Exploring Motivational Factors Among High Performing Real Estate Brokers: The Swedish Case

Figures & data

Table 1. Theories, papers, and examples of interview questions.

Concepts	Papers	Example of interview questions
Service relationships or encounters?	Gutek et al. (1999)	Do you say a customer, or my customer, when referring to your customers? What kind of relationship do you prefer to have with your customer?
Motivation	Deci and Ryan (2000)	What motivates you as a broker? How important is gaining trust for you? Do you think that there is a special type of broker who succeeds financially?
Commitment	Rosenbaum (2009)	Are customer relationships important to you and, if so, why? How do you view customer relations? Is it common that customers become your friends?
Relatedness	Weinstein and De Haan (2014)	How do you feel about engaging on a personal level with your customers? Is it common that customers want to hang out with you in private?

Source. The authors’ own work.

Table 2. Methods used for increasing trustworthiness.

Traditional criteria	Trustworthiness criteria	Methods for meeting trustworthiness criteria
Internal validity	Credibility	Extended engagement in the field. Peer debriefing. Member checks.
External validity	Transferability	Detailed description order
		Concepts and categories in grounded theory
		Structures and processes related to processes revealed
Reliability	Dependability	Purposive and theoretical sampling
		Informants confidentially protected
		Inquiry audit of data collection, management, and analysis process
Objectivity	Confirmability	Explicit separation of first- and second-order findings
		Meticulous data management and recording
		Clear notes on theoretical and methodological decisions
		Accurate records of contacts and interviews

Sources. Based on Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Shah and Corley (2006).

Table 3. Sample data, and sales numbers in year 2018.

Participant	Year as a broker	Gender	Age	Total commission, US dollars	Number of objects sold	Total commission Place 1–27
1	28	Female	55	483,275	99	2
2	2	Female	40	396,987	74	9
3	8.5	Female	32	441,630	62	6
4	5	Female	45	315,124	49	26
5	4	Female	29	416,246	76	7
6	6	Female	31	1,036,885	197	1
7	3.5	Female	28	339,894	63	16
8	7	Female	29	327,024	76	23
9	2	Male	24	397,012	86	8

Source. The authors’ own work.

Notes. Notable is that only brokers who had been working for at least two years were selected as participants. Sales numbers derived from new production housing were excluded in this table. Notable is also that commissions presented in Table 3 are not the same as earning/salary. In Sweden, a broker’s salary is usually 23%–30% of the total commission. Swedish national statistics 2018: 7,193 licensed brokers, 54% (3,884) of all Swedish brokers are men and 46% (3,309) are women, 46% (3,308) earn between US$35,000 and US$59,000 per year and 4% (287) earn more than US$118,000 per year (Maklarsamfundet, 2020a). US national statistics NAR/Realtor 2018: 1,4000,000 members, 36% (504,000) of all realtors are men and 64% (896,000) are women, the median income for realtors is US$41,800, realtors with more than 16 years of experience have a medina gross income of US$71,000 (NAR, 2020).

Table 4. “What motivates you as a broker?”.

Motivational factor	Frequency
To develop oneself as a broker	5
To compete against oneself and/or others	5
To work with customers, i.e., social engagement	4
To have a commission-based salary	4
To make money	3
The joy of it, i.e., overall well-being derived out of the work	3
To work in sales	2
For kicks, i.e., expressed in hedonic well-being terms	1
Feeling needed and good at my work	1
To make others happy	1
Total	29

Source. The author’s own work.

Note. Data were generated by transcribing in-person interviews via Zoom in 2018 with nine high-performing real estate brokers from a large Swedish firm. Nine interviews were conducted. Interviews were focused on customer relationships.

Table 5. Motivational factors for high-performing real estate brokers.

Motivational factors	Frequency	SDT: Competence, relatedness and autonomy	Frequency
Personal development	5	Competence	Competence	11
Compete	5	Competence	Relatedness	5
Work with customers	4	Relatedness	Autonomy/Competence	4
Commission- based salary	4	Autonomy/Competence	Extrinsic Motivation	3
Make money	3	Extrinsic motivation	Intrinsic Motivation	6
Joy of it	3	Intrinsic motivation	Total	29
Work in sales	2	Intrinsic motivation
Kicks	1	Intrinsic motivation
Needed and good at my work	1	Competence
Make others happy	1	Relatedness
Total	29

Source. The author’s own work.

Note. Data were generated by transcribing in-person interviews via Zoom in 2018 with nine high-performing real estate brokers from a large Swedish firm. Nine interviews were conducted. Interviews were focused on customer relationships..

Figure 1. Motivation to interact with customers seen through the basic needs of competence and relatedness.

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