the future. Yao Qinwen said.
Employed for three years
She's going to change tracks
This year, Yao Qinwen plans to change to a new track.
The branch in Beijing offered her a position as a "new media communication planner", and her main job was to broker documentaries, interviews and podcasts. In fact, there was no such job in Beijing at first, but it was set up specifically for Yao Qinwen, who wanted to find a person with front-line experience and media background to do the job.
"They approached me early, but I only talked this year about wanting to join their team later this year. Yao Qinwen said.
In the eyes of outsiders, Yao Qinwen is tantamount to going around and returning to his "old profession" as a communication practitioner. But this is a new challenge for Yao Qinwen, and it also fits her personality of liking to meet new challenges and new lives.
In fact, in the past three years as a real estate agent, Yao Qinwen has been trying to share his experience and experience in the way of self-media. On a social platform, she has an account called "Sister Daqin", which is mainly a Vlog of her work in a real estate company and an observation of the Shanghai real estate market.
In his usual work, Yao Qinwen not only takes customers to see the house, but also records videos in various places to update his Vlogs. The person in charge of the store also expressed her support, and she arranged her own work.
In the past three years, Yao Qinwen's customers have not come from the company's own platform, but from acquaintances and his own social account homepage. She has become friends with many clients, and although there are some ups and downs, depression and motivation always go hand in hand.
Every time she wants to leave this industry, there is always a client who trusts her, giving her strength and motivation to move forward.
In Yao Qinwen's circle of friends, there are also many videos and photos of her and her colleagues. In the face of the camera, colleagues are very cooperative, they will be happy to negotiate an order, and they will also be sad to be "pigeon" by the customer.
During the interview, Yao Qinwen received a phone call, which was a customer who invited her to eat crabs at home. On the phone, Yao Qinwen expressed his apologies and told the other party that he would visit him in person before going to Beijing.
Regardless, she has a deep respect for every client she faces, and she expects them to give her the respect and trust she deserves.