Why is it so hard to find an Estate Manager?

I have advertised, and advertised, and advertised. Why is it so hard to find a Sales/Estate Manager?

I think my terms are good (well above the norm): a free fuly furnished luxury home in a Class 5 beautiful sim, great commissions on all sales, upgrade of home when the sim is full (just 12 homes) and promotion to Estate Manager (with all the God Tools you can shake a stick at), and.....silence.

Does nobody like free homes, generous commissions and god-like powers anymore???

So, if anyone in the forums know of someone, preferably with SL sales experience, preferably in real estate, (but full training will be given), and is in world - a lot, please send them my way.

Rock

I have been an estate manager in real life but it did not involve having to sell the properties.

Once the employee has earned commission on sales, are you then suggesting they have the house in lieu of any further pay?

Blunt answer is: getting and retaining customers is HARD.

Second point: if anyone wants to do it in whole or in part for the god powers, show them the door. You don't have to trust me on this, but learning it the hard way might be painful. Up to you.

Lastly... if anyone can sell properties, keep all your customers happy, know them all personally and is willing to be the face of your estate ahead of you... guess what's gonna happen at the first difference of opinion.

Yup, just about the whole sim will pick up and leave to the manager's 'new' sim, where he'll have all you offered and more, done his way. I've seen it happen to sim owners time and time again... the managers very often get this idea.

I'd honestly recommend rolling up the sleeves, getting in there and doing it all yourself. The sim business, or even mini-continents, are not good 'sit back and be the boss' kinds of things.

To quote the Genie in Aladdin: PheNOMenal Cosmic POWERS....eeeeenniebittybitty living space.

Sorry, just had to share...

Or make it a real job. L$ cash per hour. I've done the Estate Manager thing and it is a LOT of work... hardly worth a house. As for sales commission; lots of times management types aren't necessarily sales types, so might not be interested in making new sales for the landowner.

Very well said Oryx.

To be perfectly honest, being a good manager of your own sim really isnt THAT difficult that you need to hire someone. Maybe its just me though, when I had my rental sim out it was full 99% of the time and I rarely had any issues. I would work about 15-30 minutes each day when I first logged in checking prims, permissions and dealing with offline messages. Other than that, its not difficult at all. Rent out that extra house and get yer hands dirty, since you cant find anyone anyway!

He might if he would clarify the payment issue

If he owns a bunch of sims, rather than just one, it might be an issue. I was only one of 3 estate managers for a 15 sim owner; that's a lot of work! It was especially taxing before LL released all the new continents, because rental land was in very high demand. Issues with potential renters ("why can't I put a sex club here?", current renters ("my neighbor is a dick" and all sorts of lag/sim restart issues took up a lot of our time. To the OP, I agree that if you have just one sim, or even 2 or 3, it's probably best to do it yourself. More than that, and you might find yourself needing an employee.

6 sims managed was my limit before I had to talk my sister into joining SL to just keep track of land tax dates and covenant violations, I pay her 50 USD per sim x 6 sims, maybe I pay more because shes family, but I know how tough it is to be a SL accountant which is what you really are in managing ownership sims, as opposed to rentals

I think if the OP offered a flat rate of pay in USD they would have a better chance of getting an estate manager who would be willing to do what is needed.

If the OP will contact me I know someone who might be looking for a paid estate manager position, and has experience.

I suspect all the good estate managers who want to manage estates are already managing estates.

And the really good ones have bought their own sims and manage those instead.

it would do no harm if you list the ad's url on your profile's signature here and in-world.

think u`ll have to split the sale and estate manager apart

searching for buyers is a pain in the ass while managing an island is pritty simple, solve some problems, answer questions and guide/help new residents to settle in

have my own sim and usually i have 0 work besides being nice and help with explaining stuff with building, texturing or just simple land questions
no sales headaches with an ad once in awhile, no headhunting for new residents or anything of that sort wich makes life alot easier

offering some land is nice but it makes ppl expect to live on it, sale commisions run out when the land is full and what happens when they quit the job? they`ll prolly use the land so why move in in the first place?

also u`d expect no bs and trustworthy people, not that many around tbh as they all have their own thing going most likely(sp)

just my view of running a sim and the hatred of tenant hunting

I'm just wondering if the OP is coming back to read this thread and reply to comments?

Honestly... being an estate manager for someone else really sucks.

And God powers don't really have that much pull. At least not to me.

Awww Jessy, it's not that bad, but it IS a real job and should be paid as such. Dealing with lots of tenants can take loads of patience but it can be worth it if you can educate people on rental vs. owning and the pitfalls of both. It's also rewarding to see a newbie rent a place and then blossom with their own creativity and ideas.

Hi Alexa, I would be happy to respond to the comments.

Fortunately, a forum member did know of someone, and put them in touch, and I have am now very happy with my new Estate Manager.

It is not normal to discuss the actual payment terms in an open forum, but as so many have asked, and the new manager does not mind, the terms were as follows.

The Estate Manager gets a beautiful, fully furnished SkyHome in one of the most beautiful SIMs in SL, and those of you who know the Fair-Isles Estate (Sukka Mire, Swey, and Hoini) will know what I mean. We have an Estate Manager on each sim, with primary responsibility for that sim, but they cover for each other if any is offline, on vacation, sick, or whatever. Prospective tenants tp into one of our three Central Hubs, and our Estate Managers are notified, and they tp to the Hub to ask the visitor if they need any assistance (as our SkyHomes have lots of 'hidden' extras).

For every tenant the Manager signs up, (and we do believe in the personal touch, no unattended SIMs in our Estate), they get L$500, and L$1000 if the tenant pays (or stays) for a month or more. If the Manager fills the sim for which they have primary responsibility, they can opt to go for a fixed % share of the rental income, which can be L$3000/week when full.

Rock

I am happy to know you found someone for the job. Being a estate manager is a tough job in a public sim that gets a lot of traffic. I know from long term exposement to it. I find it hard to understand how it was so difficult for you to get one though. Most people i know would jump at that chance. XD

Just for info, I got a response of exactly two in total!!! One was from a guy who saw the post in the forum (not a poster), and contacted me inworld, and the other was from a friend of someone who reads the forums. None from the classified ads at all, and 2 from the forum.

Better believe it.

Rock

What does this mean?

And one last point, these are not public sims, they are private. We have just 12 homes on each sim, 100% residential, no commercial, and rarely have 2 or more tenants 'at home' at any one time.

The main problems (which are inexplicably recurring) are:

a) My hot-tub water has gone missing (where the hell DOES it go to???)

b) I can't add anyone to my security (they haven't got their Group 'hat' on, and they do not bother to read the manual, which tells them in easy steps what to do)

c) Why can't I watch these porn vids I bought on my Freeview TV? (Because the movies were a short-term rental, and stream directly, when the rental period is over, no more porn). Nothing to do with us, but we are expected to sort out all their problems.

d) Why is this Class 5 sim laggy at weekends? Sigh, tell me about it!!!!!

Rock

What I believe Desmond meant with that line was, if someone wants to be an Estate Manager especially because they want the extra magic powers, then you don't want that person to be working for you. If the applicant cares only for having the powers for the sake of power, they aren't likely to use those tools in the best interests of your customers or yourself.

-Atashi

At least it worked out in the end. Only explanation i can think of as to why nobody answered the classified ads is because of database issues preventing them from loading lol.

maybe not enough keywords in?

Rock: if you are expanding in future, do send me a pm or im, its time i try my hands on lands management.