Editorial
Front Page - Friday, April 16, 2010
A day in the life of one of Chattanooga’s busiest Realtors
David Laprad
Chattanooga Realtor Charlotte Mabry prepares to tape a video she plans to use to promote her business. Mabry leads a team of agents and other staff members at the Keller Williams downtown office.
- David Laprad
As Chattanooga Realtor Charlotte Mabry was earning her music education degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, she was also preparing for a career in real estate. Following college, she taught music in public schools for several years, and today she directs the choir at Red Bank Baptist Church on Wednesday nights. But as she learned to use the diverse elements of a music ensemble to produce a single, harmonic sound, she was gaining the skills she’d one day need to lead a team of Realtors straight through the heart of an economic recession.
“We’re doing $20 to $40 million a year in sales,” she says, referring to herself and the team of six that work under her at Keller Williams Downtown. “For the past eight years, we’ve averaged 120 houses a year.”
Mabry sold 41 of those houses herself in 2009, and she’s showing no signs of slowing down. “These are the files I’m working on today,” she says, picking up a stack of listings about a foot high. Although her to-do list is longer than her arm, she says her team keeps everything well within her reach.
“I have a listing coordinator, a selling coordinator and four additional agents,” she says. “They’re here to address the needs of our buyers. My job is to look after the needs of our sellers.”
Mabry started exploring the team concept about 15 years ago when she became too busy to handle all of the business she was attracting. She started out with one assistant and went from there.
“Everyone on my team has a specific duty, and they’re all amazing at what they do,” she says. “If I stay out of their way, they get everything done and make me look better than I deserve.”
Mabry’s team must be doing a good job because she looks great. She sounds good, too, as the people who listen to her weekly real estate talk show on WGOW know. Every Saturday morning from 9 to 10, Mabry discusses topics relevant to real estate and answers questions from callers. While she focuses on the real estate industry in general rather than her own business, the show is a magnet for new clients.
“It’s our strongest marketing tool,” she says. “I get phone calls every day from people who’ve heard me on the radio.”
Mabry has worked hard for her success; however, she’s the first to admit she didn’t achieve it on her own.
Fueled by financial ambition, a strong competitive steak and more marketing savvy than the average music education teacher acquires in college, she reached out to others and established the right connections.
For starters, Mabry became Dave Ramsey’s endorsed real estate agent in Chattanooga about eight years ago. More recently, she met Matt Wagner, a marketing consultant with a company called Radio and Television Experts. Wagner persuaded Mabry to begin doing radio commercials and then secured her an endorsement from conservative talk show host Sean Hannity, who has a daily audience of millions.
That endorsement led to Mabry having the show on WGOW.
Mabry is also making waves in the Chattanooga real estate market with her trade program, in which a client “moves up” to one of her listings and she either sells their current house in 120 days or buys it herself.
While the unit to be sold has to meet certain criteria, Mabry isn’t losing sleep over her unique proposition, as most of the houses she lists are on the market an average of 90 days.
Despite having made a name for herself locally, Mabry continues to draw on the expertise of others to improve her skills and further her career. She utilizes the services of nationally renowned real estate coach Bob Corcoran, for instance, and has attended several Star Power conferences.
Mabry doesn’t squirrel away her knowledge; rather, she passes it on to others. In addition to coaching her team, she teaches classes at Keller Williams and is filming a series of training videos for real estate agents. “It’ll cover such basics as which scripts to use when you answer the phone,” she says.
Undergirding Mabry’s efforts to succeed are core values she says guide the way she does business. “It’s never meant more to me to be No. 1, but the thing I want to be known for is honesty. I tell my clients I can sell their home, but I’m not going to tell them what they want to hear just so I can put a sign in their yard. I’m going to do the right thing, regardless of the money.”
As a 25-year veteran of the real estate industry, Mabry has been around long enough to see agents doing business the right and the wrong ways. Her career in home sales began when she was trying to sell her own house and her agent told her she’d make a good Realtor.
Mabry took her advice, thinking real estate would make a good part-time gig.
The realities of working in real estate made themselves known soon after Mabry set up shop at the Coldwell Banker franchise in the Sears at Northgate Mall in 1986. Since someone had to be in the office every time the mall was open, Mabry spent a lot of time on duty, learning the ropes.
“It’s where I learned how to sell things,” she said.
In the years that followed, Mabry gained more experience, first at Realty Center and then at Remax. A couple of years ago, the opportunity arose for her to participate in the launch of a new Keller Williams office, and she jumped at the chance.
Mabry’s approach to her real estate career hasn’t left much room for other things, although she is married and has one son.
She calls her husband a saint for putting up with her crazy schedule and says she appreciates her son, who lives in Murfreesboro, Tenn., doing the same as he grew up.
Instead of dwelling on the sacrifices she and her family have made, though, she looks ahead to when they all pay off. “I want to retire sooner than later,” she says.
In the meantime, Mabry says she’ll continue to take pleasure in her work. “I enjoy helping people sell their homes. And I like the uniqueness of each day.”
|
|