Why women make better agents - From a man |

In residential real estate, most of the time, women make the decisions about wanting to move, what house they want to buy and men go along for the ride.

Before you go getting on your high horse about generalisation and 'what a sweeping statement' I can assure you I am speaking from practical experience.

If you follow this column you will know that Carolyn and I recently sold our home of 15 odd years and downsized into a 3 bed unit at Woody Point on the Redcliffe Peninsular. Guess who found it and who one morning announced that it was time to move?

Now to the point about the headline - why women make better agents. It follows that if women make the BIG decisions and women can relate to other women, then it follows that the advice women agents give is trusted advice. Women are also much more in touch with their emotions and therefore have the ability to be more empathetic.

As further evidence that buying and selling residential real estate is an emotional experience, compare the residential process to the analytical buying process of commercial property. Could that be why commercial property is so male dominated?

Here are some more thoughts that will support my view:

Telling is not selling. In other words, it's more important to listen than to talk if you're a real estate agent. We were born with two eyes, two ears and one mouth for a reason - 20% of everything we do should be talking. A study by the Indiana University School of Medicine says that when it comes to listening, men listen with only one side of their brains, while women use both. A Cambridge University study noticed that parts of the female brain linked to the emotions, calculating risks, and the ability to listen were more prominent. There is further evidence that men are more likely to be action-oriented listeners while women are more likely to be people-oriented listeners.

Emotional listening - women get a big tick!

Most (but not all) females elicit a certain sweetness or softness. The very feelings that many females are judged for having, are the ones that make them open and approachable. Some questions for male agents - Would you hug your clients? How would you react to a female client telling you that she was going through a divorce? Do you ask how your buyer is 'feeling' at some point during the selling or buying process? Why would you do that? Women genuinely consider themselves invested in the other person's well-being. There is a reason why males struggle to master the softer skills of women. They are part of a strong masculine society that sets people up be tough and suck it up. There's a fair bit of pressure on males to conform - so feminine qualities are not OK for guys to have. Yet they are valuable things in sales.

Emotional energy - women get a BIG tick!

Women are commonly believed to have stronger intuition than men. That is why it is called women's intuition and not men's intuition. Men's brains are neurologically wired to be more logical, and therefore more effective at linking perception with action. How is the "less logical" brain effective when it comes to real estate? It's effective because better people skills equal happier clients, better relationships with other agents, better ability to read the body and emotional language of those clients and agents, and quicker to pick up on motivating factors when it comes to sale and negotiation.

Emotional Intuition - women get a BIG tick!

Are women better at sales? As with success in any industry, it comes down to the individual. Our industry is full of males with tremendous sales skills and the results to prove it. Indeed there may be scientific studies to suggest that women may be better listeners, sweeter, less intimidating, more charming and more determined, but like any advantage, if the advantage is not used, then it ceases being an advantage at all.

Kevin Turner hosts Australasia's longest running and most listened-to podcast for real estate agents, business owners and property managers - Real Estate UNCUT. He is also the Anchor for international property post cable network - PropertyTV.io