A field dominated by men, Square Feat India caught up with three women brokers who have managed to find their space in the real estate agent space of Mumbai.
By Varun Singh
The moment we hear the word real estate agent, we think of a man, obviously because for years we have seen a man doing this business. However, women have made a foray in this male dominated profession and have also made a name for themselves.
Square Feat India caught up with such three women realtors who find the profession of selling homes a way to live their dreams. While some happen to come in this profession by chance, for some this was a conscious decision.
Here are the three women realtors who have made stood tall in an industry filled with difficult terrain.
Faced Difficulties But Picked Up Myself Everyday
Nisha Dusija, Co – Founder of RR Real Estate has spent more than nine years in the real estate profession.
For Nisha, her whole and sole reason and in her words her true inspiration of getting into this profession is her younger brother Rishi Dusija (Founder of RR Real Estate). “Honestly it started of at a point where I was at a phase where I was lost in my life and confused what to do, and my younger brother encouraged me to start helping him initially and stood by me during the whole journey,” she says.
There is a lot of competition that Nisha faced by colleagues in the same industry. “A lot of times you face both emotional and mental stress as there is no work for a few months, there are difficult clients to deal with rightly etc,” she says. But apart from all this she use to pick herself up daily and work hard. She acknowledges that struggles are part and parcel of every journey and cannot keep her spirits down. “I’m thankful that amidst all this it’s still been a very healthy journey.” says Nisha.
In her initial days, there was not one day that Nisha didn’t feel like she wanted to quit. Standing for long hours, going around showing houses, keeping the patience going on with the difficult clients, working hard and still no deals getting closed had become a part of her life. All of this would definitely give Nisha crazy emotional breakdowns, but she didn’t give up. “Over the time what I have learnt is that every person has their set of challenges they face, but even with that the beauty of meeting the right owners/clients, having them support me and also believing in my work has kept my spirits going,” she says.
For all the ladies out there, Nisha says that real estate is a beautiful work place to be in if you enjoy your work of giving the right homes and spaces to work to people . “If you believe and you know you can deliver positive spaces and the right ones suited to each requirements, this is the right place for you . The competition is really high, due to which a lot of times we see a very dull period which goes longer than expected , we face a lot of mood swings not only from clients but at times with colleagues and our personal stuff too, but coming back to the saying “the right energy sells a house” I make sure I understand my client, know the right availability and deliver it rightly to each client. To the new beginners specially women, know that we are all blessed with making home a more beautiful place, and what more can be of giving the joy of providing a right one for others,” ends Nisha.
Real Estate Teaches You To Leave Your Ego Behind.
Sunita Advani of Advani Realtors has spent more than 16-years in the real estate profession.
Her reason for getting into this profession is family business, but she started property brokerage on her own. She has a law background and helped family members with their Real estate issues including buying properties, this is what created her interest in the field. From here she has been actively working in the real estate profession and there has been no looking back.
According to Sunita she didn’t face much of a struggle to break this male dominated profession. She claims that the markets were positive and hence she had a smooth entry. She did face issues with closure but then that almost all in the real estate brokerage industry does face, immaterial of their gender.
While she didn’t face much of a struggle, and never felt like quitting the profession so far, but there have been challenges of their own. For example she talks about the current challenge seeing the market conditions from a sales perspective, to overcome this, she feels there’s a need of change in strategy of how homes were being sold earlier.
Her message is for everyone in the industry, she says that her message holds good irrespective of the sex of the person. “Real estate consultancy is a business which teaches you to leave your ego behind as you deal with your customer. Women have skills like compassion and competitiveness which are advantageous in handling issues connected with home buying and leasing ensuring deal closure,” she says.
According to Sunita, the profession also teaches you to work to satisfy the client’s real estate requirement and then expect the results of that exercise as the last step. “In that sense it’s very different from many other professions. One also has to treat other fellow brokers as partners in the business due to the networking nature of the business despite the competitive element of the business,” she ends.
They Think, They Can Take A Woman For A Ride
Yashika Rohiira, of Karma Realtors, has spent six-years in the real estate profession.
Yashika’s reason for getting into this profession of helping people find their dream home is different. She can’t recollect he day, when it went from assisting her husband in his business to handling it all by herself. Her husband moved out of real estate brokerage and now Yashika handles the business on her own.
The biggest struggle that Yashika faces is that there is most brokers work in an undisciplined manner and many also suffer from the propensity to think that they can take a woman broker for a ride. Being a woman broker isn’t that of an easy task, explains Yashika.
Yashika says that this profession requires a lot of patience she narrates, “We were working on a premium sale for a more than a year, where twice in that period the deal was about to fall apart, but, with constant effort and perseverance we came out successful and that was a turning point for me to never look back.”
Her message for other women who wish to get into businesses that’s male dominated, “The deal is not closed, till the brokerage is not received in full.”
