Christine Williams has been a broker associate and franchise sales director for Exit Realty in Mandarin for a several months. She works out of her home in Ponte Vedra Beach.
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
She lists and sells real estate and sells franchises of Exit Realty. “Currently, we have one office in Jacksonville and one in St. Augustine. We’ve been in Florida for eight years and have 171 franchises in Florida. We want to bring more offices into North Florida.”
BEFORE THERE?
She had a brief stint as a loan officer. Williams has been a licensed Realtor since 1996, practicing mostly in Tallahassee. She relocated to Ponte Vedra Beach last October.
COLLEGE?
Williams earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After college she worked full-time within her field for five years before she got burned out because she wasn’t making any money.
WHAT MADE HER GO INTO REAL ESTATE?
“I’ve always been fascinated with houses and I wondered what it was all about. I got into property management which is an arm of real estate. I did on-site sales and got a little bit of experience and was encouraged to get my real estate license.”
HOW DOES YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IN PSYCHOLOGY HELP YOU NOW?
“I work with all types of personalities and backgrounds. I’m very liberal and open about different types of people and you have to be.” She said some people have very specific ideas based on their religion or cultural background about where the house is supposed to be placed and the position of the address. “So you have to be very cognizant of all this and recognize this as part of the selling process.”
AREA SHE COVERS?
St. Augustine and Jacksonville. Her corporate office is in West Palm Beach.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE MARKET?
“The people that have been in the market for many years realize that this is a normalizing of the market. Seven percent, eight percent rates are normal. The last few years there have been people jumping in and seeing it as a get-rich-quick scheme. They were order-takers. So, some of those folks have not learned the true selling techniques. I see this as a weeding out period of those that don’t belong in the industry. The National Association of Realtors, which has about 1.25 million members at this point, predicts that by 2007 the membership will drop to about 800,000.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT REAL ESTATE?
“The complete freedom, the ability to have a different day every day and the opportunities are limitless. Your business is what you make it. You can work 24 hours a day or four hours a day. It is what you make it.”
BEST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED FROM A CO-WORKER?
Williams said to do a business plan every year to prepare for the year ahead. “I do one every October to look back and see if I made the progress I thought I did, where my marketing dollars went and where my prospects came from so I know where to spend the money for the next year. I set my goals of how much money I want to make. It’s about a 12-page document.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER AGENTS?
“Get as much ongoing training as possible because the laws change every day. There are so many opportunities to learn and so many new classes and designations. Some people get their license and get into a rut and say ‘I’ve got my license and this is what I do every day’. There is new stuff happening every day, so even people who have been in it for many years need to continue to get educated. I absorb the classes and any information I get all the time.”
PET PEEVES?
“People who make appointments and don’t show up.”
LESSONS LEARNED?
“That people will always surprise you no matter how much you think you know about them.”
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS?
She is on the board of directors of the Northeast Florida Builder’s Association’s Sales and Marketing Council and she is a member of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors.
-by Michele Newbern Gillis