Voices of Women

  • Joanne Davis
    Sr. Executive Associate, Lyon Real Estate

Joanne Davis is a multifaceted real estate professional based in Sacramento who handles luxury-home marketing, land development and other commercial services across California – and nationally and internationally through her large business network. She has attended the invitation-only Luxury Conclave for five years, increasing her ability to serve affluent home buyers and sellers. Working with development of custom-home projects for 20+ years, Joanne has a number of impressive projects under her belt and in progress.

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When did you begin your career in real estate and what is your role at Lyon Real Estate?

I work in land development, custom lots, new construction and commercial development all over the state, in addition to residential resale. The opportunities in real estate are phenomenal – I am having so much fun, I’m on fire right now! I believe this downturn is the time to retool.

 

I’ve been in the real estate industry for more than 23 years and I’m proud that over 90 percent of all my business is based on referrals from clients, friends and social networking for business.


But your referral network must be really amazing, based on everything I see where you are interacting on LinkedIn and Facebook.

I started doing social networking about 18 months ago and I believe it is truly the way of the future for real estate. LinkedIn (a professional network) is a B2B tool where you can read a profile and start a dialogue. It’s all about the relationship. You have access to people – even CEOs of megacompanies – and then can keep in touch, you can talk to a person on the phone. I also own/manage three groups on LinkedIn, dealing with green real estate, affordable housing and land banking. Groups are the first step to social networking to meet people on LinkedIn. It’s definitely worth every minute of my time!

 

My personalized Web page on GoLyon.com drives people to my LinkedIn profile and vice versa. I also post things on Facebook all the time – one of the best tools is the box asking, “What’s on your mind?” It’s a great way to keep in touch. With social networking, if you sell someone’s home in California and they move to New York, you can keep in touch – there’s no reason not to do business all over the country.

 

Real estate professionals who say it’s hard to put the time in on social networking should understand that even traditional tools such as farming will take a couple of years to pay off. The business is going to happen! Everything is converging.


Throughout your career, have you had any mentors who have helped guide your career?

Other than Mike (Lyon), I have been working with Mike O’Neill with Integrated Alliances and Brad Hanks. Both of them do workshops on how to use LinkedIn and other social networks to help your business.

 

Also Donna Lee Laue of Unique Global Estates is a real dynamo and a good friend. I am the Unique Global Estates’ Luxury Ambassador Spokesperson for the Sacramento region.


What words best describe how you face life?

Today is the first and best day of the rest of my life! The Laws of Attraction are fast at work: from-the-inside-out, ask, believe, receive. Attitude, gratitude, forgiveness, resilience, bliss, proactive, happy – those are the words of the day, every day!

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