Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leia Carlton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Leia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

In 2009 the Great Recession was well underway and selling real estate had become a very complex undertaking due to tightening of lending and a market overrun with bank-owned properties and short sales that could take 6-9 months to close. I had been an agent for 5 years. The owners at the time were nearing retirement and they were worried about the company’s income and how the market was affecting real estate overall. They were looking for an exit strategy. I was worried about having to find a new company to work for because I loved where I worked. My business partner and I offered to buy the owners out to preserve our jobs. I was eight months pregnant with my second child at the time, and I remember signing the papers and wondering if I had completely lost my mind. There was very little money in the company account and not a lot of transactions on the horizon. Somehow we scraped by and luckily the market had hit the bottom and things recovered from there.

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

I got into real estate in spite of myself. I think it was in my blood. My mom is an active Realtor in CA, and my grandfather was a house flipper before it became America’s favorite pastime. I thought I would never be interested in being a Realtor, but when I bought my own house at 25 years old, I realized the job was so much more than being a salesperson. My Realtor at the time recruited me to be an agent in her office, and I went for it. That was over twenty years ago.
What I think is different about our approach at Portland’s Alternative Realtors is that we focus 99% of our time on our clients and their needs, instead of spending a large chunk of our time and resources marketing and promoting ourselves. We rely on our clients’ success and satisfaction in achieving their real estate goals to create business for us. We have been able to serve a thriving community of referral business without distracting ourselves from the real work we are here to do, which is helping our clients. Because we are client-centered, we are able to give the highest level of service and support to our buyers and sellers. We don’t believe in doing high volume. We believe in doing high quality, so we spend all the time we need with each person to make sure they get full support during the stressful and exciting time of buying or selling their home. But underneath it all, the reason I got hooked, and the reason the agents in my company are all hooked on being Realtors is because we love people, and we love problem-solving. That is what I realized when I bought my first home at 25. My realtor wasn’t actually selling me anything. As the buyer, I ultimately picked out and decided which house I wanted. I knew I wanted to buy a home. She did not have to sell me on anything. Her job was to listen to my parameters and help me understand and hone in on what I wanted and what made the most sense at that stage in my life. Realtors are counselors who help their clients navigate a nuanced and complicated process that they may only do a handful of times in their life. If we view ourselves as counselors rather than salespeople, we center the process on clients’ specific needs and their timelines. By doing this, we have happy, satisfied clients, who in turn, tell their friends and family about their experience. This ensures that we start our working relationship on day one from a place of trust. Our clients know we are working in their best interest, and we know they believe in us.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The pandemic was a great example of a time when we had to pivot. I’m someone who likes to do meetings and conversations in person, so it was difficult to get on board with the zoom/screen communication model. But once we all cleared out a small space in our homes and set up cute backdrops for our zoom calls (mine was in a closet), we realized that we really could still connect with people over screens. A few times during the pandemic, people were buying from afar and then driving across the country right before closing, which meant the first time I would interact with them in person was on closing day. I truly felt like I had already met them in person after spending so much time on zoom and FaceTime. That was a bizarre time for everyone, but we followed safety protocols, had buckets of masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer in our cars and got out there to keep working. No sourdough bread baking was happening in Realtors homes during the pandemic. We, thankfully were viewed as essential workers, when a large percentage of people needed to shuffle their living situations around in order to make their lives work during an unprecedented time.

Any advice for managing a team?

My best advice for managing a team is being very intentional in the hiring process. Once you have a team of folks with the right chemistry and mindset, things tend to flow. I don’t know how to explain the chemistry part. It’s mainly a feeling, but I can tell you the times I have gotten it wrong, it has been very obvious from day one, and the person usually doesn’t last very long. As far as maintaining morale goes, I am old fashioned and I think we need to spend time together in person. We try to have weekly in person meetings, quarterly volunteering opportunities, and fun group activities, like sound-healing gong baths, swimming parties and goal writing sessions. The more time everyone spends together, the more committed we are to be supportive of one another’s goals. In our office, everyone works at their own pace. We don’t believe in focusing solely on goals of sales volume, we think it is equally, if not more important to focus on goals around how to balance your life with your work. It’s crucial for career longevity to not burn yourself out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.altpdx.com
• Instagram: @Leia_altpdx, @altpdx
• Facebook: Alt Pdx
• Linkedin: Leia Carlton
• Yelp: Portland’s Alternative Realtors
• Other: Google reviews: Portland’s Alternative Realtors