Senior rural property figure Col Medway is advertising for a protégé of sorts, and his sell begins with anything but real estate gloss.
"If someone can keep up with me, they're going to earn their stripes," he said.
"It won't be for the faint hearted, I make no apologies for that right up front. That's the reality.
"But I am seeking someone who is looking for a career launching opportunity in rural property agency."
The LAWD senior director said that while plenty of people try real estate, plenty also leave the profession burnt out.
"You've got to be able to work at pace," Mr Medway said.
"You've got to be able to sustain it. You have to get up early and go home late. And you've got to be accurate. This is what you've got to do to be successful."
A part-time real estate career simply didn't work in his opinion; he'd tried that in his twenties combining property sales while working as an agronomist, stock agent and farm supplies merchant.
"I was pretty clumsy about it, I really didn't know what I was doing until I actually went and did some specific real estate training with Gary Pittard, that was the training that really made me an effective property agent," Mr Medway said.
Today, he works well over 60 hours a week and drives more than 100,000 kilometres a year meeting vendors and guiding buyers through inspections across the country.
The heavy workload and always being on call could take a toll on relationships.
"I think it's really important that family understand what the job is and what the pressures of the job are," Mr Medway said.
"It's high pressure, it's relentless, it's long hours. The phone rings all the time.
"The support of your partner and family is critical."
It wasn't the lucrative potential of the job, especially as farmland prices skyrocketed, that made it all worthwhile.
"Commission-hungry agents are soon found out," Mr Medway said.
"A career is a marathon not a sprint, and you have only one reputation that can be blown up in an instant."
"It can be extremely financially rewarding but it also can be rewarding on other levels."
In his 25-year career in rural property, Mr Medway said, some of the most satisfying moments were lifechanging for everyone involved.
"In a lot of situations, 95-100 per cent of a family's total wealth is in your hands and they have one chance to divest that," Mr Medway said.
"You also get situations where you've got a neighbour who's just desperate to buy a piece of country that they've looked at over the boundary fence admiringly for their whole working life and have the one opportunity to buy it.
"So the emotions can be high at times and that can be challenging.
"Your role is to try and take the emotion out from both sides and find the compromise."
Despite that, he said, some sales had left their mark.
"It's always really hard when you've got a family selling because of health reasons," Mr Medway said.
"At times, you're dealing with people facing the reality of their own mortality. But they've been courageous enough to handle that and are getting their affairs in order.
"None of that's ever fun but it can be really humbling and satisfying to be part of their solution."
But perhaps Mr Medway's strongest motivator is his competitive streak.
"I've always loved competitive sport like rugby, and this game (property) is extremely competitive," he said.
"This is a war of listings. If you've got the listings, the buyers find you."
Key to that success was a real understanding of what the property offered potential buyers - helped by his agronomy and livestock background - and the best selling method to achieve the highest price, Mr Medway said.
And, agricultural property became as hot as its residential and commercial counterparts, increasingly sophisticated buyers demanded much more from agents than ever before.
"The biggest change that I have experienced is the escalation in capital being deployed in agriculture," he said.
"Buyers are rightly demanding quality data upon which they are making their investment decisions.
"When I started, we mailed out glossy brochures, now we prepare comprehensive information memorandums and manage data rooms.
"Agents and vendors must meet that challenge."
The graduate position on offer for anyone based in NSW, Mr Medway said, would provide a comprehensive grounding in agricultural real estate, including the preparation of that data.
While an agent's licence was not a requirement for applicants, a love of agriculture was essential.
"Sometimes I pinch myself and can't believe that I actually get paid to do this job," Mr Medway said.
"You get to see some of Australia's best agricultural assets, meet wonderful people and provide solutions. Like any career, it has it's challenges, but it certainly gets you out of bed with a spring every morning.
"I think someone who wants to ride shotgun with me will probably have a unique opportunity to enter this business with a really sound training on what's required to be successful."
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Marian Macdonald
Writing for farmers in the Stock & Land, The Land, Queensland Country Life, Stock Journal and FarmWeekly, farming in Gippsland.
Writing for farmers in the Stock & Land, The Land, Queensland Country Life, Stock Journal and FarmWeekly, farming in Gippsland.
