HOME & COTTAGE
M ichele Harmer’s energy is astonishing. When she trained in real estate and joined PEI’s Powerhouse Realty, she’d scarcely finished an England- to-Summerside move with her husband. While her family grew to include two preschoolers, Michele Harmer came to thrive in PEI real estate—a profession, she explains, that requires dazzling energy. “It’s actually a very challenging, demanding job,” she says. “Professional realtors have lots of work happening in the background, which may not be obvious when you first meet them.”
There’s Bottled Lightning Behind the Scenes at Powerhouse Realty
of distinct strengths: not just broad categories, like advertising or hospitality, but modern niche skills like social media management. “I’m constantly switching from showing houses, to creating marketing material, to answering client questions and listing properties for sale,” she notes. She’s also responsible for “scheduling showings, organizing photographers, editing marketing material, updating social media, completing continuous education and finding new clients.” Although real estate’s scope is daunting, Harmer’s prior career was in a likewise demanding field—law. Still, she says, “becoming a realtor meant I had to adapt and learn new skills quickly.”
By Rebecca Spinner Photos Evan Ceretti
The “background work” Harmer describes requires a striking number
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www.pei-living.ca WINTER 2020
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