Taking great care of her clients and customers has earned Barbara a regular slot on Houston Business Journal’s prestigious annual list of Houston’s Top 25 Residential Realtors. She also has been noted as a top five producer among the 170 agents who call John Daugherty, Realtors® home, for most of her 18 years there. 2007 was a great year for Barbara, with more than $33 million in sales as well as a single sale of $5 million for a repeat customer.
Barbara has assisted both buyers and sellers in well-known, high-end Houston neighborhoods such as River Oaks, Arlington Court, West University, Tanglewood, Briargrove, Memorial and the Villages, Frostwood and Wilchester. She is extremely knowledgeable about new construction, and is frequently asked to represent buyers or sellers who sat on the “other side” of a transaction where she was an agent.
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First of all, our management team is always available for us, for questions or assistance. One specific support tool is our “co-op desk,” where full-time employees make showing appointments and can accompany other agents to our listings. Of course, our biggest source of business is agents from other companies. It helps if they have someone who is familiar with our listing to be there to answer questions at a showing, either our listing agent or our co-op agent.
I also am fortunate to have my licensed assistant, Sheryl Weinstock, paid by the company. I chose that benefit over additional compensation when I reached a certain level of production.
Well, it’s my goal to keep my clients happy and to stay sane! I march along with my head down and keep the ball rolling. Real estate is a hard, time-consuming business. It’s not rocket science. You fill out the same forms time and again, stay accurate and not let things fall in the cracks. At the same time, it is very emotional, very personal for people when they are selling or buying a home
The best way to grow your business to “talk the talk,” that is to become an expert in real estate. People always love to talk about real estate; it’s in the news so much. They want to know about it, and when you speak with authority, you have the opportunity to be a billboard for yourself. The second best way to get business is through the transaction that goes well. I don’t wait for a letter of recommendation – I ask for it! And in these days when it’s so much easier to send an e-mail, 75 percent of my buyers and sellers send one to me for my file. Then I can show a stack of letters when I go for that next listing appointment. Of course, people know when you care about them. I really care; my clients know it and know I will represent them to the best of my ability. That’s why I went into real estate, because of how I was treated when I bought a home.
With builders, it really helps to understand the process well. That way, you can make recommendations to buyers as to where best to spend their money, that is, what builders will or won’t do, what is easy to implement and what is not. Right now, Houston is in a situation where in many close-in areas, the value of the land exceeds the value of the improvements on it – that's when you see new construction. Even many nice homes are not worth the investment to bring them up-to-date, especially in handling the load our electronics place on them. With new construction, you have the opportunity to stay closer in, instead of working in town and living in the suburbs, miles away.
The Web brings us all tremendous business because we are all on it, from young people to people in their 70s and 80s. In addition to our own web site, http://www.johndaugherty.com, we are the luckiest people in the country to have HAR.com (the Web site of the Houston Association of Realtors®). Buyers and sellers are looking for people who market the community where they live or want to live, and who are knowledgeable in their area, and they find us there.
We have a very mobile society, and it’s great to be in real estate! I love to mentor Realtors® who are new to the business. You need to avail yourself of those experts in your office; never be afraid to ask questions. Those of us who have been in real estate have a lot to share. Education is key, sharing is key and it’s fun. The biggest compliment I receive is when I get a call from someone from a transaction where I was representing the other side. That has happened several times to me. In addition, being selected six times by the Houston Business Journal as one of the city’s top residential real estate professionals has been a real treat. It’s great being recognized as a “best of the best.”
