In the 1999 Best Picture winner American Beauty, Annette Benning plays a high-strung suburban real estate agent struggling to make a sale and work her way into the higher echelons of the industry, always threatened by Buddy King (Peter Gallagher) – the king of the game in the local area. It’s safe to say the film hasn’t aged well, both due to star Kevin Spacey’s off-set transgressions and the broad satire, but Benning is excellent. She’s funny, always on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and despite being a nearly cartoonish portrayal of a real estate agent, her concerns and worries about self-confidence and her abilities still ring true.
The real estate industry is fraught with challenges, and they’ve been well-documented in dramatic films, from Jack Lemmon’s desperate salesman in Glengarry Glen Ross to the crooked dealer in Poltergeist. It’s a high-stress job. All the benefits such as setting your own schedule, working to help families find their dream home and the unlimited potential to earn money come with caveats. But with great risk can come great reward.
Here are some of the biggest challenges in real estate industry:
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