Latecomer discovers passion
WHEN ANGELA CAPITANIO ENTERED THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY 30 YEARS AGO, SHE HAD NO IDEA THE SUCCESS SHE WOULD BECOME. IT WAS MAINLY TO PROVIDE FOR HER THREE TEENAGE CHILDREN, WRITES
It had been 24 years since Angela Capitanio (above) had been in the workforce when she decided to enter the real estate industry.
The mum of three was in her 40s, having been widowed four years prior, and with teenagers to provide for.
“I needed something to do,” she said.
“Someone suggested real estate and I thought, ‘oh well I’ll try that’.”
It was a perfect fit. On Tuesday Ms Capitanio celebrated her 30-year milestone with Ray White. In that time she has seen the market reach incredible highs and take devastating blows for both buyers and sellers.
IT HAD been 24 years since Angela Capitanio had been in the workforce when she decided to enter the real estate industry.
The mum of three was in her 40s, having been widowed four years prior, and with teenagers to provide for.
“I needed something to do,” she said.
“I had been a legal secretary. And technology had changed in that time. I was used to manual typewriters.
“Someone suggested real estate and I thought, ‘oh well I’ll try that’.”
It was a perfect fit. On Tues- day Ms Capitanio celebrated her 30-year milestone with Ray White. In that time she has seen the market reach incredible highs and take devastating blows for both buyers and sellers.
“The market is the market, we can’t change what it is we just have to work with it,” he said.
“The harder you work the luckier you get.”
Technology has evolved and Ms Capitanio has watched it replace the hands-on approach that drove her entry into the industry.
“People don’t often walk
TECHNOLOGY HAS EVOLVED AND ANGELA HAS WATCHED IT REPLACE THE HANDS-ON APPROACH THAT DROVE HER ENTRY INTO THE INDUSTRY
into the office and less often do you put them in your car and take them to a property,” she said.
Buyers have a wealth of information at their fingertips.
“They want to go to open homes. They want to investi- gate and they have resources to investigate. They’re very knowledgeable before they event see you,” Ms Capitanio said.
“So you don’t have the opportunity to build up a relationship with them as you would have in the past.”
Before working for Ray White, Ms Capitanio, who is the selling principal at Ray White Cairns Central, had only every applied for one job as a legal secretary, which she got.
“I had thought of maybe applying for a job at Myers or something, but I had a fear of rejection,” she said.
“So when someone suggested real estate, I thought I’d see what that entailed.
“A fear of rejection didn’t come into it because I was very ignorant. But I note that I entered an industry that can be full of rejection.”
Ms Capitanio tackled her new job with a determination to succeed.
“The first duty I was given was to make appointments and go out and look at properties,” she said.
“I went through and looked at everything, because I didn’t know what to do otherwise.
MY MAIN AIM WAS TO PROVE TO MYSELF THAT, IF I EMBARKED ON SOMETHING, I WOULD SUCCEED ANGELA CAPITANIO
“If you don’t know what you’ve got you can’t sell it.”
Within three days Ms Capitanio made her first sale, which she still remembers, and within the first three months she had 23 contracts. She is also the first Ray White employee globally to settle more than $100 million worth of sales for the group.
“I guess it’s how you’re taught,” she said. “We would sit down with people and find properties that we thought would suit them and then we would put them in our car and drive them to these properties.
“So, at the end of showing four to six properties, you would get an indication of what you perceived they wanted. And you just needed to be intuitive enough to be able to match those people to a property.”
The experience helped Ms Capitanio understand values and people.
“You show, you learn and you use your skills to be able to marry them to the right property,” she said.
“It’s very different now. What I sell in a year, someone in Sydney or Melbourne can sell in a day.
“Technology has evolved and has changed the whole market. People don’t always have a need to contact us unless a property suits them, which I think is a bit of a shame in a way.”
Although Ms Capitanio said her love for the real estate industry had to grow “because it was so foreign” it has become a real passion and drive.
“My main aim was to prove to myself that, if I embarked on something, I would succeed,” she said. “There have been a lot challenges along the way, but I’ve had a lot of challenges in life and that has taught me to work out what’s important and what’s not, so I don’t easily give up.”
Ms Capitanio works alongside her granddaughter and shows no signs of retiring.
Her passion continues to grow in the industry that she said has taught her so much and made her many friends.