If The Espinal Adler team’s last Zoom meeting was secretly recorded, what juicy info would the video reveal?
Nothing scandalous enough to make this newsletter go viral unfortunately. Nobody found any secret documents, and nobody on the team got caught streaking. It’s easier to stay out of trouble when you stay inside, therefore it’s harder to go viral when you’re in quarantine! (see what we did there?)
I think it’s been 8 weeks or so that we’ve all been holed up inside. Everyone on the team is still doing their part to tamp-down Covid-19. Interacting with other humans definitely breaks the monotony, so we’ve tried to make our meetings something to look forward to. Two weeks ago, we challenged each member of our team to identify a condo unit in a specific part of the city that had the best capitalization rate.
Last week’s meeting wasn’t boring either. A member of our team asked us to share our secret for closing bigger deals — How does an agent go from closing $750,000 deals to closing $5-and $10 Million-dollar deals?
The discussion that followed went in a few different directions, mostly because there’s more than one single secret. Every idea, every endeavor, everything we do to differentiate ourselves – it’s all part of the secret. We tried to cover so much, so the answer we gave may have seemed less than clear in the moment. But with a couple more days to think about the question, it dawned on us that there was a simpler explanation. We realized that our secret sauce was the genuine story we had to tell.
The story conveys that we have a plan. The story illustrates that we’re “buttoned-up.” The story illustrates that we have our shit together! (Can we say that on TV?)
When we meet with our clients for the first time, they want to know who we are and how we plan to get the job done.
We tell them:
- Marie is quantitative and knows all the numbers to back up any projections or assertions that we make.
- Jeff is qualitative – He sees things about a property that other agents and other people don’t — good things and bad.
- We hired a marketing director so we can tailor an individual campaign for all our clients and to help us build a brand that we’re proud of.
- We recognized how pivotal mortgage finance can be in any real estate transaction, so we hired a mortgage finance director to guide our clients and help them obtain the best available mortgage terms.
- We’ve consistently published our newsletter “The Apple Peeled” for more than a decade.
- We’ve partnered with top experts in all aspects of the industry, professionals we’ve grown to trust and rely on to help us and our clients.
- We have five thoughtful and seasoned agents who add to and leverage the power of the team’s capabilities.
That’s our story. We created a small but proud and mighty little infrastructure that allows us to offer services that no other team can.
So, circling back to the question asked by the agent on our team; Why are we given so many opportunities to represent clients buying and selling in the luxury sector?
People want to work with us because of what we’ve created. They can tell how much thought we put into our profession. What we’ve created is our secret sauce.
In other words, “If you build it, they will come.” If they ever make a movie about The Espinal Adler team, I wonder if we could get Kevin Costner to play Jeff?
P.S. If there’s one other secret besides our story, it’s the way we listen to our clients. We gather more information from our clients than most agents do. We’re not trying to invade their personal space; we’re just trying to figure out what makes them happy. The more we know, the better plan we can put in place for meeting all of their objectives.
Conducting Business During Quarantine:
We just had our fourth closing since the quarantine begun. A couple members of the team have also closed deals. Certainly, we’re used to operating at a faster pace than that, but given the circumstances, we consider ourselves fortunate. Buying or selling a home is statistically one of the more stressful things in life. Getting through the process during the Coronavirus is a testament to their fortitude.
During the final step – closing – all parties involved have gone to great lengths to implement the best possible safety measures – most importantly, they’ve limited human interaction. In a few instances, brave title agents have met clients outside their current home, or in a public place like a park. Wearing masks and gloves they sign what they need to sign. Everything else for the closing has been done electronically or by power of attorney.
There are several extra steps required, and the people who help along the way are working in less than optical circumstances. We’re filing all of it under, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” Thank you to the attorneys, paralegals, appraisers, title agents, loan officers, fellow brokers, insurance agents, management companies, and every other professional that is finding a way to help us all conduct business in a very safe way.
