In this week’s episode of the RealTrending podcast, host Tracey Velt sits down with Portside Real Estate Group CEO Dava Davin to discuss the importance of buyer consultations, brokerage leadership styles and solutions for brokerage growth in 2025.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. After a brief icebreaker segment, Davin dives into the her background in athletics and how it informs her approach to business and leadership.
Velt: You’re an endurance athlete. Tell me a little bit about how your athletic pursuits informed your business.
Davin: Once you can tap into your mind, you can achieve anything. And I think that’s where that translates into business, glass ceilings and taking it to the next level. My MO is not being naturally athletic yet I’ve finished four Ironmans and several marathons. It’s not being particularly intelligent or coming from real estate but being able to run a pretty great brokerage.
Velt: What do you find as the biggest challenge in the industry or with your business today?
Davin: The biggest challenge is my drive for growth, to achieve and to keep moving things forward. So, that’s important while also trying to stay true to Portside’s core and keeping everything authentic. As we expand, it’s just so important to me that every decision reflects our integrity, culture and our community focus.
Velt: How has the post-NAR settlement transition been for you and your agents?
Davin: We were fortunate to have already been executing buyer agreements since the inception of the company. Our company policy has always been to have a buyer consultation and have them understand how you’re compensated. That’s been very empowering and it just allowed us to rise as professionals in our area.
Velt: What would be your best practices for the buyer consultation?
Davin: It’s almost like you’re volunteering. They don’t really understand how you were getting paid. And so, I think having that opportunity to be like, ‘I’m so glad you referred to me. I just want to have an opportunity to sit down and chat with you about how the process works and how I’m compensated. So, let’s go ahead and get that scheduled.’
Velt: You are the sole owner of the brokerage. Tell me about your leadership style, and have you seen it evolve over the years?
Davin: It’s that combination of the visionary and the integrator. You need both to do great things. And you learn so much from people who have different skills than you do.
Velt: When you look at the industry in general, where do you see the most opportunity in 2025?
Davin: I’m part of a couple CEO groups. We always talk about, ‘Where’s the opportunity?’ And the answer is usually ancillary services. You’ve got to add title and mortgage and insurance. You’ve got to get your brokerage to be more profitable. And I think that’s a valid answer to the opportunity question. I don’t know if it’s answering the opportunity question or the opportunity to make money in real estate question.
I am so excited for the next five years. I feel like we’re not new and we’re not necessarily small anymore. We’re the second-largest brokerage in Maine. We are going to continue to grow our foundation. We’re more fired up about that than ever with things changing in our country. We’re going to become a top player in New Hampshire as we’ve done in Maine. We have some fun things coming down the pike for 2025.
