Life of a Middle Man by Oliver Rooney

“A person whose job is to arrange the sale, renting or management of homes, land and buildings for the owner”. That is how the Cambridge dictionary describes an Estate Agent. If you were to break our job down into its most basic form this is what we do. However what the Dictionary doesn’t go onto to describe is all the micro roles you take on as an estate agent. We are there to arrange all of the above but we take on so many different jobs in order to do that.

An estate agent can be a tour guide, showing where to go, where not to go, where to eat, how far you are from this and that, what road will help your child get into the right school or shorten your wife’s journey to work. We can be a sounding board, letting you know that converting the third bedroom into a music studio won’t necessarily help you increase the price (or your wife’s sanity). We are your asset manager, as for a lot of people their home is their biggest financial asset and will make decisions on that asset based on our advice. We become Google review often asked to give recommendations for builders, electricians, carpenters and anything else you may need to help improve your home. Often an estate agent will become a therapist for people who talk us through their reason for buying or selling a home, be it a divorce, change of job or new arrival expected so that we understand the client position and desire to move on. And lastly we are more often than not the friend that you seek reassurance from to let you know that you are making the right choice or that shoulder to cry on.

Ultimately though we are the intermediary, the go-between, the middle man. No one likes the middle man because he’s not seen to be completely on their side. But we’re not here to be liked. We are here to be trusted! We’re here to connect two parties together so that they both achieve their goals. It will involve a little give and a little take. It will involve telling someone to pipe down or step it up. Our job is never to take someone’s side, it is to mediate so that we’re all on the same side.

The French novelist, Gustave Flaubert worded it best when he said “There are some men whose only mission among others is to act as intermediaries; one crosses them like bridges and keeps going.” I think that sums up perfectly what an estate agent is. We are the bridge that gets you onto the path of your new life.