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Broker Spotlight: Karen Hanson
Name: Karen Hanson
Title: License partner, Engel & Völkers By the Sea
Experience: I have been licensed since 1997, became a Realtor in 2002 and a broker in 2009.
Location: Beverly Farms, Gloucester and Newburyport, Massachusetts (Boston’s North Shore)
Brokerage full name: Engel & Völkers By the Sea
Team size: 25
Transaction sides: 114
Sales volume: $95,000,000
Awards: Northshore Realtors 2023 Realtor of the Year, 2019 Engel & Völkers Passion Award
How did you choose your brokerage (current)?
I chose Engel & Völkers because of their belief in three core values: competence, passion and exclusivity. Those tenets have always been both the foundation and the guiding lights for my own team, and it was a natural choice to partner with a company that spoke that same language.
I expected the license partners of E&V to be thought leaders in their markets, but I never could have predicted how important and inspiring these folks would become to me and my business.
What do you wish more people knew about working in real estate?
How many proficiencies are required to do it well and what a profound privilege it is to be an adviser to our clients at a very important time in their lives. The past couple of years have emphasized the importance of real estate professionals with the ability to create options for both buyer and seller clients that allow them to make the moves they need to.
Making a difference for another person is a beautiful thing, and I believe our clients need us to be at the very top of our game, more than ever.
And that our business has absolutely nothing to do with the business they see on television.
What’s your top tip for freshly licensed brokers?
Go to the shop five full days a week. Spend those hours learning, listening and creating a niche for yourself where you become an expert. The more you focus, the faster the work will come.
If your marketing message is so open-ended in its effort to capture business at any price point and all surrounding towns, it gets lost in the sea of other agents trying to do the same. Becoming an expert on the needs and concerns of a more specific group — a certain neighborhood, downsizers, waterfront homes — makes you very easy to find and credible to do business with.
The added bonus is that you will build your business faster and with clients who sought you out for your niche. Be brave enough to be very specific.
What makes a good leader?
A good leader should support, inspire and elevate their agents in the present, while relentlessly pursuing what will be relevant and distinguishing for their brokerage in the future. The leaders I admire in any business have great passion for their work, a joy for life, are incredibly curious, and love creating solutions.
What’s one thing you wish every agent knew?
Although there are unlimited marketing opportunities and options for paid leads to grow your business, the most valuable lead generator is your phone and a genuine desire to solve your clients’ problems.
Also, any successful business represents a significant investment in time and resources. Real estate is no different.
Know someone who should be featured in an upcoming Broker Spotlight? Nominations, please, to brokeredge@inman.com.
