For
29 years Rob Joyce has been a West End resident. When he decided
to drop the magazine business more than fourteen years ago for real
estate, his territory was easy to define.
“I
know this market inside out,” says Joyce, consistently a top-seller
in the West End real estate market.
“Most
realtors work everywhere; I work the West End. It’s where I
live, it’s where I own. I keep in touch with this community.
Properties outside this area don’t mean anything to me. I tune
out when I hear about them.”
“Besides,” he
says only semi-seriously, “I don’t like driving over
bridges.”
Sales
leader Rob Joyce wins customers with his market knowledge in the
West End and his very honest approach to real estate.
“I
tell people not to buy more than I tell them to buy,” explains
Joyce, who has been a consistent sales leader during his fifteen
years in the real estate business. “I don’t deal with
property that I wouldn’t buy myself, and I only take on clients
if I like them – and I’m not afraid to turn down a deal.”
Joyce,
a realtor with Sutton West Coast Realty, is often portrayed as a
straight-shooter in the Vancouver real estate world, and he cherishes
the description. One reason for his success in the real estate market
is his straightforwardness.
“Friends
used to say that I wouldn’t make it in real estate because
I’ve always been know to call a spade a spade,” he recalls.
The former vice-president of the West End Community Centre is proud
of his ties with his neighborhood, which he calls “the best
place in Canada to live.”
Before
real estate, Joyce was editor of a Vancouver-based magazine called Q
Magazine. The Newfoundland-born realtor is now a top-seller
with a top-selling real estate office in Vancouver.
He
qualifies his success this way: “If I put clients in the best
possible situation and they’re happy, they come back, and that
happens all the time. They like my brutal honesty. I work with working
people who want the security of owning a home. I don’t care
if someone buys this month or next year. As long as they feel comfortable,
they come to me when they’re ready.”
Joyce
limits his work to the downtown neighborhood, making him familiar
with every listing in the area. That way, he can direct his clients
to the best choices.
“My
purchasers get advance notice of new listings, long before open houses
and sometimes before the listing is registered on the computer at
the Real Estate Board,” says Joyce. “Buyers looking on
their own have no access to this inside information.”
Joyce
calls the real estate business “Challenging work, you work
anywhere from nine to 16 hours a day, and it’s almost impossible
to take time away,” he explains. “But there are no regrets.
I really love this business.”
|
