In June of 2019, I took one of the biggest risks of my life. I decided to leave my career at Marriott and take on real estate in New York City. Most would not argue that real estate is a hustle anywhere, but in NYC there is an added layer of competition and understanding of the marketplace. Luckily, I had worked in the hotel industry for ten years and held different sales and client service roles that could be applied to the world of real estate.
As I got going, I found myself doing similar sales activities day to day and even talking to clients about how I would have back when I was working for Marriott. Even though I was in a new industry, it was comforting to build rapport and deal with clients in the same way I always had over the years. As someone who is an entrepreneur at heart, my wheels started spinning. I realized I was doing the same job just in a new industry. This thought process led me to think about lifestyle brands. Real estate and travel jobs force you to build relationships and understand client needs so you have a full understanding of their lifestyle. The two truly go hand in hand. For example, if you help a buyer find their perfect home you know their style…do they like contemporary, traditional or mid-century modern real estate? If you know this then you can easily identify the perfect vacation home or hotel brand for their next trip. Combining these two services adds more value to my clients, separates me from my competition and allows me to build rapport. As a side note, 99.9% of people love talking about real estate and travel…so I promise I don’t find myself “selling” all that much. The core of this business is building relationships and educating my clients on everything I can offer them.
If you are a real estate agent reading this and enjoy travel my guess is, you could be having an “ah-hah” moment. I should note, I love combining real estate and travel so much I made a business out of it.
Below are the reasons that motivated me to start my business and how you can add travel to your real estate business as well.
- An established network of clients
- A reason to connect with past clients and offer an additional service
- Grow referral business through real estate and travel
- People travel more than they buy real estate
- Earn extra commissions through travel
- Booking travel is 100% remote
- Access to incredible vacation homes, condos, villas, resorts, hotels and cruises at discounted rates that you can book for personal travel as well as for clients
- Improve monthly newsletters with added services, lifestyle component and travel incentives