Sunday Territorian

COCAINE, BUSTED MARRIAGES AND REAL ESTATE GODS

The boom High flying agents have paid a price for riding

- SUE DUNLEVY

IT is a world of luxury cars, bespoke suits and $100,000 watches but the high flyers of the real estate industry are paying a tragic price for success – a high suicide rate, substance abuse, self-harm and severe mental health issues.

Four in 10 agents have revealed they are relying on cocaine and alcohol to keep their confidence up and many have a trail of broken marriages.

Often they are massively in debt to pay for the expensive cars and clothes they need to project an image of suave success.

“The people making the most amount of money in our industry, are probably like three marriages in, have a coke habit, and an addiction with regards to success that gives you that adrenaline rush,” auctioneer Andy Reid, who is head trainer at Century 21 and runs the agency Better Homes and Gardens, said.

“I’ve already heard this week about a director of an organisati­on who has had to step back from being a head of a franchise because they’ve got big problems with coke.

“Probably I’d say maybe 40-50 per cent would have some sort of addiction problem, whether it’s drugs or alcohol,” Mr

Reid said. There is no suggestion Mr Reid has taken drugs himself.

Real estate agent manager Daniel Hayes said surging property prices in the past two years meant 26-year-olds in the industry were earning $200,000 a month, driving Porsches and doing cocaine to celebrate their successes.

“It’s ridiculous. How can you not think you’re God?” he said. “But the reality is you’re about to smash into a brick wall.”

Mr Reid said agents had to create an “air of almost invincibil­ity” because if they showed any degree of vulnerabil­ity a homeowner may not trust them with their house.

“That’s a whole load of bravado, that creates a whole load of anxiety when it doesn’t work out,” he said.

He said the pressure brought him close to taking his life one day.

“Your brain feels that it needs to take you away from the world,” he said.

What brought him back from the brink was the thought of his daughter hav

Maybe 40 - 50 per cent would have some sort of addiction problem

ing to grow up without her dad.

“It’s not really being a good dad if you decide to exit yourself from life, right?” he said. Property management is the less glamorous side of the business but the pressures are also immense.

Agents must balance tenants complainin­g about broken facilities or who don’t pay their rent with landlords who don’t want to spend money to bring the accommodat­ion up to standard.

Sydney property manager Ellen Bathgate said she had been physically attacked by an angry tenant, and had to deal with people who punched holes in walls and burned the floorboard­s of rental properties.

She has been physically threatened by large men and some people working in the industry had received text messages “asking them to kill themselves”.

Veteran property manager Melissa Hickson said the job was super stressful because “you’re literally solving people’s problems”. “People are stressed if they’ve got no hot water or they’re stressed if they don’t get their rent or they can’t pay their rent. You’re dealing with people at high anxiety level,” she said.

“Some agencies sign up everything and anything and those kinds of clients, the high end owners that want everything done for free or they want to have different expectatio­ns about where they should be that doesn’t align with state regulation­s,” she said. An astounding 30 per cent of people have quit the real estate industry as a result of increased pressure during Covid.

And often property managers are handling 200 tenants and 200 owners, working 11 hour days and weekends for a salary as low as $50,000 a year.

To tackle the mental health problem real estate industry players recently establishe­d a mental health app for people working in the industry called Real Care.

Painter and decorator Craig Turton has set up a men’s mental health group called 100 Words.

It is to help men learn how to have a real conversati­on with their mates about their mental health.

They are encouraged to ask their mates to rate their day out of 10 and explain why they give it that score.

“This starts a genuine conversati­on. They can’t just say ‘good’ and move on,” Mr Turton said.

They are also encouraged to ask their mates what a 10 out of 10 day would look like for them, this means they have to think about what it is that makes them happy.

 ?? ?? Century 21 head trainer and agency owner Andy Reid.
Century 21 head trainer and agency owner Andy Reid.

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