Interview with Hodinela Qose, a successful businesswoman in the real estate industry in Albania.
She shares her experience of starting in the real estate business and the challenges she faced.
In the interview, she discusses how the acceptance of the industry by society was difficult at first, but with hard work and discipline, it became possible. She also talks about her personal challenges and the difficulties she faces as a businesswoman. She talks about how she overcame by focusing on her ideas with determination.
Anyone who sees Hodinela for the first time would assume that she looks like a television star.
To those who know her, they testify to much more than that.
With years of experience engaged in the field of real estate today, she is a woman who has self-confidence above everything. Hodinela has her feet on the ground, finding Global Woman as the story of a woman who can change her mindset. And above all, Hodinela can change the society she lives in.
In this intriguing interview, she reveals the rise of a business, which in its genesis is also the rise of her personality, as one of the most prominent personalities in this Albania.
Hodinela, how Did You Get in the Real Estate Business?
It is one of the first challenges that I undertook in my career’s beginnings.
Being a real estate agent was one of my first jobs after finishing high school during the summer holidays, where I wanted to start a job, independently from family where I would have my time and financial freedom. That’s how I started my first job—I signed my first contract without notifying my family, as it was clear that they would be against it. There was no reason I should start a job so early as far as they were concerned.
It corresponds to the period in 2006/07; a time where I can say that real estate was not known at all, and the acceptance of this industry by people in society had been exceedingly difficult. The implementation of the idea of educating society to understand the function of real estate was a difficult mission albeit possible with a lot of will and discipline.
Personally, I call it the time of pencil and paper because that’s how properties were taken at that time. I was in the middle of a situation where even I didn’t know the concept and function of this industry very well.
I entered to challenge myself towards something unknown but very curious.
The next challenge was to work with a basic salary and earn the rest as a merit of achievement, i.e. with % on commission, a term unknown in our country in those years. Let’s go to challenge No. 2: To work without knowing how much I could achieve, to get the most out of this work.
I managed to achieve very satisfactory numbers for that time, and this is what increased my desire, increased my ambition to work even harder in this industry.
How Difficult Has Your Journey as a Businesswoman Been?
Difficult is every new journey that every person takes as an initiative. I have faced many challenges that I had not thought of as part of my journey.
Until now, my biggest difficulties have been that I was working on my ideas without giving the right focus and without setting priorities and time limits. Until recent moments, I have experienced many doubts, even about my own faith. So, I could not free myself to recognize my potential.
The fear of falling, of failure, has always been a very present cause and effect of a great desire to always be perfect in everything I do without leaving myself free to explore increasing difficulty. Why not fail perhaps. These were fears which were mostly the cause and effect of external influences. But what I know for sure is that, consciously or unconsciously, I always had deep inside me the desire to see myself positioned on a pedestal.
But how should I do this, learning to love myself more and knowing myself?
Surprisingly, many people are born and die never knowing themselves. Surprisingly, I learned to tell myself what a lady I am, how good and strong I am.
These are repetitive words. Words that are often said, and clichés, but very few of us manage to implement them and put them into practice ourselves.
In short, we create our difficulties. Personally, I strongly believe in an expression that says where our focus goes, our energy flows.
Who Is Your Strongest Point, in Relation to Yourself and How Triumphant Do You Feel Today?
Knowing how to persist in the face of every challenge that comes our way, not stopping, means showing up, looking your best, and giving your best.
My self-confidence today is something I no longer need to work on, I have triumphed in the biggest challenge and that is one with myself.
I feel triumphant enough to tell myself well done for not giving up, and that many challenges and new doors await me. Full of confidence, I am increasingly realizing who I am every single day.
How Is the Real Estate Business in Albania Today?
I think that fortunately it has received exceptionally large development and expansion. It is going through the process of recognition as an industry already approved in the state.
It is being recognised today as a state job position.
Its development as a teaching subject in universities is hard to ignore.
We are reaching a stage of recognition in every sphere because it is becoming a necessity for high—net-worth individuals to get involved, at least to a minor extent. I call it a people’s industry because we are in constant contact with people.
This is true here more than in any other industry because we influence the most powerful and richest people today.
This alone means that real estate becomes what they work for and invest in for the duration of their lives.
What Have You, Hodinela, Tried to Improve in This Market?
What I focus on and try to improve in is giving my best. This is most true in building relationships that put people first. As I mentioned above, this is because the Real Estate industry affects people today more than ever before.
I try to work a lot on specialized consulting based on market research studies.
In principle, we try to be Real Estate Consultants but also comprehensively provide knowledge on the legal and financial side to our clients. We also provide the urban design of the areas.
At every stage we are there to improve and speed up the process for customers, today.
What Is Your Business Philosophy?
“Humanity invested in humanity is the best investment there is. We invest in people, for people.”
Hodinela Qose
How Important Are Human Relationships to You?
We find that people surround every moment of life.
Whether we like it or not we have constant relationships. It is a permanent interaction.
Personally, a golden piece of advice says to know how to create and maintain relationships with people is an art. I say art because none of us are the same, we all differ.
I think we should learn to love more unconditionally without asking for anything in return. It is important to let the people surrounding us take part in our successes while applauding for that success.
What is the Profession Like from the Inside: How Much of it is Art; How Much is Marketing?
For those who know it, it is more than a profession. In the world of real estate, we are not just agents.
We are jurisprudents, lawyers, notaries, engineers, bank employees, architects, and all these in tandem.
That means being a real estate agent.
To be a real estate consultant you must first love relationships with people.
Secondly know how to listen and adapt.
Third, Marketing comes as a necessity.
In modern times, people have the luxury of touching each idea closely, but they have the facility of analyzing points first from marketing and then the second phase takes place face to face meeting in the office.
Do You Think the Profession is Underrated?
For many people in the profession, we are not yet accurately estimated. This is because, as I described above, we are involved in many areas and in many processes up to relational and transactional finalisation. We must make the process as comfortable and safe as possible for clients.
It seems an effortless process; however, look within the role and you’ll find a lot of value.
How Does Your Profession Extend Beyond Working Hours?
Since it is a comprehensive industry, I would say there is a remarkably high intensity involved for all in the profession. The variety has no limits: things differ continually. This industry in some form turns into a lifestyle now that you are in constant contact with people’s demands.
People are different, so their demands differ. We face a multitude of services to cover. I think that if a real estate consultant stops participating in this lifestyle, then it means they no longer have professional claim to Real Estate Consultancy.
