FINDING HOME

BY MELANIE ROBITAILLE, SR. STAFF WRITER & GRAPHIC DESIGNER

If you want to truly appreciate something, the saying goes, try living without it. But could you imagine going without the essence of home for so long that you forgot how it feels, or never having it in the first place to understand its true value?

This was the reality for Associate Broker, Anna Beigelman, who was 12 years old when she immigrated to the U.S. with her mother and grandmother, leaving behind the communist USSR for a better life. “We didn’t know anyone here, didn’t speak English, and had $60 to our name. After four months of waiting in Austria then Italy to be vetted and cleared for legal entry, we began to learn the language and the rules of living here. It was like coming from another planet,” she shared of a time when political tensions were high and of leaving a place where the vast majority of housing was controlled by the state. “Coming from a communist regime into a free enterprise one, and suddenly having many new choices and freedoms without knowing how to handle them responsibly was both exciting and scary. It came with plenty of challenges!”

According to Soviet law at the time, there was a distinction between individually owned and socialist property, of which was further subcategorized into collective or cooperative property and state property. Both these subcategories fell under a similar government system of centralized control. In urban cities the state provided housing for common citizens, but it was low standard, often came with waitlists many years long, and could not be sold for profit or passed down through family.

In the USA, its citizens actually own land, buildings and homes on the land, giving them a feeling of belonging, stability, and pride, as well as legacy for future generations.

Not wanting to squander one second of this freedom beyond the Iron Curtain, Anna was determined to continue bettering her life. By age 37, with her own family, working in corporate America, and now owning two homes, Anna left the business world for a career in straight commission real estate. The fact that she didn’t have one ounce of sales knowledge never mattered because she knew she had something that not many others did, her personal immigrant experience.

“I wanted to be a part of delivering the American Dream of homeownership to others,” she remembered, but lacking that sphere of influence most native-born agents had, she had to find clients among strangers. “I started by placing an ad in Russian language newspapers here, and people started calling me knowing I would understand them, their needs and concerns.”

Anna confesses bilingualism is a goldmine that continues to be an important component of her practice, because according to her it’s much more than just the language itself, saying, “It’s a boundary. People trust me to understand their way of thinking and they know I can read the crowd in front of me easily. We get each other's jokes, references, and quotes from movies and books we know from childhood, so those are great bridges of communication.”

She wasn’t the only one to see this strength either. Only a few months into the business she had several seasoned agents at her first brokerage offering her partnerships and suggesting she would go far because she was willing to do what others weren’t. To Anna, serving this market niche isn’t complicated at all, in fact she believes it adds a level of sophistication and distinction to her business, but she says there are some important points to remember when working with this clientele.

Know the culture of your clients, the architectural styles in their birthplace, their lifestyles, how they view the home as the center of life, and their attitudes on home buying and selling. If an office is able to serve a diverse client base successfully, they will never run out of clients.

Anna found EXIT Realty in the brand’s infancy. The thought had never crossed her mind to make a switch from the brokerage where she started, but she was sold and bought an EXIT franchise in 2006. Even then, her past was still as relevant in helping her see the opportunity

EXIT presented. She built her Merrick Long Island office into a 20-agent operation, quickly grasping the power of EXIT’s Formula of sponsoring. Five years later she sold her franchise to the nearby EXIT Realty Premier brokerage, brought her 20 agents with her, and has enjoyed a return to full-time selling ever since.

In her 18 years with EXIT, Anna has single-handedly sponsored over 60 agents into the brand, and she thanks EXIT’s values, and its proprietary back-office management system as her main reasons why she stays and has had such sponsoring success.

“Our business philosophies match. I have studied other companies' models and some of them say they’re almost like us, but in this example, ‘almost’ doesn't count!” she advised. “I love having MEMO to see how my sponsors are doing, and if I see someone's production dropping, I take the time to find out why and help them.”

She likens the additional sponsoring income she earns, on top of her commissions, to “play money,” enriching her life with travel, entertainment, and investment opportunities both within her business and personal life. It has allowed her to carve out the true life of freedom she always wanted saying, “To me, EXIT is a true example of capitalism, opportunity, and free enterprise without limits. And in my eyes, from the perspective of an immigrant, it was a culmination of everything we dreamed of and more once we started our year long immigration process from the USSR. I’ve benefited greatly from this brand and so have my clients. I want others to experience the freedom and security that the EXIT Formula delivers.”

Anna finds further fulfillment in the conversation and relationship building that naturally comes with sponsoring. Personal attention is a pillar she stands on to differentiate herself in a time where the industry is experiencing increased automation.

I still love some of the old school methods of helping my clients, and I’m happy to deliver five-star service every time, no matter how large or small the transaction. Those agents who are willing to communicate effectively with clients and avoid taking shortcuts with customer service will continue to do very well.

With her innate desire to help people and pay-it-forward, Anna is excited to share her knowledge by hosting speaking engagements, providing training, and offering mentoring to other agents. Already having launched her own YouTube channel, she’s now looking to host seminars and webinars to coach agents in need, as well as the public.

It’s all part of her future plan to continue leaving doors open for those who, just as she did, want nothing more than to find a place to call home.