MAKING A SUCCESS OF PROPERTY

Kem Thompson is a physiotherapist by profession. All through her years in practice, she had a keen interest in property though, so much so that she bought and sold over the years, as private investments. When Kem’s retirement was due, knowing she enjoyed the property world, a friend told her about Wakefield’s first-rate training academy, and she thought, “I’m going to give it a go.”

Of course, Kem wasn’t thinking about full-time employment – she was retiring, just wanted to keep busy: “Working as a physiotherapist, I always interacted with people and I’d really enjoyed it. I thought the property world would be just that - a people orientated industry - and I’d fill my time there.”

Kem signed up at Wakefields Training Academy, and somewhat to her surprise, thoroughly enjoyed the training: “I found it very practical, and realising I actually knew nothing about real estate, I decided right from the beginning to put into practise all I learnt. When we had to do NQF level 4 training, I was a little daunted initially, but with the great help of the Wakefields’ training team, I proved that even a 65 year old was not too old to learn!”

Kem hit the ground running, and hasn’t stopped. She laughs, ‘I often think if I’d known sooner how much I would enjoy this as a career, I would have changed careers much sooner!” As she says, “I took to it from the beginning. To be honest, I didn’t think about earning money, I was enjoying myself so much. It took a while for my first cheque to come in, but once I’d broken though that barrier, there was no stopping me.”

Kem’s idea of ‘something part time to fill the retirement gap’, became a distant memory: “I soon accepted that to be successful in real estate, it’s 24/7. For me, if something is worth doing, it’s worth giving it your all. I knew that to achieve, I needed always to ‘be there’ – even I took short frequent breaks, I had to be present. Commitment is everything!” Her advice to newcomers is, “Don’t chase the money, it will come if you commit yourself wholeheartedly.”

Within 18 months at Wakefields, property sales consultant Kem Thompson was awarded the highest accolade: Diamond Status. By the end of 2009 – one year in - Kem was Top Residential Agent throughout the group, and also won the award for selling the most units:  “I achieved Top Residential Agent again in 2016/17, and in the years in between, I was in the top 3 every year but two… when I was 7th and 4th.” Kem’s always been up there in the top three agents at the Westville branch where she’s based, and has received numerous Platinum and Gold certificates over the 9 years she’s been at Wakefields.

In the past near-decade since Kem’s been a Wakefields’ property consultant, it’s fair to say her clock’s been going backwards. Retirement is vanishing into the ether, she’s full of energy, and she wouldn’t have it any other way: “I love every day, the challenges, the new people, raising the bar so I do everything better than I did yesterday.”