Why did you and your partners decide to create Senate Realty?
Cher Castillo, Lisa Williams James Williams felt there was a real void in the market when it came to customer oriented agencies and intelligent agents. Two of the partners, James and Lisa came from strategy and business consulting backgrounds. Providing consulting services to Fortune 100 companies demanded a structured approach in meeting the companies' objectives. The Williams' decided to leave consulting and apply these lessons to their passion - real estate. Their goal was simple, to demystify and simplify the transaction management process for Clients'. Cher Castillo, another Senate Realty Partner, came from a marketing and event coordination background; her experiences helped create a unique culture within Senate Realty that has assisted the company in hiring great agents.
What distinguishes Senate Realty from other real estate firms in the District?
There are 3 characteristics that make Senate a unique:
1) Training - Senate really focuses a lot of time and energy into effectively training our Agents. Most real estate companies have training programs, but many programs do not provide the necessary tools agents need to be successful. We educate agents about virtually every step of the home buying transaction - so neither the agents nor their Clients have to guess what happens next. Our objective is to have the best educated agents and the best educated clients.
2) Team Oriented Culture - We are a work hard, play even harder environment. On a monthly basis Senate Management holds happy hours for agents to meet new agents as well reconnect with seasoned agents. Our environment is structured around knowledge management and sharing, it is a culture that rewards individuals who provide mentorship and support to other agents.
3) Our Agents - All of our Agents our hand picked and highly educated. 30 percent of our Agents hold Masters Degrees and 92 percent hold undergraduate degrees. This is extremely unusual in our industry, but very important to Senate Realty. A high priority is placed on making sure that we hire ethical agents who understand and appreciate the importance of providing incredible customer service to the market.
How would you describe the nation's current residential real estate market? How is the DC market fairing?
Overall, the market has slowed down over the past three years in comparison to the manic environment that we experienced between 1999 and 2005. The correction that we are experiencing is not completely unexpected given the speculative nature of investors and the consumer unfriendly investment vehicles that were packaged and sold to consumers. In general, the DC market appears to have faired a little better than many of our neighboring jurisdictions (Loudon County, Prince George's County, etc). Properties are moving - not overnight like we saw 4 years ago, but if properly marketed and priced - they move.
Has Senate Realty seen a slowdown in its sales over the past two years?
Senate has positioned itself in a very unique position. We made a strategic decision about two years ago to focus our attention on workforce housing in under served neighborhoods. The products that we are selling are selling quicker than products in more established and traditional residential neighborhoods. Given this, our sales in 2007 nearly doubled from the previous year. Senate is not adverse to selling homes in other areas and we do. But as a general rule, given the development dollars that have been extended and the expedient nature of sales, work force housing is working for us right now.
What innovative marketing strategies has the firm developed to increase sales in this declining housing market?
One of the most innovative ideas that we just initiated was to Partner with BMW of Sterling and Prism Development, LLC to offer a 1 year lease on mini coopers with the purchase of one of condo developments, The Jordan Flats, located on West VA Avenue, NE. For $216,900.00 you get a fantastic 2 bedroom condo and a brand new mini cooper - You can't beat it!
Did you offer new educational programs to help Senate Realty agents be more successful in today's market?
We have added a number of new educational programs as a function of the varying market conditions. The latest course that we are initiating this month is a course on 'Working with Distressed Properties'. The other class that we initiated about 5 months ago as a function of our company's strategic direction was Condo Conversions.
Finally, what advice would you give sellers thinking about putting their house on the market this year?
There are a couple of pieces of advice I would provide to sellers:
Choose Agent Wisely - There are two types of agents: 1) Order Takers - These are Agents who sit back and wait for things to happen and than there are 2)Market Makers - These are persons who aggressively go out there market the property and engage the public to get the property sold. Unfortunately, in our industry, you have a lot of order takers and that was great five years ago, when it did not take much to get a property sold. But now, it is extremely important that Sellers interview the agent and ask the important questions:
1) How would you market my house and can you provide sample marketing collateral?
2) How fast are other homes selling in my neighborhood and why?
3) What makes you different from other Agents?
4) How will you leverage technology?
5) How frequently will you conduct open houses?
6) How frequently and through what medium will status about the home be communicated to me?
7) Do you work alone or as part of a team?
Temper Expectations and Exercise Flexibility - Understand going into the process that this is buyers market. If a reasonable contract is presented, do not loose the deal over a light bulb that needs to be replaced that you do not want to replace - now that's a bit of an exaggeration, but not completely. Always look at the big picture, oftentimes the holding cost associated with waiting for next higher contract to come in can outstrip the revenue you would have made if you accepted the first contract you received but refused.
Patience: Given fluctuating lending regulations, sometime properties may not close the day they were scheduled to close. And many times, it is not the fault of the buyers but simply the moving bar that institutions have now put in place. So given these new market realties, patience is a necessity in this market.
