4A An Opportunity Belief

I believe that the opportunity for a extremely high skilled real estate team is needed in the Tampa Bay Area.

My belief is due to the numerous bad realtors there are in Tampa Bay and how there are minimal large teams. Conducting a real estate transaction takes multiple parties to all come together to sign off on the deal and this can be really difficult on a single agent. There are some teams already put together in the area but none in the way that I plan to do. I have experience working for the team with the most sales in the Tampa Bay area, the Bell-Henderson Team. Even that team though is not broken down how I wish it was. They are just a large group of agents acting as a team but all doing all of the tasks themselves instead of dividing tasks according to the person with the most expertise. The need for this team is ultimately from the individuals buying and selling real estate. They need to be represented by a team who can do what is best in their particular circumstance instead of single agents who cannot do it all or "teams" with the wrong mindset. Being represented by a team divided into certain areas will not only make the process go easier, but may just swing the price onto the buyer or seller's side. The idea of having a team that is divided into roles has been around for a while, but the thing is no one is fully utilizing it. Even the biggest team in Tampa Bay currently is still dealing as if they were all single agents. It is more of the mindset to work together fully throughout the process of buying or selling a home that I plan to fully utilize in my real estate team. To meet this need now, I am sure others are trying to do the same thing but individual's ego seem to always get in the way. This makes the thought of subdividing and conquering each section of real estate nearly impossible. I want to change that mindset with my team. I am 100 percent certain this opportunity exists as long as I can recruit the right agents who will fully buy into my team and our culture.

1) Denise Ciocca - The first person I called was Denise, she is a prospective seller. I asked her all of the questions and she for the most part agreed with what I had to say. The only thing she disagreed with was the idea that there are not other real estate teams who work fully together. She gave me a long story of her brother who attempted to start a real estate team a couple years back and had the same goals of teamwork and task individualization. From her story, I learned the that there have been people that tried this in the past and it is not as easy done as said. The only thing I question is what her brother's expertise in real estate was and what process he was doing to hire people onto his team.

2) James McDonald - The second person I talked to was my real estate coach from Craig Proctor. We talked for a while and I asked him all of the questions and he basically said the same thing Denise did. He emphasized what I was starting to know, that the idea of starting this team was possible but actually finding the right people to of it with that were going to have the same ideas as me would be extremely hard. This conversation made me seriously rethink my idea.

3) Beth Raulerson - The third person I talked to was my mom. She is currently the leader of the Raulerson Team and clearly had a bias towards me that I can get it done. She was more optimistic than James and Denise but the same problem came up with my opportunity. It is going to be hard to find the right people who feel the same way about a team actually utilizing teamwork and trying their hardest to get their individual ego out of it and work for the betterment of the team.

Reflection

I think that the original opportunity is still there for an advanced real estate team in the Tampa Bay area is still possible. There will clearly be a struggle hiring the right people as all 3 of my interviewees claimed. I do believe that I was a little oblivious to the struggle it will be to start my dream team and having feedback from other was very important. A lot of people try in real estate and fail for a lot of reasons. Overall, I still think my business is going to be unlike the rest and soar to the top as the most producing team in the surrounding area. Customer feedback is a priceless tool for an entrepreneur and clearly has its ways to make your idea better but I still think that the entrepreneur has the most power and should not get hurt by what others say about it. Push past the negatives others will say and if you truly believe in your opportunity, like I do, then it is still possible.