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Lauren Bowen’s shift from healthcare to actual property might not be unprecedented, however her process-oriented mindset has fueled her success in each fields. As a pure chief, Bowen sought a profession that provided independence, in the end discovering her calling in actual property.
Bowen joined Robert Slack, LLC, in 2014, rapidly rising to group chief in Ocala, Florida, the place she expanded the agent roster and led the group to prime efficiency in conversion, transactions and quantity. Now, as Chief Working Officer, she oversees 12 group leaders and holds actual property licenses throughout 5 states, with 10 years of trade expertise.
Presently, Bowen is concentrated on adapting to NAR rule modifications, which she describes as “the most pressing issue” her group faces. By way of devoted coaching and clear communication, Bowen has ensured her group’s easy transition.
In a dialog with Inman, edited for size and readability, Bowen mentioned these challenges, the true property trade’s latest shift within the wake of fee lawsuits and what she’s wanting ahead to at Join Austin subsequent week.
Inman: Have you ever narrowed down the instruments that you just’re planning to debate throughout your Inman Join Austin session?
Lauren Bowen: We’re going over a couple of completely different tech instruments that we make the most of. Now we have a large database, and we might be going over Comply with Up Boss for our CRM. We’re additionally going to be pertaining to RealScout, Fello and CallAction. We’ll additionally throw out some others that we use like Digital Maverick and Ylopo.
Is tright here anything that you just sit up for on the convention? Is there anybody particularly that you just’re excited to see?
I all the time love the worth and the audio system that Inman brings collectively. We have been at Inman New York, Las Vegas, and Miami, and we’ll be going to Austin. They cater to the world fairly nicely by bringing related audio system to every of the areas. Now we have brokerages in Miami and in Austin, so bringing audio system and what’s relative to that market has all the time been a robust level.
I haven’t seen Tracy Tutor communicate in individual, and I’m wanting ahead to seeing her communicate. Ryan Rodenbeck from Spyglass Realty might be there. I do know what he and his group do, and we’ve been capable of choose his mind a bit. I’m excited for a few of these audio system who may not be as heard-of on the market having the ability to present the worth that they’ve been capable of assist us with.
I noticed that you just used to work within the healthcare trade, so I used to be very inquisitive about how that transition from healthcare to actual property occurred.
I don’t assume it’s that unprecedented that individuals know that I got here out of the healthcare trade, however you’re really the primary one which has requested what that transition regarded like, and why it occurred.
I labored within the working rooms for 10 years [as a certified surgical technologist and first assist], after which I acquired married and had a child. After I had my son, my coronary heart really stopped, so I wanted the pacemaker, and at the moment, we weren’t certain if I’d be ever capable of resume working within the place I used to be in.
I began different careers the place I could possibly be my very own boss and dictate whether or not I used to be working or not. I discovered actual property and acquired my license and went from there. I suppose I’ve been doing operations my whole life, whether or not it’s working area or operations for the corporate.
Are there any expertise that you just realized within the healthcare trade that you just discover helpful in actual property?
I do. I used to be skilled to be very process-oriented. Workplace surgical procedures are all distinctive, with completely different variations of what happens, however they’re process-oriented. I labored on the whole OBGYN, podiatry and main cardiovascular. From begin to end, you might have a process that it’s essential to comply with and a technique it’s essential to comply with, and that helped me with actual property.
I used to be very methodical and really process-oriented after I got here into actual property. I like individuals, so it was simple for me to construct that relationship with the consumer, get them to showings, get them by way of a deal and assist them of their largest monetary choice they’ll ever make. It actually remains to be a course of, and you must be taught it.
You need to discover what you’re good at doing, and you must discover what you’re dangerous at doing as nicely and tweak that. The method is behind each fields. I do assume that studying that within the healthcare area did assist me achieve the true property area as nicely.
What’s been essentially the most urgent to you recently out there?
Probably the most urgent factor that we’ve needed to give attention to is the lawsuit — the modifications and challenges of the NAR lawsuit that took place, and the procedures that we needed to put in place. 4 out of the 5 states [that we operate in] have been totally operational and already utilized BBAs, however our largest state, Florida, didn’t have BBAs.
Within the states that we did have them in, I can’t say we have been all the time doing them earlier than the displaying like we should always have been. So actually needing signed agreements previous to taking shoppers out to the home was essentially the most urgent factor that we’ve actually been specializing in for most likely the previous three or 4 months. Our brokers wanted to have the ability to articulate the worth of what they’re doing, why purchaser’s brokers have been wanted, in addition to having the ability to get the shoppers to belief them, as a result of this wasn’t one thing shoppers had ever been used to.
Whereas there have been loads of brokers who wanted training on what was occurring, we needed to educate the shoppers as nicely, so we’ve actually put an immense period of time into all of our coaching, our purchaser displays and our Robert Slack Information. Now we have scripting, we now have role-playing and we opened up Zoom rooms day-after-day the week it went stay to ensure we may reply any questions.
To substantiate, you mentioned that 4 of the states already had BBA’s?
Florida didn’t make the most of BBAs previous to this. Idaho, Colorado, Texas and Georgia did make the most of them, so we have been fairly fortunate in that occasion, however we now have to ensure we’re getting them signed previous to showings now. Generally, it was the second, third, or I hate to say, I believe we had some occurring when the affords did, which was not what we should always have been doing.
How have you ever helped group leaders that you just oversee navigate the modifications, and is there anything that has been working very well for you for the reason that modifications took impact?
We realized fairly early on that we couldn’t do it as a generic or normal session between all of our group leaders, as a result of every state was so completely different, even within the paperwork that that they had. We needed to break this down into state-specific programs, state-specific classes. Texas and Florida have been most likely two of the biggest teams that we had as a result of Florida gave us our kinds very late. Texas modified the kinds the day earlier than.
The most important worth that we’ve had is consistency, and that’s within the coaching we’ve held. Now we have a NAR Version, Slack Information is what we name it, that goes out each Thursday which incorporates: state-specific kinds, clean kinds that the brokers can print out and crammed out copies in order that they know what data to place the place with descriptions subsequent to them. We do that for the entire states we’re in in addition to the scripting and position taking part in.
What’s our stance on a number of the gadgets that got here ahead? A variety of it comes right down to dealer stage. What’s our stance relating to listings? How is the fee being paid?
With the ability to be very clear to our brokers and our group leads, being constant within the data we’re giving them, was most likely certainly one of our greatest strengths we had. When the time got here to launch this, I’m assured to say, it was a bit of bit smoother crusing than what I anticipated as a result of we now have been engaged on it for therefore lengthy with all of our group members.
