We were lucky to catch up with Tiana Ponti Morales recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tiana, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.
I love solving problems.
In Real Estate I am solving problems daily- whether that’s finding the right home for someone, when there is nothing on the market, trying to negotiate terms for them that they need, or even helping someone decide that moving right now is not the best option for them.
In the last 2 years, given the current market conditions and the lack of home inventory, I have been able to secure my clients homes off market by being persistent, and connecting with home sellers to “make inventory”. As agents we cant just solely rely on what’s on the market, we also have to go find and get what the buyers are looking for. Not every seller wants to list on the market, so a lot of times its a win/win for both buyer and seller.
Tiana, 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?
I transitioned into real estate after a successful career in Retail as an Associate Director of Merchandising for a large ecommerce retailer. While I loved working in the Retail Industry, I was ready for a change into something different where I was helping people directly (vs indirectly in my previous career). Having strong work ethic, and working 50+ hours a week, I knew working for myself would be something I inherently loved.
Its pretty cliche but I read the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” By Robert Kiyosaki and wanted to get into real estate as an investor because of that book. While still at my corporate job, I studied to get my real estate license AND found the first investment property my husband and I would purchase – it was also my first transaction as an agent! I was hooked, and wanted to help others buy investment properties.
While I love helping people buy/sell investment properties, I also love helping people find their next home as well. I think its important to be diversified and be able to help in multiple facets of someone’s life. I work hard for my clients, and meet them where they are. Everyone is in different places in their life, and real estate journeys so my job is to understand their wants, needs, and help them get there through my work. From first time buyers, to wanting a 3rd vacation home, to buying their 7th investment. I am constantly reading their body language when in a home, and asking questions to make sure we are on the same page.
My clients love that- I am not just settling for what they say but really getting to the root of their needs and reaffirming what they want or don’t want. There’s no fluff or BS – we are working towards a goal and I am happy to navigate, but I wont just sell the pretty picture. And a lot of people will.. but it’s imperative to give the real deal, and sometimes the story isn’t great but needs to be told.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
A lot of people think starting a real estate business is cheap. Compared to most businesses, it can be. However, there are still start up costs that most people don’t think about in real estate – Dues, subscriptions, fees, etc. I wanted to give myself a cushion for these expenses, without having to dip into my personal savings, so I saved up $10k to kick me off into the real estate world. Watching where I invested my money in the business and focusing on client acquisition helped me to not have to take from my personal finances since launching my business 3+ years ago. Now I am in a period of trying to grow and scale the business so I am balancing out a similar scenario, “what do I need to save to help me get where i want to go without going in the red”.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Getting into the Real Estate industry I was naive to the sales aspect of the role I was now taking on. To me people in sales were ‘sleazy’ and just said whatever it took to get you to buy what they were selling, so I had a really hard time transitioning to a ‘sales person’.
This lead me to fail quite a few times with clients early on because someone (ME!) needed to help the clients envision what they couldn’t in the moment, or tell them facts that may sway them one way or another, or even help them realize this home is exactly what they are looking for, or that what they want is a little more expensive than they thought.
I really had to unlearn that sales = sleazy because it 100% isn’t the case, and the right sales person is asking you more questions than necessary to help you get where you’re going. I think now its also easier to spot those sleazy sales people (because unfortunateley they are still out there). I focus on asking really good questions and developing a relationship with my clients that put them at ease that I will always do the right thing for them, even if that means no sale. At the end of the day my job is to help guide, and the clients get to decide what they want.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sellingflhouses.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiana_ponti_morales/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDt96QW2JwjQjOfwIQTHrwQ
- Other: Google reviews: https://www.google.com/search?q=tiana+ponti+morales%2C+palm+beach+county+real+estate&oq=tiana+ponti+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgAEEUYJxg7MggIABBFGCcYOzIGCAEQRRg5MgwIAhAjGCcYgAQYigUyBggDEEUYOzINCAQQABiGAxiABBiKBTIGCAUQRRg9MgYIBhBFGD0yBggHEEUYPdIBCDM2MTBqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Image Credits
studio910pb