Interviewed by Obeo
After securing her broker’s license in Texas in 1979, Julie moved to Oklahoma in 1980 with her husband, Len, and began her real estate career in earnest. In 1992, she joined CB RaderGroup and has been a top producer ever since. In fact, she has ranked among the top 2% of real estate professionals every year since joining CB RaderGroup. In 2004, the Greater Tulsa Association of REALTORS® named Julie Sales Associate of the Year. In addition, she has won a number of awards for selling new construction, including the SAM (“Sales and Marketing”) Award from the Tulsa Home Builders Association.
Within the industry, Julie served as 2004 president of the Council of Residential Specialists’ (CRS) Oklahoma chapter. For the past two years, she has served as the CRS regional vice president in Region 1, which encompasses the New England states. Next year, she will take on the regional vice presidency for Region 10, which covers Texas and Louisiana. She is also currently serving on the REALTOR® Political Action Committee for the Greater Tulsa Association of REALTORS®, has been active in the Tulsa Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Tulsa Home Builders Association Sales and Marketing Council.
In her free time, Julie has given back to the community through volunteer work. In the past, she has served on the Mayor’s Sales Tax Overview Committee for Tulsa. Through her church, Julie volunteers locally and has conducted mission work in Ecuador, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia.
Len, who has worked as Julie’s associate for nearly 15 years, oversees the financial demands of the business. Their daughter, Jordan, coordinates all of the marketing mailings and databases and also manages the office. They also have a son, Marshall, who played football at Oklahoma State University and recently graduated with a marketing degree. He has earned his real estate license and may join the business in the future.
Predominantly, I was familiar with the Coldwell Banker brand from the Texas area. I also had a great appreciation for Sam Rader as a broker because he is a man of his word, he has a beautiful family and they support and fund ministry work. I give a great deal to my church and my community. That was important. Additionally, Sam is very high-energy in promoting and instigating top-of-the-line and the newest and most updated programs. For example, if you look at the number of virtual tours we have versus what other associations within the industry are doing, it shows just how much more exposure we’re giving to our sellers in both the marketplace and online. I do enhanced pictures online, and I can say we have a lot of more hits comparatively speaking than other brokerages.
Mainly through enhanced presentations. I have my own site, www.tulsahomeview.com, which I advertise and move people to, just like Coldwell Banker moves people to www.cbtulsa.com. Enhanced listings, though, are the biggest thing. I pay www.REALTOR.com so that I can have 10 to 12 more pictures for each listing and also do a virtual tour. Most agents get one or two photos. The other big thing I’m doing is providing for positioning with Google and Yahoo. When someone searches “Tulsa real estate,” I’ll come up at or near the top. I also pay www.luxuryhomes.com as well as a various number of other sites.
I have had repeat business over the years. Every year, I attend and host additional functions such as lunches and other get-togethers to keep up the personal contact. I did a lot of lead-farming when I was younger, but there still was a lot of personal contact with it. With me, you can go online and send me stuff. If you call me, though, you’re going to get a hold of me more quickly. I think that there has to be a balance between online and offline. You have to have strong presentation and pictures, but if you don’t have personal contact, then you’re losing big time. It’s a hard thing to do. I need to sit down with a calendar and mark out time for personal contacts and lunches. Because of that effort, though, I’ve had a number of third- and fourth-generation family transactions. That’s been rewarding.
One specific way that all of these companies have changed real estate for the better is that they have made the visual presentation so important for the seller. In order to be in a top position, having an online presentation helps a seller realize his home has to be in good condition. If he has a tired property with bad wallpaper and his presentation isn’t updated, he’s going to be “taken off the market” per se by buyer elimination if his home is not in tip-top condition.
Since its evolution from 360 House to Obeo in 2005, the Salt Lake City, Utah-based company has become the largest preferred supplier of full-service residential real estate online marketing products in the United States and Canada. The Latin word for “to go to” or “to encompass,” Obeo provides Realtors®, homebuilders, land developers and property managers with customized online marketing solutions and offline sales tools. To find out more, go to http://www.obeo.com/.
