Texas journalist Lilly Rockwell kept watching newspaper peers take buyouts or get laid off and started to wonder about her own future in a fading industry.
A real estate buff who enjoyed popping into open houses, Rockwell earned a license and quit her job as a reporter at the Austin American-Statesman in late 2017 to sell homes full time. Except nobody told her what to expect.
"It's very hard that first year," Rockwell, a 42-year-old Austin native, told Homes.com. "You're inexperienced, and that's not what people want to hire for."
She needed a marketing boost — and found one by emphasizing her familiarity with the city and its neighborhoods. She also made a point to avoid syrupy sales tactics, something she wasn't comfortable with anyway.
What's more, Rockwell leveraged her interest in social media. She took to Instagram and shared posts about a day in the life of an agent as a way to connect with people.
Rockwell, who launched her career at Coldwell Banker Realty, slowly started to build a clientele. She earned the brokerage's "Rookie of the Year" award in 2018, despite her first-year struggles.
But then the pandemic hit in early 2020, creating massive uncertainty.
Pandemic was 'rocket fuel' for business
While some analysts pessimistically predicted sales would suffer because people would be afraid of catching COVID-19 while touring houses, the historically low mortgage rates that resulted when the Federal Reserve cut interest rates at the start of the pandemic were "rocket fuel on my growing business," Rockwell said.
She moved to Compass in early 2021.
Rockwell said she had hoped that once she established herself, she could let buyers and sellers come to her. But she disabused herself of that after overhearing a longtime agent talk about the constant need to find new clients.
Rockwell knows now that she can't kick back and expect the business to come to her — and she also has learned to accept that real estate is an industry always at the mercy of other factors she can't control, such as mortgage rates, economic uncertainty or even COVID.
"There are a lot of external forces," she said, "and you've got to learn how not to get blown off course."
The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
With listings rising in many markets across the country, what advice do you have for sellers?
When I go on selling consultations now, I try to dissuade some people from selling, unless they have a really good reason for needing to move. You have to be on your "A" game when you're selling. Staging is a must. And you have to price it insanely well. That's hard for some sellers to grapple with.
On Instagram recently, you addressed your so-called enemies list. You were joking, but also serious. What's with the list?
It’s a Google Doc with the names of five agents and what they did to make me never want to work with them again.
What happens if one of those offending agents has a client who makes an offer your seller can't refuse or represents a seller whose house your buyer must have?
It’s my client's decision, obviously. But I would just make sure my client understands the facts. There are some agents who make your life and your clients’ lives a living hell.
What are you binge-watching?
My husband and I have a project this year. We’re watching every James Bond movie in chronological order. We review the movies, each of us separately, after we watch them. We’ve made it up to 1979 with Moonraker. We’ve got quite a few more to watch.