by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Three area Top Producers dished on their secrets to success at last month’s St. Augustine Women’s Council of Realtors luncheon at Carrabba’s Italian Grill as the audience soaked up the knowledge.
One thing became apparent as the panel spoke - the three women have different approaches to the real estate business, but what works for one doesn’t always work for the other. One may think marketing is important where another never wears a name tag.
Either way, Judy Hicks of Re/Max Coastal Real Estate, Laraine Teiss of ERA Trend Realty in Gainesville and Diane Craparotta of Re/Max Associates in Deltona gave some interesting insight into what being a Top Producer means.
“I guess what’s gotten me where I am today is working the same every week for 35 years,” said Teiss. “You are bound to get good if you keep practicing.”
Craparotta has been in the real estate business for 22 years and Hicks has been in it for 16 years.
Barbara Jenness of Coastal River Realty was the moderator for the panel.
What sets them apart as a Top Producer?
“For most of us, I think, we would answer that it is the experience,” said Hicks. “We are coming into a time where so many people in the business are relatively new and they don’t know the lessons that they needed to learn to get us through this time. Also, the designations and the amount of time, money and energy that we spend on the designations investing in ourselves.”
But, Teiss feels differently.
“I earned GRI many many years ago,” she said. “I tend to just not do the designations. I’m sorry for those that believe in them so much. I do educate myself and try and regularly do things like that. But, I think we know what the designations are. I don’t know if the public does so I haven’t really pushed myself on that a lot. I just work the people that I have and enjoy that.”
Promotion and marketing was the next topic discussed. When asked what was the most effective tool used in the last year, Craparotta said postcards were her favorite.
“I found it is a great way to keep your name in front of the people,” she said. “I also do calendars, Sudoko cards on a magnet, bookmarks and more. I have a whole drawer full of things. My husband said I spend more on my little gadgets on anything else. It’s a good way to keep your name out in front of the people.”
She said her company does a big promotional party once a year that costs about $30,000 in March. “I try to organize it for the whole company. We invite all the people that worked with us the previous year. It’s a marvelous evening to thank the clients.”
Teiss works as a team with her daughter, who handles all of her marketing and updating of the Web site.
“We get hits on the Web site and we try to follow up on them,” said Teiss. “I’m not a big marketer. Other than day-to-day contact and sending out calendars, that’s it. If we sell a house, we do send out postcards to everyone in the area. I think it’s just the idea that if you love what you do, it shows.”
Hicks’ favorite marketing tool is her newsletter that she sends out every other month to her clients. It has articles and other tidbits of information for her clients and sometimes guest columns.
“I invite someone to write an article in the newsletter if they will pay for the postage,” said Hicks. “I am willing to do anything that is not illegal to sell a house because this is a hard market. We are all going to work a lot harder this year than we did last year for probably less money. The things that I’ve always done that people expect are the newsletters, are the postcards the whole sphere of influence thing and keeping your name out there.”
Hick said she sits down at the beginning of every year and makes out her business plan for the next 12 months of what she is going to do and then has a coach make sure she is accountable throughout the year.
Though times might be tough, don’t cut back on marketing, said Hicks.
She and her husband decided to cut back on some personal luxuries such as going out to dinner so she could still afford to market - that’s how important it is to her.
“This is a business where you have to spend money to make money,” she said. “You cannot go in to talk to someone about selling their house and when they ask you where you are going to advertise, you say, ‘Oh I don’t really advertise. I really don’t need to do that I’m that good.’ We’re not that good.
“Or I’m not that good. I decided to do the postcards more than I did before. It’s $29 for 100 and $41 for stamps. When you list a property, you send a 100 to the neighbors, another 100 when it goes under contract and another 100 when it sells. That’s powerful marketing.
“When I think about what I had to do to cut back, I just don’t eat out as much and I had to go back to my natural hair color and can’t get the whole highlighting thing done anymore,” she said.
Craparotta agrees with Hicks that you have to make those tough decisions, but that it is worth it to keep your name out there.
“I am a big marketer, too,” said Craparotta. “I believe you need to keep your name out there. People have to know how to find you, because they forget. So, you need to keep in contact.
“When we had the hurricanes a few years ago, I sent postcards to all my customers and asked if they needed a handyman or needed some assistance or some information. I had several of them call me to say thank you.
“When the Florida Association of Realtors offers its scholarship program, I sent postcards to my customers saying if you have a high school student this is something they could get a scholarship for. We are not just here to sell real estate. We are here to help people. That’s the primary thing we need to help people.”
All three women said they get most of their business from repeat and referral business.
Hicks said in this market she is spending a lot of her time managing her sellers and making sure their properties are listed at the right price.
“In Jacksonville, we have a 19-month supply of homes,” said Hicks. “And we have 26,000 homes for sale. Obviously there aren’t 26,000 homes for sale in their neighborhood, but overall we are combatting the media everyday.
“Our job is to keep the seller informed, so every two weeks they are going to get a completely new market analysis that shows them what is on the market, what the month of inventory is, where they fit into that, so when I come to them and say it’s time to adjust again they are more open to it.
“I have a list of five things I want to accomplish every single day. Every single day I want to speak to either a buyer or a seller whether it’s about a CMA (comparative market analysis), a price adjustment or just to see how they are. I think it is the hardest part of our job.”