Prior to entering the real estate industry, my wife and I were both full time athletes. We both represented Team USA in the Olympic Games (her in London 2012 and me in Rio 2016). From the time we left college and had already spend 7-8 years each in the sport, we decided to peruse the national team and train full time at various high performance centers around the country. We each made various National Teams and won medals at the national and international level.

One challenge that we are all facing right now is limited inventory. We are down in raw units by around 20-25% YOY. Though, that is not a unique issue to just me. The main issue I keep running into is leveraging my time well. I find myself wanting to be involved in all parts of the business/transaction but realistically I just don't have the time to do all of it in a 164 hour week. Bringing my wife in was a huge help and she has taken ownership of certain parts of our business that has freed me up to own other parts. However, our skills overlap in several areas and there are parts of this job that neither of us love but do need to get done. As a result those are tasks that get pushed off until "later." What we need to do is find a talented person who's skills/ zone of genius align with the areas that we don't love to do. We are actively searching for that person.

I have spent the most time at Keller Williams. I have been at a few other brokerages, some of which no longer exist, that really didn't have much to offer other than an office.

I really love the culture of collaboration at Keller Williams, the training opportunities at the local and national levels as well as the various support programs that are in place to help agents pre houses, manage transactions and get coaching. I also love the capping model where after you pay the house a certain amount of money, you are done for the year. If you are doing some volume, it becomes very attractive financially.

Member of Top Agent Network - Top 10% of Agents/Brokers in Norther CA CA Broker Licence Top 1% in Alameda County based on Sales Volume - Per MLS

Having my wife join me in real estate. It has been such a pleasure to work with her and share the highs and lows with her.

We use a lot of spreadsheets that we manage on a regular basis. We also time block chunks of the day where we focus on different tasks (follow up, house tours, etc). Our systems are very basic from a technology standpoint but it allows us to keep the little details on paper so we can focus on service to our clients.

Like any online platform, I think it's critical to have good content on it. So from that perspective, I think online reviews are critical.

We have a semi-custom template that we send out at the end of every transaction asking for a review. We will also follow up with folks a few times to gently remind them. The deeper benefit of reviews is you can start to pull out words, phrases and themes that clients value. Over time, these will help you build better marketing.

For starters, our group works as a team. In total, we have 21 highly motivated and expertly trained professionals who directly and indirectly bring value to every client. On a more granular level, my wife and I work togeather on behalf of every client. In a past life, we competed for Team USA in the Olympic Games in Rowing (London 2012 for her and Rio 2016 for me). So aside from market knowledge, deep local relationships and negotiation skills, we bring all that we learned while training at an elite level to the table. Those skills include being incredibly coachable, very competitive and always seeking a way to win. Aside form the sports parallels, we make it our business to exceed our clients expectations when it comes to communication. We pick up our phones (shocker) or return calls quickly; we respond to texts and emails quickly and with diligent thought/responses. Finally, when we don't know the answer, we move mountains to find it. And we are really good at moving mountains. 🙂