The office is located at 8777 San Jose Boulevard upstairs in the Crabtree & Fallar Law office building.
WHEN DID THE OFFICE OPEN?
June 2002.
WHO IS THE BROKER?
Carla Carter.
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
She runs the company, trains the new agents and lists and sells real estate.
HOW DID YOU CHOSE THE NAME OF THE COMPANY?
“I have two children whose name begins with C, and I didn’t want to be Carla Carter Realty Group, so I came up with CCarter Realty Group. My logo has two cc’s on it and to me it means Christ Centered. I wanted to do something a little bit different.”
WHY OPEN OWN OFFICE?
“I wanted to be challenged. I need to be challenged and have peaks and valleys. I’ve always seen myself as an entrepreneur since I was a child. I wanted to take a leap of faith and do my own thing.”
WHO IS IN THE OFFICE?
Carter is the broker and Claude Harold, Earitha Saintil, Serena Pool and Sherry Barbour are the agents.
WHAT MAKES YOUR
OFFICE DIFFERENT?
“I think what sets us apart and what I am hearing when I go on listing appointments is that even though there are about 3,000 real estate agents in Jacksonville, the quality of service they are getting and giving isn’t great. Our whole goal is to educate and empower consumers to make sound real estate decisions. We do that with the literature that we give and we are not afraid to share that with our clients. We know that if they are able to make an informed decision and they feel comfortable with the service that we are providing, they appreciate that and send us referrals. We may not be able to capture all of the market, but we are going to try to. We want to treat them with great service and have them refer people to us.”
WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR COMPANY?
“Affordable housing is very important to us because I see that in Jacksonville that homes are appreciating and we still have the working class that desires to have home ownership and for whatever reason there is still a gap.”
OFFICE?
Carter started her office in her home and it grew to the point she needed to get an office for her growing number of agents. She saw Scott Fallar of Crabtree & Fallar last year at a meeting and he mentioned he had space in his building, so she moved her company there. “It was a blessing.”
HOW BIG DOES SHE WANT
TO GET?
“We are ahead of schedule for our business plan.” She said 10 agents would be ideal.
HOW DOES THE
OFFICE WORK?
The office is a place where the agents can come in use the computer, make phone calls and meet clients, but their primary place to work is out of their homes. “We want people to have a virtual office and have something at home to work on.”
OTHER OFFICES
They are in the process of opening a satellite office on the Northside in the Hope Plaza.
HOW DOES EVERYONE
GET ALONG?
“Great. Everyone brings something to the team. It is such a blessing. Everyone is so eager to contribute and they feel they have taken ownership in CCarter Realty Group. It really has a team and family feel. Everyone is willing to help others out and that makes me feel good.”
TRAINING?
Carter is making herself available to train the new agents and they have a training session once a week on Monday evenings. “We have a field manual that I use and we do a lot of role playing. I went to the NAR conference and I got a lot of information there. Also, I am using a lot of past experience and the training I have received.”
WHERE ARE THEY SELLING?
She said they sell wherever their customers want to be including Orange Park, North Jacksonville, Mandarin and Southside.
HOW ARE YOU
GETTING AGENTS?
Most of her agents have come from referrals from past customers. “Right now, we are just trying to let everyone know we are here so when we call to make appointments, they will know who we are. We are just trying to get exposure.”
WEB SITE
www.ccarterrealty.com.
— by Michele Newbern Gillis