Social networks and apps change realtors’ profiles

The heating in the real estate market generated not only an increase in demand for real estate, but also for brokerage. In the first eight months of this year, the country gained more than 30,000 new brokers, according to the Cofeci-Creci System, which regulates the category. A growth of 7.9% compared to the total number of accredited in 2020, an index that is not surprising in an occupation that is traditionally sought after in times of crisis.

There is no lack of work, guarantees the president of Creci-SP (Regional Council of Realtors of São Paulo), José Augusto Viana. According to him, the 445,000 professionals currently working in Brazil represent only 20% of demand in the country.

“Builders, developers and real estate companies are looking for professionals and cannot find them”, evaluates Viana, who has seen the number of monthly qualifications double in São Paulo since April 2020, to 2,000 new professionals per month.

A bottleneck in the profession is training. Although about 70% of brokers operating in the country have higher education, they are courses in areas that have nothing to do with brokerage, which only requires high school education and a technical course in real estate transactions. Professionals with a management course in real estate business, which is equivalent to that of a technologist, are around 15 thousand, or less than 3.5% of the total.

An architect by training, Rafael Sorrigoto, 34, decided to switch to brokerage after becoming a father and feeling the need to have more flexible hours than his routine as a manager of ventures at developers. He joined Refúgios Urbanos as a broker and is now a partner in the company.

“Here we have professionals from different areas, who bring together various knowledge. We believe in this diversity and we invest in training because, in fact, the training of brokers, in general, is bad”, says Sorrigoto.

“But it is a profession in which, in terms of earnings, the sky is the limit. Especially for those who are willing and have an entrepreneurial mind.”

On social networks, there is no shortage of brokers who promise to teach other professionals how to earn millions.

Acting as influencers and using typical coaching techniques, they leverage platforms like Instagram and TikTok to recruit brokers eager for a lifestyle surrounded by luxury.

With more than 1.8 million followers, Ricardo Martins, 34, from Goiás, presents himself as the largest real estate exhibitor in Brazil and estimates that he has sold around R$ 500 million with TikTok videos alone. But what he exposes in his networks goes far beyond real estate: his personal life with luxury cars, routine at the gym and the transformations of someone who for ten years worked as a computer technician and is now a partner and marketing director of a real estate agency that it was born in the capital of Goiás and now has 22 units across the country.

Content designed to reinforce his personal brand, as he teaches in his courses.

“I train brokers so they can learn to relate, to have a very strong personal branding, to take the focus off the property itself and put it in your personal marketing. The client needs to look for you for the consultant you are”, says Martins, who , in September, held a reality show broadcast live on his YouTube channel to choose a new “elite broker” for his real estate agency.

Elite broker is what Martins calls his course and high-performance professionals, those who are already able to sell those millions a month that fill the eyes of many who seek brokerage. A goal that, of course, few will reach, as Martins himself admits:

“Really, it’s for few professionals, for those who have invested, have a lot of knowledge and work hard. Many people look to brokerage with a view to making a big sale. But the average monthly earnings of most are no more than R$3,000. , it’s going to win like a bill.”

Lack of fixed salary and regular earnings is not the only challenge for brokers. The growth of startups and real estate portals that invest more and more in technology demands constant updating of these professionals.

A survey prepared by DataZAP+, the intelligence area of ​​the ZAP+ portal, in June this year, reveals that digital media appear at the top among the channels most used by portal users. Real estate websites (66%), specialized portals (63%) and search sites (42%) lead the preference. The questions were multiple choice.

In such a scenario, would the broker be expendable?

The portal itself raised this issue by publishing, in September, an ad aimed at homeowners that suggested the waiver of real estate intermediation to save the 6% brokerage fee. The advertisement caused a revolt among brokers and led ZAP+ to apologize, launching, a few days later, a campaign to promote the profession.

“The new campaign was already programmed. Regarding communication, it was a publication that was out of line with the business strategy of ZAP+, in which brokers and real estate agents are partners,” said the director of new business at ZAP+, Marcelo Dadian.

For him, the role of the broker should be that of a trustee, someone who helps the client make the right decision.
“Professionals in the real estate sector need to be a multidisciplinary specialist. And whoever manages to gather more knowledge, including the management of digital tools, will be one step ahead of the others”, assesses Dadian.

The realtor who limits himself to visiting real estate has been disappearing. In its place, there is the figure of the consultant, who understands the legal and bureaucratic part of the documentation, but also financial management and pricing; that follows the country’s politics and economy to fully understand the real estate market and the best time to invest.

The curriculum also includes being an expert in your area of ​​expertise and market niche and, of course, knowing how to use technology to your advantage.

“Most people buy and sell one, two properties in their lifetime. This means that two agents, who don’t understand anything about that market, need to meet to make a deal, which will be the biggest of their lives. Hence, the figure of the broker is indispensable”, says Tiago Galdino, executive director of Imovelweb.

Proptech created in 2018 in Brazil, Loft has all its real estate transactions intermediated by partner brokers registered on the platform. A strategic choice of the company, which uses technology as support and not purpose, as explained by the company’s founder and co-executive director, Hungarian Mate Pencz.

“There are still more traditional professionals, who prefer the support of real estate companies and are not very fond of technology. In a market like real estate that is hyperlocal and in a country the size of Brazil, it is a transformation that takes many years, maybe decades” , it says.

Realtor Graziella Labate, 49, has been in the market for 18 years and has been in charge of real estate agency Graziella dos Imóveis since 2009, she invests in social media as a showcase for her business. Over the past three years, around 24% of its customers have come from Instagram.

But, she believes, nothing replaces eye to eye.

“The robot, the machine will not replace knowledge and empathy. Technology strengthens the process of analyzing properties, supports brokers in the sales process and brings a lot of data. But the human relationship does not end”, assesses Labate, who is graduated in psychology.

The ability to listen to the client is considered one of the most important to be a good broker in a time of so many changes, says Rodrigo Barbosa, 40, who has been working as a freelancer in the Rio de Janeiro real estate market for about eight years.

“My client doesn’t want to know about thousands of sales, millions of ads. He wants personalized, careful, dedicated service. I make a point of getting to know his house, see where and how he lives, what he likes. That’s what it’s all about. show me what he really wants [no imóvel]”, says Barbosa.

“When you find a property that causes enchantment, the client often gives up a characteristic that he thought was fundamental”, he says.