I’ve been a Realtor and loyal reader of REM since 1998 and this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write to you, but the tone and content of the Letters to the Editor in the March edition (concerning so called part-time versus full-time Realtors) really disturbed me.

There is so much talk about how to improve our image as Realtors with the public, yet attacking our colleagues in this manner does nothing to improve perceptions of our industry, by me or the public. I’ve worked with Paul Gentile in the past, and he now works next door with another company. I have never considered him to be anything but an exemplary professional Realtor first and foremost, with another job that he loves to do as well.

I know and work with many other professional Realtors who, like Paul, put in well over the 40 hours in this industry that most people consider to constitute “full-time” and also put in another 40+ hours at other jobs. For the first two years in this business, I worked approximately 50 to 60 hours a week in real estate while adding about the same number of hours operating our family-run store, which served as my platform for getting my real estate business established, to the point where I could afford to close our store.

If you doubt this is possible, take 16-hour days x 7 days a week and you’ll have a picture of what sort of energy and devotion is required by “so-called part-timers” to do more than one job well.

Rather than looking down on them, we should be holding them up as beacons for us “full-timers” to attempt to emulate. I don’t question what anyone chooses to do with their time and energy in their work or personal lives, my only criteria is that they are decent people and when asked to perform a duty or task, they do so with competence and enthusiasm.

Paul and others like him in our industry, who are true professional Realtors by any standard, can hold their heads high in my opinion, and they have earned my full-time respect. Let’s stop wasting time trashing our colleagues and put that effort into supporting one another in this challenging field we’re all working in together.

Don Ross

Sales Representative

Century 21 Lanthorn Real Estate Ltd.

Picton, Ont.