Based in Ancaster, Luke O’Reilly and his team attend to clients across the Greater Hamilton Area. The multi-awarded real estate professional has been in the industry since 2010.
What has changed in the Ancaster, Ontario market between the time you started and the present?
There have been numerous changes to Ancaster’s real estate market over the last 6 years, including a significant rise in average sale price, increased demand for homes, multiple offer situations becoming the norm when bidding on property, an increase in foreign home buyers purchasing property, buyers from more expensive markets exploring our area and relocating (i.e., from the Toronto market primarily), and an increase in luxury home construction as older homes have been getting purchased by developers, torn down, and re-developed.
How would you describe the real estate professional’s day-to-day work?
A real estate professional’s day-to-day work is very unpredictable and every day is different. It’s a constant juggling act of trying to balance buyer showings, listing presentations, servicing existing listings, following up with past and present leads, running miscellaneous errands, exploring different marketing strategies, continuing education, and more. While this juggling act can make our lives very unpredictable, I have found success in establishing well-run systems with checklists and routines for day-to-day operations to help stay focused and as organized as possible.
In your career so far, what milestone are you most proud of?
I have two milestones that I am most proud of: a) being recognized as one of Real Estate Professional Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 Realtors in Canada for 2016 and b) being recognized by Royal LePage as one of the company’s top performing Realtors over the last 3 years (Diamond Award – top 3% of sales based on sales earnings).
What would be your advice to younger professionals who are looking to make their careers in the Greater Hamilton real estate market?
As a new real estate professional, I think it’s really important to build a relationship with a mentor. This mentor should be someone who can help establish systems for day-to-day operations and lead generation techniques, someone who is willing to pick up the phone when questions need to be answered.
I think it’s also important to take a few real estate continuing education courses (i.e., Brian Buffini, Mike Ferry) or listen to podcasts (i.e., Joshua Smith) to get ideas on various ways you can improve your business. You can’t copy these techniques exactly; pull certain aspects from them that work best for you, and implement them in your unique way.