SOUTHERN FLORIDA EDITION
6 Ways to
GET YOUR CLIENT TO TRUST YOU
6 THINGS ALL SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATORS DO
24-HOUR TOUCH-UPS
HOW TO BUILD A TEAM
to Maximize Your Price List
THAT WILL WIN BIG NO MATTER ITS SIZE
FEATURED AGENT
AUSTIN KIMBLER
COVER STORY
TRACY GREENE
SOUTHERN FLORIDA EDITION
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TRACY GREENE
AUSTIN KIMBLER AUSTIN KIMBLER
CONTENTS 4) 6 WAYS TO GET YOUR CLIENT TO TRUST YOU
15) 24-HOUR TOUCH-UPS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR PRICE LIST
6) HOW TO BUILD A TEAM THAT WILL WIN BIG NO MATTER ITS SIZE
22) 6 THINGS ALL SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATORS DO
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6 Ways to Get Your Client to Trust You The word “REALTOR®” can leave a sour taste in some people’s mouths. Many of today’s home buyers and sellers grew up during the 2009 recession. They are wary of anything 4
or anyone who comes off as too salesy, and they want to work with individuals who they can trust. But how do you prove to someone you’ve likely never met that you can be trusted?
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Put Testimonials or Case Studies on Your Website
When something goes wrong, own up to your mistakes. Don’t hide bad news from your clients. Be upfront and responsive.
Testimonials and case studies are social proof that you have both the experience and the skills to do the job your clients are hiring you for. People often leave testimonials when they are either incredibly disappointed or extremely happy with the service they were provided, so they’re a good indication to prospective clients of the treatment they’ll receive. Case studies, which you can post on your blog or website, have much of the same effect, but even more than testimonials, case studies demonstrate your real estate and finance expertise because they explain how you achieved a specific set of results.
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Be Responsive and Accessible
Can your clients reach you easily? That doesn’t mean you need to be available 24/7, but you should respond to your clients within a few hours of receiving their message. When agents don’t respond to their clients’ calls or emails for days on end or fail to provide them with a direct line of contact, their clients’ experience can quickly become frustrating. Agents are busy but so are their clients. If you constantly show up late to or reschedule meetings, your clients won’t feel like their time is respected or their business is valued. Make sure you set a realistic schedule for yourself rather than spreading yourself too thin.
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Be Honest and Transparent
Sometimes you don’t have the answer to a client’s question. Be honest about your strengths, weaknesses, and the limits of your knowledge. A good response might be, “I don’t know, but I can find out.” Be transparent with your clients, and they’ll respect you for it. You should always act in their best interest. Top Agent Magazine
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Go the Extra Mile
If you do the bare minimum, that’s what your clients will remember. Their experience won’t be memorable, and they won’t gush about you in online testimonials or in real life to people they know who could use your services. It’s that simple.
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Put Yourself in Your Client’s Shoes
Clients understand that you need to earn money, but that doesn’t mean they want to feel like they’re just a dollar sign to you. Be empathetic to your client’s concerns, even if you’ve heard it all before. Your clients should know that you are there for them.
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Be Consistent
Being responsive, friendly, and knowledgeable shouldn’t be an act. If you “turn on” your personality for clients and then suddenly become a different person when they leave the room, it’s likely that the cracks in your mask will eventually become apparent. But “faking it till you make it” is so common it’s become a cliché. When we are starting out, we don’t always have the systems or resources in place to create a smooth client journey, from onboarding to closing, so instead we constantly try to reinvent the wheel. Give yourself time to pause, slow down, and reevaluate your workflow. Creating systems creates
consistency, and those systems can and should be constantly updated.
Developing trust between you and your clients will take time, but doing these things can give you a running start.
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How to Build a Team That Will Win Big No Matter its Size In the real estate world building a team is a goal almost every agent strives towards achieving. Doing business with a team as opposed to solo has numerous advantages. With more agents handling clients as well as other employees specialized in areas such as marketing and administrative support there to assist you; you can greatly increase your business and sales. 6
So, when creating a team, logic would tell us that the bigger it is, the better, right? Wrong. When it comes to real estate teams, size doesn’t matter so much as the players you bring onto that team to work with you. A team doesn’t have to be big to win big, and here are the secrets to building a team that wins big no matter its size.
