We were lucky to catch up with WILLIAM WARD recently and have shared our conversation below.

WILLIAM, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Early in your career, how did you think through the decision of whether to start your own firm or join an established firm?

MARZUCCO REAL ESTATE – HOWARD | WARD

I started real estate in 2020 after graduating from Florida Gulf Coast University with my bachelor’s in Communications, Public Relations, and journalism. I immediately joined Marzucco Real Estate in Naples. Marzucco Real Estate is a 100% commission company, meaning I need to bring my work to the table to make any money and continue to upscale my career. I jumped right into real estate full-time and never looked back.

My first few deals were with friends and family in Lee County, West Palm Beach, and Broward County. I have since completed over 300 deals on and off-market throughout the entire state of Florida with over $24 million sold between me and my partner Devon Howard. Me and Devon were both FGCU grads and both started real estate and joined Marzucco at the same time. We both started with a $200 per month advertising budget and now we are up to about $2000 each per month in marketing.

3 years later… we opened up our branch location in Fort Myers, FL with our Partner, Broker, FRIEND, and owner of Marzucco Real Estate, Josh Marzucco.

Josh saw our vision and knew we were destined for great things. We all invested as partners and in just 2 months we already have over 20 agents at our Fort Myers location and over 400 agents throughout the state of Florida. Our projected gross income for just our branch location is 50k by the end of the year 2023 and over $150k by the end of the year 2024. Our overall goal is to expand the offices throughout the state of Florida to increase the number of agents and eventually branch into other states.

I am very excited to see where this venture takes us as we continue to grow in our careers.
It’s safe to say that Marzucco Real Estate HOWARD | WARD will be around for years to come.

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

At Maruzucco Real Estate we handle all aspects of real estate whether purchasing, selling, rentals, commercial, etc. We are a one-stop shop for everything real estate related. We also have contract partners for all types of services pertaining to real estate like title, lenders, land maintenance, property management, etc. At Marzucco we pride ourselves on training our agents to be knowledgeable in the field and to take care of their clients by any means. Even if that means taking a commission cut or covering costs associated with the purchase and sell of property. We are taught to work for our clients and not chase money. Overal we are generally very young and people see us as the future of real estate.

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

In order to have the commercial space and capital needed to start our office branch location in Fort Myers, we had to sell Devon Howard’s Gym, HD Fitness Studios. Devon had the gym for 4 years before we decided to sell and start the office together. It was an emotional ride and we literally tore up the gym with our bare hands. The gym had been a consistent money maker for Devon but he saw the vision we all had and we all agreed to go forward. Part of the deal included we sublease the space under the existing lease agreement and agreed to sell the gym equipment to Josh Marzucco. We all agreed and moved forward. We also needed to come up with money for the initial investment, buildout, furniture, board dues, signage and everything else that came along unexpectedly that needed to get covered.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Referrals and word of mouth are the best way to grow and thrive in this industry. Market and advertising with a budget and goal in mind is also key. Everything you invest in should have a return on investment. Lastly, I’m not a greedy person, but I never leave money on the table. You earn what you negotiate not what you deserve. I learned all my negotiation tactics from lawyers and other top-producing realtors.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://williamward.marzuccorealestate.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willythecloser/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/willythecloser/

Image Credits
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THREE PALMS MEDIA & MARZUCCO REAL ESTATE – HOWARD | WARD