Keep the Tools Sharper Than the Job Requires

An agent who only knows enough for the deals they already do will eventually be handed one they cannot handle. Around Tzaneen that deal is often a farm, or a smallholding with a house, a packshed and water rights, and it tends to arrive at the desk of someone who has spent years selling suburban homes.

Most of the knowledge for a sale like that has to be in place before it is needed. Whether the seller is registered for VAT changes whether the buyer pays VAT or transfer duty, and that changes the numbers for everyone. Cutting off part of a piece of agricultural land is not simply a matter of drawing a new line, and the approvals can take a long time. Water use on a farm comes with its own set of rules. An agent learning all of this in the week the enquiry arrives will either make the client pay for the education or lose the deal to someone who already knew.

That is the case for learning past the current job. It looks like wasted effort for months, sometimes years, because the bigger deal has not arrived yet. But when it does arrive, preparation is the difference between noticing an opportunity and being able to take it, and that difference is usually settled long before the phone rings.