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Hire the Right Team Members
Put Your Team Members in the Right Positions to Win
You’ve probably heard the saying, “you’re only as strong as you’re weakest link.” That idea holds true for any kind of team, including those in real estate. If you have weak members on your team, then it’s not possible to have a strong team. Drawing strong team members to your business is essential.
Finding strong team members is just one part of the equation. As the leader of your team, you now have to assess each member’s strengths and weaknesses and position them appropriately. You want the best player for each role playing that part and catering to their strengths. Choose your team member’s roles wisely, and place each individual in the position where their strengths can shine and they can best contribute to a win for the entire team. Every role is important to the team working smoothly and winning as a whole, so it is important to place each team member in the role most suited to his or her skills.
To better understand what kind of person would make a strong addition to your team, you need to ask yourself what skills and characteristics you want your team members to possess. The strongest members are often ones that share their leader’s values. When you share values with your teammates, you are all running along the same course towards the same goal as one. Your definition of a victory in this case is also your teammates’ definition of it. This helps strengthen even the smallest of numbers because you are all working together toward a common goal. Another characteristic too look out for in potential team members is a positive attitude. You can teach someone the skills needed in real estate, but you can’t teach someone how to have a positive attitude. Positive members tend to achieve more due to their optimistic nature, but more importantly, they spread that positive attitude to the rest of the team, which improves every members’ performance. Top Agent Magazine
Communicating Your Vision to Your Team
Your team members are the key ingredients to ultimate victory, but what recipe do you follow now to lead them to victory? That is what communication is for a winning team; the recipe you will use to
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help best utilize each team member and instruct them on how they need to work together to fulfill the recipe that will lead them to be a winning team. Your team members need to know the plan and you must give them the tools to successfully execute it. It is up to the leader of a team to help your players see your vision and help them understand what a victory looks like. The goal may seem simple and obvious to you, but you must communicate it over and over again to your team members, so they understand it as well as you do. With different personalities coming together to form a unit, you are going to be dealing with numerous challenges such as competing agendas. You will find this on any team. You must keep the goal and at the forefront of your player’s minds in order to encourage them to put aside their own personal desires in order to come together as one cohesive, single-minded unit and push towards the team’s goal.
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Give Your Team Members the Tools to Help Them Perform at Their Best The final thing all great leaders do is equip their team members with the proper tools and training needed for them to succeed. You have to show them how they can each come together with their different strengths to work as a team towards one unified goal. This involves more than simple skills training, but also endurance, so they can last as a team and win even those matches that seem unending and impossible. Think of all the challenges that they could possibly face ahead, and clear their path to victory by giving them the necessary training and tools they will need to get past any obstacle. As the leader, you must be prepared to continually communicate the team’s goal and your vision. Use that vision to motivate your team members throughout the journey towards victory.
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TRACY GREENE
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Ranked as one of the Top 100 Agents in South Florida, Tracy Greene of Keller Williams Realty in Jupiter, Florida is showing no signs of slowing down. Tracy Greene’s path to success in the world of South Florida real estate is anything but ordinary. She began working for a high-end builder and developer in her early 20s in the greater Washington, DC area. “Later in my career, I worked at advertising agencies as an account executive where most of my clients were builders, developers and marketing directors,” Tracy explains. It seemed everywhere she turned, real estate was calling her name. It wasn’t long before Tracy was inspired to earn her real estate license and begin working as a professional agent. “I was helping a family in South Beach prepare their condo for sale. I was doing property management for them,” she explains. “They ended up giving me a nice bonus and I used that to get my real estate license.” Tracy landed at Keller Williams Realty in Jupiter, Florida and hasn’t looked back. She was “Rookie of the Year” in her first year and has grown her business every year since. Now, a decade into her career, she’s made great strides and can’t imagine herself doing anything else. In 2022, she was ranked as one of the Top 100 Agents in South Florida out of 7500+ agents, and is showing no signs of slowing down. She was also awarded #1 listing agent in her office. 10 Copyright Top Agent Magazine
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Serving Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens and all of South Florida, Tracy loves this beautiful area she calls ‘home.’ “The fascinating part about living in the Palm Beach County market is the wide range of price points,” she explains. “There are condominiums from $300,000 to single family homes over $100 million and everything in between.” With miles of pristine beaches and being one of the top golf capitals
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of the world, this area attracts people from all over the world. Tracy loves helping families, first time home buyers and single professionals find their perfect home, and has made it her mission to deliver exceptional service to each and every client. This has led to most of her business deriving from repeat clients and referrals.
