The office is located at 10201 Centurion Parkway in Southside. Mary Van Blarcom, who has been in real estate for over 20 years and has managed both an ERA and a Re/Max, is the owner/broker. She opened the company in 1998.
AREA THEY COVER?
“We are everywhere. One of the reasons we are located centrally off of I-95 and J. Turner Butler Boulevard is so that people can get here in about 15 minutes. I have people all over town from Ponte Vedra to the Trout River. What’s important is that they know the area they are selling in.”
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
“I look at my job primarily as being the resource for every Realtor in the company. My responsibility is to stay very informed, not only to guide the other people but, I wouldn’t know where I am going if it don’t. I am a support system, coach, mom, counselor, cheerleader or whatever they need. I also manage all of the administrative parts of the company.”
TRAINING?
She does offer training to agents as well as training on military relocation for agents who would like to focus on that.
WHAT TYPE OF AGENTS DO YOU WANT?
“If I meet someone who understands that this is a business and you have to run it like a business. You have to get up early and work 40-60 hours a week … period. If you don’t get that, then I don’t want to talk to you. A lot of people unfortunately don’t understand that you have to be pro-active to do well in real estate. The public doesn’t like the bait and switch off of advertisements. They want someone who has testimonials, someone who can talk to them intelligently about the different areas and someone who they can feel confident in as far as trusting them.”
MEETINGS?
No, they do not hold regular sales meetings. “If I have eight people making $100 an hour and I tie them up from 9 a.m. – noon once a week, we’ve lost $2,400. They can certainly spend that time in other ways. If I need to get out information, we have mass e-mail.”
WHO’S IN THE OFFICE?
Agents are Delana Harbison, Linda Halter, Brian George, Chris Halter, Fran Calgiano, Lori Berry, Nina Halter. Aleta Bass and Linda Brodski are office assistants and the office manager is Brian Ham.
GROWING THE OFFICE?
Van Blarcom does plan on adding agents. “We have several people in the works right now. We probably would be OK having 20-30 agents because then we are into some pretty heavy duty production and I would probably open a branch office in Ponte Vedra or somewhere else.”
WHAT DOES OFFICE SPECIALIZE IN?
“We are a full service, licensed real estate brokerage offering a variety of home buying, home selling and relocation services for military,
corporate and retiring transferees.”
TAKING A LOOK INSIDE
“One of the primary things is that I take an agent, look at who they are, what they bring to the business, where they want to go and what they enjoy doing. You don’t have to do everything there is to do in real estate. There are some people hate to go talk to a seller about listing a house, so why force that on them? They will find that eventually their customers will come back to them and they learn to be great listers. We take who you are and tailor that into your individual business plan.”
WHAT MAKES
OFFICE UNIQUE?
All agents work out of their home. The office space is shared with other companies, sharing a receptionist, conference rooms and copiers. “One of the ways we are more efficient is that I don’t have to make a commitment for 10 offices. If people do not want the office, then no one has to pay for it. We can use the variety of services on an hourly basis or we can lease them per year or month, whatever meets our needs. It enables us not to have to charge the public for things we don’t use.”
WEBSITE
www.resource-homes.com or www.militaryreferrals.com, which is a national directory of military relocation specialists.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF NETWORKING?
“We do so many things still in real estate that are not particularly productive, that are primarily social with this concept of ‘networking’. The best networking you can do with another agent is to have a sale with them, both do your jobs properly and work together like good kids. I’ve been in situations where I’ve tried to get a contract presented, but the agent was on caravan and just didn’t have time to present a contract, or someone was out at a meeting or at an educational session. In real estate we don’t always seem to be able to focus on what our job really is and how to be very productive.”
FRANCHISE?
Van Blarcom said she is on schedule to start selling franchises of The Real Estate Resource nationwide in 2005. “Part of what we are working out is how to establish this kind of set-up and how to find the right locations with the right personnel and keep your initial costs down.
— Michelle Newbern Gillis