How lovely that you’ve decided to promote “the Paramedic Life Saving Realtor” in your latest issue. You and the public may not be aware of this, but there are actually many tens of thousands who have made their life commitment to serve exclusively as “full-time” Realtors. You may have heard of them, they’re the Realtors who regularly leave their families at home during the dinner hour, or miss that gathering of friends in the evening or on the weekend in order to accommodate the showing and marketing of properties at the buyers’ and sellers’ convenience.
As unbelievable as it may seem, the full-time Realtor has no other means of support; no regular weekly paycheck, no opportunities for payment of double time when working those pesky additional overtime hours, no fabulous perks like health and dental benefits for themselves and their families, no cushy retirement plans or even better, no fabulous early retirement buyout! Ah, the buyout…who could imagine that you could get paid all that money to leave your job and then be called back at a future date on a contract basis for even more money? What a life!
Let’s go back though to the “full-time” Realtor, schlepping around day after day, for the most part available to their clients 24 hours a day seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, and did I mention that the “full-time” Realtor performs throughout their career, without the security of salaries, paid overtime, benefits for themselves or their families, retirement plans or those aforementioned fabulous buy outs? Darn the luck of the “full-time” Realtor!
But please don’t feel badly for the “full-time” Realtor because to be honest, most of them have fabulous clients who don’t mind that they can arrange a day or two off including Christmas, practically every year!
Granted, we live in a free country; Mr. Gentile along with whoever else cares to, are certainly free to pursue any work they desire in their spare time. However, I find it offensive that somebody with two or three “careers” has the audacity to refer to themselves as a “full-time” Realtor and disturbing that you as a Realtor’s magazine would promote that.
In closing, let me share with you from the Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary the definition of full-time: adjective, adverb occupying one’s working time completely.
Margot Canning
Sales representative (full-time)
Re/Max Ability Real Estate Ltd.
Courtice, Ont.
Editor’s note: Paul Gentile tells REM: “I don’t do real estate part-time. I spend over 40 hours a week at my office.”
