Matchmaker Coastal Realty is located at 419 N. Third St. in Jacksonville Beach. The company also has an office in St. Augustine.
BROKER/OWNER
Bill Compton.
HISTORY
Though Matchmaker Coastal Realty is relatively new to Jacksonville, the company originated in Gainesville where they have been for 30 years as Matchmaker Realty of Alachua County, Inc. They opened the St. Augustine office of Matchmaker Coastal Realty in July 2005 and the Jacksonville Beach office in December 2005. “We’ve had a presence in St. Augustine for buyers and sellers for several years. We were a member of the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Multiple Listing Service for several years prior to opening an office.”
HOW DID COMPTON COME TO BROKER THE OFFICES?
Rosa Travis opened Matchmaker Realty of Alachua County 30 years ago. She and Compton met when he was teaching at the University of Florida. “Opening an office in St. Augustine was something she wanted to do and something I had been planning to do, so the ideas just came together.” She wanted a bigger presence in coastal area, but didn’t have the time or availability to run all those offices. So, we worked out an agreement, formed a new company and I run these over here.”
IN THE OFFICE
Bill Compton is the broker/owner. Justin Octavi, Toni Ratliff, Scott Souder, Chris Koek, Donna Davis, Pauline Pullen, Brad Rickertsen, Paul Cleary, Erica Fried, Linda J. Tullis and Olga Shapochnik are Realtors. Darlene Frith is a broker associate and Tannie Hughes is the office manager.
WHY DID HE DECIDE TO OPEN HIS OWN COMPANY?
Compton has been active in commercial real estate for 17 years. “I was the CEO of a fairly large company for 17 years and we had a lot of buildings and properties. I knew how the operation worked and had done many closings. It was just something I wanted to do. I also have owned several houses. My mother-in-law had been a broker for many years, so I was around the business all of my adult life. It was kind of an easy transition for me because it wasn’t new to me.”
‘MATCHMAKER?’
“It’s been misinterpreted by some as a dating service, but it is synonymous with matching people with their dream home.”
THE MARKET?
“Depending on who you talk to, it’s difficult to say which day it shifted, but we all know that since the spring we have seen a shift in the market. In St. Augustine, we have seen some pretty significant price droppings and decreases that have been taking place since Easter. Here, I don’t know that it has been quite as dramatic. It’s a different market in St. Augustine than it is here even though there are some similarities.”
HOW DO YOU COMPETE IN THIS MARKET?
Compton said he competes by hiring good people and putting them through his fairly intensive training program. “I take my background as an educator and do actual sales, marketing and advertising training that teaches them how to deal with people, how to deal with customers and how to write contracts. I invest a lot of time and money into our people so we don’t have a revolving door around here. It takes a special type person to sell and be in sales, but you also have to have people who can sustain the drought. Our marketing we do is aggressive. We value the agent’s ability to communicate with the customers and potential customers. This is not a firm where you get a call from an interested buyer and not hear back from the agent for two or three days. And those exist. I had that experience prior to being a Northeast Florida Association of Realtor member on a house I wanted to buy here. I made two or three calls to two different firms and never got a call back.”
WHAT’S GOING ON AT THE BEACHES?
“There is still a lot of activity going on. There are still a lot of price points that in my opinion need to be lowered. I’m sure many companies are experience what we have where you have investors who have certain amount of residuals they want to hit and the market is just not there. It’s hard to convince one of your customers that they need to drop their price $50,000, $60,000 or $75,000.”
IS HE PLANNING TO GROW THE OFFICE?
Yes, Compton said he would like to have 20 agents by the fall.
TRAINING?
He likes to hire people right after they have gone through the real estate class. After they are licensed, he puts them into his intensive training program for two weeks, every six weeks. “It’s a competency based, sales and marketing, how do deal with people, how to sell and how to write contracts course.” As sort of a final exam, Compton has his agents convince him, as a potential customer, that he wants them to list his home. They make him a 15-minute PowerPoint, Publishing and Word Document based market presentation of why they can do a good job and how their marketing is superior. “That’s how they get their grade in the course.”
WHAT TYPE OF QUALITIES DO YOU LOOK FOR IN AGENTS?
“We look for people who can communicate and have good people skills. If you are introverted, rejection depresses you and you don’t feel that you can work seven days a week and be available, then you might not be the best fit for us. We look for people who are energetic and it just happens that most of our agents have had formal education and are college graduates.”
WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT YOUR OFFICE?
“There will never be a time when you call the office that you won’t get a human on the phone. The likelihood is that within reason, seven days a week up until 10 p.m. you will get a person, but after 10 p.m. people usually turn off their phones.”
ENCOURAGE PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT?
Yes, many of his agents are active in Northeast Florida Association of Realtors, the Chamber of Commerce and several women’s groups around town.
TEAM MEETINGS?
They hold team/sales meetings every Tuesday morning. It’s a communication session where they discuss and update each other on all of their listings.
WEBSITE?
www.matchmakercoastalrealty.com
ADVANTAGE OF HAVING A SMALL OFFICE?
“An advantage of coming up on having a pinnacle of 20 agents by the end of the year is that you would be able to have contact with all the agents on a weekly basis.”
- by Michele Newbern Gillis