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“My job is to put my client’s needs first, be responsive as possible, make myself available and provide value-added guidance throughout the home buying/selling process. She focuses on developing lasting relationships with those she serves, making it a priority to stay in touch throughout the year. “I reach out to them periodically to see how they are enjoying their new home, and I keep up with them on social media,” she explains. Those who work with Tracy appreciate her compassionate and empathetic nature. “I consider myself more of a consultant than a hard-sell agent,” Copyright Top Agent Magazine 12
she says. “I just want to help people find their sacred space.” Purchasing a home is the most important investment most people ever make. “My job is to put my client’s needs first, be responsive as possible, make myself available and provide value-added guidance throughout the home buying/selling process. I have a great team of Top Agent Magazine
professionals – from mortgage lenders and title companies to all types of vendors, including general contractors, handymen and attorneys, who are very responsive in helping my clients.” When it comes to marketing her listings, Tracy goes above and beyond, reaching out to agents in her market to let them know she has a property coming up for sale. “I also send out postcards, have a presence on social media and list every home on the MLS,” she explains. Averaging over 20+ transactions each year, it’s clear she’s been successful spreading the word far and wide. Community is another important aspect of Tracy’s life and work. She is part of a program called ACA, which assists adult children of alcoholics and dysfunctional families. “It’s been around for approximately 40 years in this
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country, but didn’t have a big presence in South Florida until 2011,” she explains. “I helped facilitate the first meeting and now there are hundreds of meetings here; it has become a movement that’s helping thousands of people.” When Tracy has free time, she loves to practice Pilates, play pickle ball, hang out with her dog Bailey, and travel with her husband and friends. In the coming years, Tracy has her sights set on expanding more into the higher price range of the luxury market and reaching a new clientele. No matter what the future holds in South Florida real estate, she remains eager and ready to continue building her career and help her clients for years to come. “Real estate is a big part of my life. This is what I’m going to be doing for the next 20 years. I am very passionate about it.”
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For more information about Tracy Greene, call 561-310-6040 or email tracygreenekw@gmail.com
Keller Williams Realty Jupiter. Each Keller Williams office is independently owned and operated. Photography by Vasi Studio. Copyright Top Agent Magazine 14
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24-Hour Touch-ups to Maximize Your List Price Sometimes it takes a full-scale overhaul to prepare a house for market. Other times, only a series of small adjustments are required to make a listing’s true potential shine. Whether you’re gearing up for an open house, assessing a list price, or maximizing a property’s appearance prior to photography—the devil is in the details. However, touch-ups and refreshes don’t have to dominate your schedule or break the bank. For a few ideas of where Top Agent Magazine
to begin, consider our handy check-list below for quick home projects that will fortify your bottom line.
Refresh grout for a sparkling clean look. Perhaps the quickest and most cost-effective way to make bathrooms, kitchens, and other tiled areas shine is to refresh grout until it looks
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good as new. Specialty grout stain removers and cleaners are inexpensive and sold at most home improvement stores. Plus, the project only takes a bit of elbow grease and an hour or two for a major makeover effect. Suddenly, dark, stained, and worn-down bathrooms gleam as if tile has just been placed.
Create mood lighting with soothing bulbs and fixtures. A warm white light from specially chosen LED bulbs creates a welcoming environment when potential buyers come calling. If outdated fixtures are bringing down a home’s otherwise modern styling, consider more design-neutral replacements that won’t
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detract from the property’s charms. These are inexpensive but highly noticeable and impactful upgrades that shift a home’s ambiance for the better.
