We were lucky to catch up with Alyssa and David Ramirez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alyssa and David, appreciate you joining us today. When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience an industry-wide U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.
We have definitely experienced U-Turns in the Real Estate industry, with the most notable u-turn happening in April 2020 after the pandemic was declared and Austin was issued a stay-at-home order. While there was a period of complete standstill, shortly after business continued but we wouldn’t quite say “as usual”. With more time on our hands than usual, we were able to concentrate on changing our processes to reflect the new normal and needed to proceed with confidence about how much of the process of buying or selling a home could realistically be handled virtually. Our clients appreciated that we were quick to react and creative about our approaches – including many detailed virtual home tours so that we could catch the important-to-them details about the home.
Aside from shifting during a pandemic, the Real Estate industry is directly affected by the economy and can also be influenced by the media on a week-to-week basis. Market changes, no matter if they are labeled “good” or “bad”, can lead to fear and confusion in those who have either home-buying or selling on their horizon. A large part of our job is to listen to our clients concerns, as well as manage emotions and expectations while our clients make emotional decisions. When we began to understand that our responsibility is to be up to date about daily market changes and how it impacts decision-making, it makes it relatively easy to pivot and change what we offer to clients because in the end, it’s all about providing a space for our clients to feel heard and educated so that they can continue making whatever decision is best for them.
Alyssa and David, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Our story has been somewhat kismet from the get-go – we are both Native Austinites who met studying abroad in Spain and planned to start our careers in Real Estate right out of college. With family influence in real estate and building generational wealth from investing, we’ve always had a passion about continuing to realize our potential within the real estate advising and investing realm (and of course, seeing the amazing homes that are sprinkled within our hometown is just the cherry on top!). As we approach almost a decade in the real estate industry, we’ve curated a team that has the capacity to not only help our clients with buying and selling with great attention to detail, but also approaching the experience with a passion to educate them on all the possibilities that investing in real estate offers. Most importantly, we advocate for our clients to be well-informed homeowners and commit to being their life-long real estate resource. Our clients trust that we are knowledgeable and available to give our opinion and advice on everything from what design updates add value to how they can use one asset to procure another.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
We jumped on the “social media” train – specifically utilizing the platform as a business marketing tool – quickly and were consistent in our engagement with our followers. We’ve always seen it as our free virtual billboard. Just as we do when people seek our help directly, there has never been any pressure to buy or sell, but to allow us the opportunity to educate them on all things real estate so that they can trust that we are their resource when the time does come for them to seek professional real estate help. In all reality, helping clients with things like filing tax exemptions and providing a yearly market review of their neighborhood, are extra offerings that most real estate agents either don’t have the capacity to consistently provide to their clients, or they’re not aware of how valuable that information actually is to their clients.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Being a part of our clients’ lives and taking care of our people even after they buy or sell (or even if they don’t!) has been the best catalyst for our growing team. It’s not a strategy really, but that attention allows us to enjoy getting to know people on a deeper level while continuing to be a part of their lives and milestones. This leads our clients to have a sincere trust in us, not only as professionals but as humans who care for them and the decisions they make that will impact their financial futures.
We seek every opportunity to spend time with and appreciate those who support our business, and there is no greater compliment than when someone takes the time and has the trust in us to introduce us to their friends or family who could use our help. Our appreciation ranges from small deliveries to hosting a few events throughout the year. We also aim to provide as much valuable information to homeowners or hopefully homeowners – topics like property tax and exemption deadlines, home maintenance tips, property value reports and mortgage information tend to garner high interest from our clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.realtyaustin.com/t/ramirez-team/agents/ramirez-team
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ramirezteamatx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RamirezTeamATX
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssa-ramirezteam/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3-mO0o_uA1PR9fWEiRnWXw
- Other: https://www.google.com/search?q=google+ramirez+team&oq=google+ramirez+team&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30j69i60l3j69i65l3.2108j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x8644cd8e679e6bf3:0x614ecbbb2acc8d22,1,,,
Image Credits
Annie Ray Photography