The verdict is in — the old way of doing business is over. Join us at Inman Connect New York Jan. 23-25, when together we’ll conquer today’s market challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s opportunities. Defy the market and bet big on your future.
Like other agents across the country, Michael Valencia found himself challenged to find homes for his clients to purchase in South Florida.
To make up for the extreme lack of inventory, Valencia, an agent with Lamacchia Realty and an active military member who works with an active military client base, found himself looking to other housing types, such as newly built houses and multi-family properties, which allowed his clients to collect rent to contribute towards their mortgage payments.
“Right now is the time to negotiate with builders because they are giving crazy amounts of incentives,” Valencia said during a recent Inman Connect session.
Valencia spoke alongside South Florida Douglas Elliman team leader Megan Romine and moderator Dana Cadena about different techniques they’ve pursued for growing and scaling their businesses in recent months.
As a team leader, Romine said she has found recent success not only in playing to her own strengths but to her team members’ strengths as well.
“You have to figure out what your superpower as an agent is, and you want to double down on your strengths,” Romine said.
For example, with her agents who excel at networking, Romine makes sure to get them in the right rooms. With her agents who are gifted at creating social media content, Romine has them zero in on content creation.
“We plug and play within the team to find everyone’s strengths, and it really helps everyone not only shine but truly enjoy what they do even more,” Romine said.
Most importantly, as the market has slowed, Romine has noticed agents who keep a consistent presence in their market instead of pulling out doing more business than those who have reduced their marketing efforts as activity has slowed.
“This is a great time for agents to really stick out within their market,” Romine said.
Romine shared an example of someone in her farming area calling her office a few weeks ago and saying they were impressed to still be receiving their mailers after most other agents stopped sending them. Her office is now in conversation to potentially list that waterfront property.
“Mindset is so important,” she said. “Instead of having the mindset ‘Oh, the market might not be doing so great, maybe it’s slowing down’ — ‘Wow, this is really an opportunity for me to double down and shine and show my clients that I’m here for the long haul.'”
