Mitch Ribak, Linda Reiss and Debbie Sanders joined forces as a team in January 2004, and Linda and Debbie came on board with Mitch when he opened the Suntree office of Tropical Realty in March 2005. Linda is a lifelong Brevard County resident who served in the medical field for 15+ years, working at one of the nation’s leading hospitals for heart and cancer care. Debbie has lived in Brevard County since 1997 and worked for a travel club before getting into residential real estate in 2004.
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You are celebrating the fourth anniversary of your office opening. Tell me about your team, how you got started and what it’s like to work with Mitch.
Linda: I got into the medical field to help people but moved into the corporate side of the business, which was frustrating for me. I determined where I could work for myself, make good money, and see people at a happy time in their life – and decided real estate was the career for me. I saw an ad Mitch ran about doing a team, and thought it would be great as a new agent to have direction from someone who was already experienced in the business. After that first year, we had more business (as a team) than the office as a whole. Debbie: I had been with a timeshare travel club, offering clients extra weeks to purchase and trying to make everyone happy. Mitch was a volunteer at the golf course where my husband is the pro/manager. I e-mailed Mitch and found out he was putting together this team concept. Linda, Mitch and I and a couple of others were the original team. We now have a great team and a great staff – everyone gets along and works together. Linda: Mitch is fun! As a team leader he wants us to be successful and he cares about us as people. And when you feel like you’re cared about, you care back. We have the satisfaction of making money and striving in a market where everyone says we can’t succeed. Even though we started small and still have only 22 agents, we have a great reputation and we have the buyers.
We did an article about how the HomeGain BuyerLink™ program brings hundreds of leads into your team. Who are these buyers and why are they coming to Florida’s “Space Coast”?
Debbie: We are getting a lot of second-home buyers, a lot of cash buyers. Now is a really great time to buy! Most of my showings are people from out of town, lots from the Northeast; I have a lady next week from Montana. Patrick Air Force Base (near Satellite Beach) employs quite a few people and military retirees like to take advantage of the commissary and medical facilities. And of course a number of people move to the golf course communities; we have great city and county courses and both public and private country clubs. Linda: We have a lot of relocation as well as local leads, but the Internet allows us to reach buyers from everywhere: I’ve worked with buyers from England and China. A majority of our retiree buyers come from the Northeast, and we have younger couples with children who are moving to the Cape and have their own businesses. And then you just have the people who are moving within the area. There are a lot of things to draw you here.
Mitch is very sophisticated when it comes to lead generation and systems. Do you have any special tools to work with your buyers and sellers?
Linda: I am working with some other agents on a Web site targeting Generation Y buyers. Right now, those leads are just going into the MelbourneHomeSearch.com site so we can give those customers ways of searching right away. I use an LG Dare™ to check e-mail, but I really enjoy being face-to-face with people. Debbie: We do a lot of short sales and foreclosures. On the selling side it helps that we work with a great title company that does all the legwork. In addition, I’m working with two women who also have the ALHS luxury home designation to build a Web site targeting those buyers. I do a little texting and have a laptop at home but no BlackBerry®.
Anything fun happening right now?
Debbie: I’m the tournament director for our annual charity golf tournament that will be on April 25. We started five years ago and raised $30,000 over three years to benefit multiple sclerosis (MS) – my son has MS, so that is very important to me. However, Mitch’s granddaughter Lola was diagnosed with Sturge-Weber Syndrome (SWS), (a rare and devastating disease affecting children), so money raised through the tournament is now being donated for SWS research. We’re very excited about our helicopter drop coming up.
What in the world is a helicopter drop?
Debbie: A helicopter flies over a putting green and drops numbered golf balls. The balls that fall in or closest to the hole win prizes such as a plasma flatscreen TV. All of our agents have to sell chances, $10 for three balls.
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