Repaint doors for an updated and inviting entryway. It may sound like a hassle, but repainting doorways with a fresh coat signals a wellkept property—and that’s before prospective buyers even pass through the threshold. You can also change out generic doorknobs and switch-plates to add an updated flare while on a budget. Color-of-the-year trend choices can turn heads, while neutral paint choices signal less hassle for future homeowners.
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scrub, or with the addition of new shelves or styled bulbs.
Make windows shine— both inside and out. Cleanliness goes a long way in communicating a well-cared for home in which buyers can imagine themselves. Cleaning the inside and outside of windows not only refreshes a room, but it allows light to infuse the space while appealing to the move-in ready crowd.
Closet spaces are not an afterthought. Every prospective buyer wants storage options, and you’ve surely led a home tour where guests inspect closets and pantries. Don’t let these hidden spaces go overlooked. Make sure they’re clean, cleared as much as possible, and you can even touch them up with fresh paint, a good
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Remove tough appliance stains with a bit of elbow grease. If you’re packaging appliances with the sale of a property, you’ll want to make sure those big-ticket items are also in top shape to showcase their value. Stainless steel polish, electric cooktop polish, and stain removing pads for the kitchen sink can make your appliances look five years younger with nothing more than an hour or two’s labor.
Organize garage and basement areas to maximize storage and hint at bonus space. It may take a labor of love, but organizing and decluttering these special storage spaces
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can add significant value to a property. Instead of telling prospective buyers how much storage space there is—let these areas speak for themselves by giving them a neutral, airy bout of cleansing. That way, craft-lovers, car aficionados, and buyers with interest in renovating basement areas can witness the potential immediately. Individually, these bit to-do list items might seem like extra work without the promise of 18
a major return. But combined? These small tasks go a long way in crafting a home’s image and projecting pure potential. After all, prospective buyers imagine their lives unfolding inside those walls. That’s why cobbling together these small-scale projects can have a big payoff in the end. Not only will a home present itself in a cohesive, attractively-packaged form, but it can also translate to higher interest and a significant pay-off—in more ways than one.
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AUSTIN KIMBLER
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AUSTIN KIMBLER
One young man embarked on his journey in the real estate industry with a stroke of luck and a display of integrity. Austin Kimbler, a self-proclaimed rebellious teenager, found himself involved in an incident where some kids damaged a property owned by the largest vacation rental management company in Key West. Taking responsibility, Kimbler collected money from the other youths involved and personally apologized to the property owner. This act left a lasting impression on the owner, and years later, when Kimbler had his real estate license and was working for the fire department, fate brought them together again in the hospital.
During the initial two years in real estate, Kimbler’s work at the fire department allowed him to live within his means while saving and reinvesting his income back into the business. This fortunate situation set the stage for his growth. Remaining grounded and focused, Kimbler prioritizes building strong relationships with his clients. Growing up in Key West, he deeply values the closeknit community and lifelong friendships formed there. He recognizes the significance of this unique environment and understands how it resonates with
The property owner offered Kimbler a job, saying, “I heard you just got your real estate license, so why don’t you come work for me.” Within a month of joining the team, Kimbler achieved his first sale, marking the beginning of a successful career in real estate. It was on this team that Austin also met his current Broker and mentor, Justyn Ewald. At the age of 26, Austin has accomplished remarkable sales volumes, doubling his sales and commissions every year for the past three years. 20
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buyers. Rather than just selling real estate, Kimbler sells the Key West lifestyle—a package deal that encompasses the atmosphere, environment, and distinct reality offered by the area. Buyers are drawn to this all-encompassing experience. One of the greatest aspects of Kimbler’s work lies in the unlimited income potential that comes with the real estate industry. Unlike a regular nine-to-five job with fixed earnings, real estate rewards hard work and determination. Kimbler emphasizes that the sky’s the limit and highlights the direct correlation between effort and results. When client relationships are well-managed, they often lead to listings, referrals, and repeat business, creating a system that compounds upon itself and fosters exponential growth. Alongside the financial incentives, real estate also offers relationship incentives. Kimbler acknowledges that his profession has introduced him to individuals he wouldn’t have encountered otherwise. At the age of 26, he frequently interacts with multi-millionaires and highly successful people, nurturing relationships that have been made possible through his career in real estate. During rare moments when he’s not working, Kimbler takes pleasure in appreciating the beauty of Key West. He enjoys spending time on a boat, savoring the unique experiences the island has to offer. In addition, the new school approach in real estate requires financial discipline and investment, but when executed correctly, it results in faster growth. Buying leads and investing in advertising create opportunities for client relationships, ultimately leading to successful outcomes. Each sale becomes a success story to share on social media and other platforms. Furthermore, when relationships are well-managed, many clients turn into listings, referrals, and sources of repeat business. This compounding system paves the way for exponential growth. Top Agent Magazine
To learn more about Austin Kimbler, please call (305) 509-2516, email kimblerkeywest@gmail.com, or visit austin.keywestexperts.com www.
