In this week’s episode, we have a very special guest, Katie Benza a real estate agent at Keller Williams Realty, Inc. She truly believes that sincerity, good communication, problem-solving skills, building relationships, and listening are essential to this profession. She has a strong background in residential sales, bank-owned properties, relocation, investor opportunities, and rental properties. Before becoming a real estate agent, she was a Special Education teacher with a Master’s in Curriculum and Leadership.

If you’d like to know how Katie went from being an educator to a top-producing real estate agent, this episode is for you!

[00:01 - 10:14] Opening Segment

  • Katie shares a little bit of her background and story
    • Growing up in Cincinnati
    • Moving to Florida
    • Going from teaching to real estate
    • Thinking about quitting real estate
    • Being afraid of rejection and phone calls

[10:15 - 31:35]  Katie’s first insights about real estate

 

  • Katie talks about the most important of working in a team

 

    • Goal setting
    • Achieve a certain number by the end of the year
  • Katie's experience getting into the real estate business
    • Starting doing calls
    • Gaining confidence 
    • Following up and building a relationship with customers
  • The role of education for agents
    • Educational training
    • Practicing and hearing from other people
    • Shadowing: Watching someone in action
  • What Katie should’ve done differently
    • Interviewing brokerages and asking them how they’re going to help her as a new agent

[31:36 - 50:20] Katie Benza: Educator to Top Producing Real Estate Agent

  • Katie's go-to person
    • Her driving force is her husband
    • He’s grown in the industry, and she asked for advice, especially on contracts.
  • The area where  Katie needs the most improvement on
    • Delegating tasks to other people
    • She would like to do everything on her own
    • Not having a good balance between her job and personal life
  • What Katie would say to a new agent
    • Having a loyalty agreement
    • Always pick up the phone
    • Following up with customer
  • The importance of building strong relationships
    • You can be positively exposed to many people
    • Getting out and meeting people 
    • Building expectations for customers 

[50:21 - 1:01:01] Closing Segment

  • Who you know or what you know.

 

  • What you know is what sets you apart

 

  • Katie’s Travel Bucket List
    • Destin
  • What is the most important thing Katie would like from a loan officer?
    • Communication
    • Knowing what that loan officer is best at
  • Connect with Katie
    • See links below
  • Final words

Tweetable Quotes:

“Even if you’re down, you´re gonna get back up and you’re gonna keep moving and you will do better.” - Katie Benza

“What makes us set us apart in our worlds is that we wanna do better, so we learn from our mistakes and you wanna do better next time.” - Katie Benza

“I’d say to new agents, Always pick up the phone, don’t be afraid to pick the phone- It’s okay to fail and follow up.” - Katie Benza

Connect with Katie through LinkedIn and Facebook. Make sure to check out Keller Williams Realty, Inc. Your trusted real estate experts in Northeast Florida!

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