Why Athletes Make Dangerous Real Estate Agents
Before I was negotiating contracts and campaigns, I was running suicides on a basketball court.
Not the social kind. The kind of training where your lungs burn, your legs go numb and the only thing keeping you moving is the fact that someone is watching to see if you quit.
I spent years around serious basketball – training with guys who went to the NBA, pros who treated every session like a trial. The talent was inspiring. The mentality was terrifying.
Real estate, when you strip away the gloss, is not that different.
The Skills That Transfer (Whether You Notice or Not)
1. Reading the Court = Reading the Room
On the court, you learn to track ten moving parts at once – who’s out of position, who’s faking energy, who’s about to lose their man.
At an open home, it’s the same: who’s genuinely interested, who’s testing the agent, who quietly went back to the kitchen for a third look at the bench space.
2. Timing the Pass = Timing the Conversation
Basketball punishes early passes and late ones. Good timing is invisible; bad timing is a turnover.
In real estate, you don’t ask for the offer on the first inspection, and you don’t wait until the buyer has emotionally cooled. You feel the moment where curiosity turns into intent – and you move.
3. Training Culture = Campaign Discipline
Athletes train on days they don’t feel like it. That’s the whole point.
In real estate, that means prospecting when there’s no listing on the horizon, calling past clients when there’s nothing to “sell” them, preparing a campaign as if the property is under-priced even when it’s not.
Why Athletes Don’t Fear the Big Moments
Games are won in ugly stretches, not highlight reels.
Same with property.
Everyone sees the sold sticker. No one sees the 9pm phone call where a buyer nearly walks away over a clause in the contract. No one sees the vendor-side conversation the night before auction when expectations have to be reset without breaking trust.
Athletes are conditioned for this:
Scoreboard pressure
Split-second decisions
Performing when someone else has pinned their hopes on you
In a sale, that “someone else” is your owner.
You feel it every time you pick up the phone.
The Difference Between “High Energy” and High Performance
A lot of agents try to mimic athlete energy – the motivational quotes, the hyper-active social media.
Real athletes don’t talk about grind. They just live it.
For me, that shows up in ways most people never see:
Film-review style debriefs on every campaign – what worked, what didn’t, what we never do again
Obsession with detail – who opened every cupboard, who asked the same question twice, who checked the street at night
The refusal to coast when a campaign is “going well” – pushing for an extra inspection, an extra buyer, an extra 1% on the end result
The court taught me something simple:
You’re either competing seriously, or you’re feeding the person who is.
In the Inner West, with values moving the way they are, you don’t want your property handled by someone who’s just happy to be on the team.