Broker Spotlight: Terri Munselle, The Agency Palm Desert

Are you receiving Inman’s Broker Edge? Make sure you’re subscribed here.

Broker Spotlight: Terri Munselle

Name: Terri Munselle

Title: Broker associate, managing director of The Agency Palm Desert

Experience: 25+ years

Location: Greater Palm Springs, California

Brokerage: The Agency Palm Desert

Rankings: 

• RealTrends + Tom Ferry America’s Best Real Estate Professionals list (2021)
• Palm Springs Life Top Realtor / Small Team since this distinction began in 2019

Agents: 14

Transaction sides: 900-plus (individual)

Sales volume: $600 million-plus (individual)

What’s your top tip for freshly licensed brokers?

Analyze your agents’ business and quickly determine how you or your company can be of benefit to most of the agents. Do they need help with marketing, pitches, team building or writing contracts? Pick your top few and focus on bringing value quickly to them.

What are 5 things you’d like readers to know about you and your brokerage?

1. The Agency in Palm Desert serves the Greater Palm Springs area. Some agents specialize in Palm Springs proper, some specialize in country club living, others in luxury living across the desert.
2. Our Desert area doubles in population every November. Our snowbirds return like clockwork after spending their summers in their away homes, in cooler climes. Then, come November, the parties start, the golf courses reopen with fresh fairways, and people are so happy to return to their friends. In late April and May, they head out again to their primary homes.
3. During the summers, we still sell homes. Our agents call clients when any home becomes available, and the buyers hop on a plane to get here fast. Summer is a perfect time to buy as one can have the home furnished and refreshed in time for the November season.
4. The Agency is so focused on its agent’s needs. We have the most productive agents in the business because the agents have access to a creative team and platform that makes their marketing a step above all others, with less effort.
5. I’ve worked for other large brokerages, but this is the top. The Agency has quality, not quantity, in mind when bringing in new agents or teams. I also love the access to the best PR and legal team in the industry. It’s truly agent-centric.

How did you get your start in real estate?

I have a background in Los Angeles department store buying — furniture and area rugs — then was a buyer and marketing director in a mega home furnishings retailer. I loved it, and all the world travels to source it all, back before you had to take off your shoes to travel.

It was 25 years ago that my husband and I turned our country club home into a permanent home and we went into real estate. I was in my 40s. This is very common in our area. I meet Realtors who come from every walk of life. They all find their crowd or sphere of influence in the Desert and decide to make this their permanent home, as I did.

What do you wish more people knew about working in real estate?

Having a retail background, I approached real estate as a seven-day-a-week job. The hardest part was getting training. I finally chose to pay for great coaching which for 15 years made me accountable every day to myself and my clients.

What makes a good leader?

A good leader in real estate leads by example. I was lucky to have an early broker train me how to write a contract first … then how to have a good mental mindset. He had sold real estate and understood all the issues that arose over the years from a salesperson’s point of view.

A good leader looks at problems from 30,000 feet but can bring the solution down to earth for the team to act quickly and easily.

Know someone who should be featured in an upcoming Broker Spotlight? Nominations, please, to brokeredge@inman.com.

Email Christy Murdock