We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cheryllyne Vaz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cheryllyne below.

Alright, Cheryllyne thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar your firm earns is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

We built our business doing open houses! As neither of us are natives of the Twin Cities (though we’ve now been here for 20 years!), we did not have a huge base of family and friends to start with as clients. Most realtors will host an open house or two a week, if that! We knew we needed to find business, and FAST! That lead us to host 5 open houses a week – 2 each on Saturday and Sunday, and a happy hour open on a weekday. As we had 3 young kids at the time, they came with us everywhere! I would host the opens, and Andy would have the kids with, in the car or around the neighborhood while the opens were being held. We had 3 clients in the last two months of the year after getting our licenses late in 2016, and then went on to close 26 the next year!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

The Vaz+Harwood Team grew out of a need for change – in business, in our family finances, and in seeing the way real estate had so often been handled. I had a series of health complications and a health scare that led to bills and debt piling up. My husband Andy and I needed to find a way to tackle the debt and protect our home and family. At the time, we had a small marketing firm, and it wasn’t providing what we needed. We looked at real estate and thought we could bring a fresh approach to a new field, consisting of strong and dynamic marketing, equity and service for all clients, regardless of price point, and a strong adherence of fiduciary duties like my family always advocated for.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Real estate is very focused on lead generating, and a big part of that is farming, or door knocking. As an Indian American, this was challenging for me. One time when I knocked on a door in an upscale neighborhood, I was greeting with a gun in my face and the words, “You don’t look American, you don’t sound American, what business do you have selling houses to Americans?” Events like that are far too common for me and my fellow BIPOC Realtors. I knew I had to be creative with how I found clients and built up community around me beyond our incredible and supportive South Minneapolis neighborhood where we lived at the time.

Those 5 open houses a week? Those were great starting content for social media. Posting video walkthroughs, schedules of the opens, and cool features of the homes I was holding open. All of that became incredible content to tell via social media. And of course, I looked fabulous while holding the opens, which helped me intermix real estate and personal topics, like my love for vintage clothes, unique antiques, and awesome design.

I wanted to share the things I loved, and the cool homes I was seeing, with the community, and became very active on Nextdoor and Facebook Mom’s Groups. I love connecting people, and introducing people to one another, holding events that I promoted through social media, and more, were all ways I connected authentically with my social community. Too many realtors try to keep business and personal live separate on social media. I have found it works best when the two are combined, to authentically show your whole and complete self. And hey, if building community online isn’t a Realtor’s version of farming 2.0, then I don’t know what is!

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Definitely through social media! That’s the easiest way to see what everyone is up to day to day. I become Facebook and Instagram friends with all of my clients, and we get to share each others’ wins and struggles, family life and new adventures together.

While social media helps with the day to day, we know the pitfalls that come with social media too. I make it a point to throw tons of parties for out clients so we can get together in person too. Each year, for the Indian festivals of Holi and Diwali, we throw big client parties and they are SO much fun! Tons of color, yummy Indian food, and lots of laughs are had each year. And the parties are truly a family affair.

I also love to buy little gifts and surprise some of our clients with gifts of gratitude, like out nurses and teachers in the height of COVID to thank them for the work they were doing, for our Veterans in November, and for new additions to families, weddings, and other big life events!

Contact Info:

• Website: vazharwood.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vazharwood/ OR https://www.instagram.com/cheryllyne.vaz/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vazharwood OR https://www.facebook.com/CHERYLLYNE
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vazharwood/ OR https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryllyne/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RjPACET3xoOUntMkQkmoQ
• Other: search.vazharwood.com

Image Credits
Rucha Joshi of Hashtags Photography, Bill Hoben, and Chris McDuffie.