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6 Things All Successful Negotiators Do If you think about it, you’ve been negotiating your whole life. As a kid you negotiated constantly with your family, your teachers, and your classmates. If you’re a parent, you’re negotiating probably more than you ever have in your life. But it’s one thing to negotiate staying up late on a school night, people oftentimes have trouble translating those real world negotiation skills into the business world. But the truth is there are a lot similarities. Expert negotiators all have skills and techniques they bring to the table. It’s quite possible you also have them, and don’t even realize 22
it. Here’s a look at some traits that are common among expert negotiators.
1. They keep emotion out of the process It’s very easy to feel frustrated, angry and defensive during a negotiation process. But when emotions run high, it’s often difficult to respond with logic and reason. This can be especially difficult if the person you’re negotiating with tries to escalate the situation. As the saying goes, keep calm and carry on. You
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have an end goal in mind, and getting heated won’t help you meet it. If things don’t go your way, remember it’s not personal. Best to leave the table with no hard feelings. Hopefully even though you may not have gotten what you’ve wanted this time around, you’ve established a foundation for success at your next try.
2. They’re reasonable If you don’t ask for what you want you’ll never get it, but at the same time, you need to be reasonable about what you’re asking for. Yes, ask for a little more than you want, so you have some wiggle room to compromise. But if you ask for too much too soon, you might shut down the person you’re negotiating with from the start, or even worse offend them. No one wants to feel like they’re being taken advantage of. Ask for what you deserve and you’ll never go wrong. At the very least you might start the conversation on how that might be possible down the line, if it isn’t just yet.
3. They’re well-prepared Part of being reasonable is being well-prepared. One of the biggest mistakes novice negotiators make is showing up over-confident and under prepared. Have the research and facts to back up what you’re asking for. Show your negotiation partner evidence of why what you’re asking for is not only fair, but necessary. Facts are hard to shoot down. This will also give you the confidence to really push for what you want. It’s not just something you think, it’s something that’s undeniable true. If you go in unprepared you’re more likely to flounder, which will damage your credibility going into future negotiations. Top Agent Magazine
4. They always strive for a win/win solution for everyone Yes, negotiations are about getting what you want, but as the old saying goes, you get more flies with honey than vinegar. Your negotiation partner might also have reasonable requests that you need to consider. Ultimately, successful negotiations are about compromise on both sides, and ending up with an outcome that benefits everyone.
5. They’re creative Problems and conflict are a natural part of any negotiation. One surefire way to impress, is to head off any impending roadblocks, by coming up with creative solutions. It’s easy to point out problems and be negative. Truly expert negotiators think outside the box, and dazzle with innovative concepts and ideas that leave everyone excited about the process.
6. They’re good listeners Listening in order to really understand where your negotiation partner is coming from is important for two reasons: you not only want to make them feel heard, but knowing what they want is invaluable information you can use to get what you want. At the start, you’re gathering information by asking questions and really hearing what they say, which includes picking up on body language and nonverbal cues as well. This is part of being well-prepared, using every possible thing you can to have an advantage. Being in control of the situation, and then leading everyone to a successful conclusion all around is what great negotiation is all about.
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