KEY POINTS:
Wanted: women to attend a women-only career night on selling real estate.
Must have own car and cellphone, money to pay for petrol, real estate salesperson's certificate, be willing to work 50 to 60 hours a week and have $2000-$5000 cash to get started.
Prospects: earning $100,000 to
$200,000 pre-tax annually, flexible hours, business cards provided but you must pay half of all commission to the agency.
An upmarket branch office of a national real estate agency wants to recruit more salespeople and women are its preferred gender.
Females are the future of real estate success, the office says, so it is recruiting accordingly.
LJ Hooker Ponsonby is holding a careers evening at 6pm on October 16 and Ian Jowsey, sales manager, said no one should rule out a career in real estate even though turnover had halved lately.
He is not banning men but says women have what it really takes to make a good agent.
"Women are hard-working, they empathise with people and multitask," he said, although he is careful to avoid any mention of breaking the law on gender discrimination.
"We're not turning men away. But it's often the women in a relationship who make the initial decisions about where they will live. They are generally more conscious of schools and community networks," he said.
People should not approach the position thinking they are going for a job, Mr Jowsey said. The career night is aiming to show women how they are actually starting their own business within the agency.
"We're offering a damn good income and we're taking risks, paying the phone bill, for the office and advertising. You'll know in the first three months if it's right for you," he said.
Unitec and the Open Polytechnic offer qualification for a salesperson certificate, he said, and these were needed before anyone could start selling real estate.
The Human Rights Commission's A-Z guide for employers and employees warns against gender discrimination, saying this is an offence under the Human Rights Act.
"Can an employer advertise for a girl Friday, a barmaid, a barman, a waiter, waitress? The act prohibits the use of words which have a gender connotation in [a] job," the guide says.
Advertisements calling for a barman are illegal unless the advertisement contains an indication that it is open to both sexes to apply.
Realestate.co.nz chief executive Alistair Helm of Auckland said last month that more than 100 real estate offices around the country have closed in the past year, leading to an exodus of people from the sector. About 18,000 people were selling real estate during the height of the boom this decade.