Twenty years ago, when I took my Florida real estate exam, just about every career placement company on the planet had told me I was perfectly suited to a career in sales.
I wanted to help people find the home of their dreams and committed early on to serving all segments of the market. Whether you wanted to buy a building lot for a single-family home or develop a waterfront community I was your go-to girl.
Having already established a successful real estate practice in Palm Beach, I came to Englewood in June 2004 to visit my father who had purchased a home here.
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Kristen 'K.C.' Conti can be reached at (941) 270-7181.
I fell in love with Englewood, Boca Grande and the Cape Haze Peninsula and decided to open another real estate brokerage in this growing area.
With a loyal following of Palm Beach clients, my team and I experienced unprecedented success and loved having such wonderful opportunities to present to people ready to enjoy a kinder, gentler lifestyle here.
We invested heavily here and encouraged others to do the same. Real estate seemed a much safer investment than the volatile stock market, which did not provide the security and pride of ownership associated with real estate.
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Kristen "K.C." Conti can be reached at (941) 270-7181.
By the end of 2005, however, it became clear the market had changed dramatically and seemingly overnight. We returned from a company cruise to phones not ringing, buyers not stopping in for investment purchases and a general fear the market was deteriorating.
Few saw the change coming that quickly. It became a game of musical chairs where the music stopped not everyone had a chair. I was among the many who felt the pain of loss.
As a company, we began strategizing on how to position the business for a distressed property market.
Having experienced the personal pain of loss I empathized with other sellers whose fortunes disappeared almost overnight and tried to help them come up with solutions that best suited their needs.
I began specializing in distressed property as a short sale agent and was soon bombarded with referrals from sellers in distress and real estate agents who wanted no part of short sales.
In those days, banks did not have the systems or staffing adequate to handle the influx of files heading into default or the flood of short sales.
My closing ratio on short sales was only 35 percent in 2006 but is closer to 90 percent in 2012. The increase is due to improvements in my systems for handling short sales and those of the stubborn lenders who are improving, but still have a long way to go in my opinion.
Positioning myself as a short-sale specialist and going to any length necessary to get the education needed placed us in a unique position when the banking industry decided they needed to align with real estate agents in this market. My team and I quickly built relationships by doing favors for banks and outsourcers when they reached out.
To say we are graduates of the School of Hard Knocks is an understatement. But this education has provided a solid foundation upon which we have built a solid REO business. REO is real estate owned by banks or investors who need to liquidate it.
Over the next several months I will share real life stories of properties and experiences that will make you want to laugh and cry - sometimes simultaneously. I will offer you a birds-eye view into the inner workings of the banking industry and what you need to know to avoid foreclosure or capitalize on the many incredible investment opportunities in the market.
The housing crisis is far from over and its effects are now being felt in the luxury market as well as all of the other markets.
It is only through education and communication that we will get through this crisis and emerge better for the lessons learned.
Kristen "K.C." Conti can be reached at (941) 270-7181.
