Jim Nemetz

Jim Nemetz
Title: Senior Vice President, Manager, Hammond Residential
Age: 58
Experience: 32 years

Jim Nemetz has been selling real estate in Newton and Brookline for so long, he said if you give him the address of a condo, he can tell you whether or not the units have parking, whether the condo fees include heat and hot water, what the square footage is, and what the layout is like. He was among the first agents in Hammond’s Chestnut Hill office in 1991. When he’s not working, Nemetz can often be found in Wellfleet with his wife and two children, fishing or enjoying the beach. He’s also an avid reader and a long-distance runner.

Q: How did you get into real estate?

A: I started out in life as a CPA. I worked for a medium-sized firm downtown for four years. I actually liked the study of accounting. It’s kind of like putting jigsaw puzzles together. I loved the firm I worked for too, but the work just left me cold. It was drudgery. So, I took a very hard look at what the partners were doing and it was equally awful. I decided I just couldn’t do it for the rest of my life. I had no interest in the work that I was doing. Conversely, most accountants would rather be boiled in oil than do what I do. People have different skillsets and you have to find what works for you and what you’re good at.

My girlfriend at the time went to work for a real estate company downtown in an administrative position and she became somehow convinced that I would make a terrific real estate agent and she convinced me to give it a try. So, I started selling in 1984. In 1987, I went to work for a company called Hoy, Kosloff and Rothstein. Then in August 1991, I came to Hammond with the first group of agents in this very building. A little-known fact is that I sold the very first property ever sold by Hammond. It was 16 Roberts St., Brookline. I can’t remember if it was Unit 2 or Unit 3. It sold for $134,000 or something like that.

I was an agent here from ’91 through ’95 and in October of 1995, I became the manager of this office and stopped selling. I’ve only sold one property since then. Last year I sold my stepmother’s property. I promised my stepmother that I’d handle that one myself, but that’s the only time.

Q: Do you miss doing sales?

A: No, I live vicariously through my agents. There are aspects that I miss. I miss meeting clients for the first time and working with first-time buyers. That was really fun. If you don’t like that as an agent, then you really shouldn’t be in this business. If you’re the kind of person who turns white when you’re about to meet new clients, instead of being excited to do it, then you shouldn’t be in this business. That’s the fun part.

I experienced the same trials and tribulations as any other agent. Clients sometimes do awful things to us. I think brokers are one of the most underappreciated group of people in any kind of a business. … But we also tend to forget about the really good clients.

I’ve had clients give me gifts, plenty of agents have people give them gifts. Sometimes you become very good friends with your clients. I think every agent has clients who become their good friends. Clients do recognize it when they get an agent who does a really good job and who really looks out for them. When you find a really successful agent, it’s because they left behind such a heavy trail of people who were so thrilled with them that they’ll go out of their way to refer people to them.

Q: Is your schedule as a manager more predictable than when you were an agent?

A: No. I keep fairly traditional business hours here, but agents will call me any time an issue comes up. They call at night and on weekends when they need me. I don’t have a problem with that. I very often have to sit with clients if there’s an issue, so I do get very involved in that kind of stuff.

There are also limits that I set. I’ve been doing this a long time and with this many agents, it can get stressful. There are things you put into place to keep yourself sane. I’m a little bit of a crazy workout person. I’m at the gym for an hour and a half every single morning. That’s how I deal with stress. And I do not look at emails after 9:30 at night. If it’s bad news there’s nothing I can do about it and I risk losing a night’s sleep. If it’s good news, it’ll be just as good in the morning.

Agents can spiral out of control when they’re working 90 hours a week, too. They have to manage stress as well. Buying and selling real estate is one of the most stressful things a person can go through and as a result, the agents are usually the ones who people flail out at. These are veteran agents. It’s not like I have a bunch of newer agents on the phone all the time and I’m micromanaging them. Most of them know exactly what they’re doing and don’t really need me. But when they need me, they really need me.

I have a philosophy that the most stressful thing anyone can do –and it’s not just in real estate – is procrastinate. The worst thing you can do is delay responding. Every situation needs to be responded to immediately. That goes for agents and for me. You can’t let stuff fester.

Nemetz’s Five Favorite Books:

1. “The Corrections”
2. “All The King’s Men”
3. “Sacred Hunger”
4. “A Man in Full”
5. “Solomon Gursky Was Here”