Broker Chandra Etienne on the power of industry involvement

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey sits down with Chandra Etienne, the broker-owner of The Core Real Estate Advisors in Miami, Florida. She is also the elected secretary at Miami Realtors and serves as a Director for Florida Realtors and the National Association of REALTORS.

Chandra has built her career and network on the belief in the power of being involved in not just your industry, but in your community. She talks about how engaging with your fellow agents, brokers, and larger industry and community leaders can provide invaluable experiences to elevate your own real estate business and connect with others. They also talk about how you can best be flexible and anticipate upcoming changes to real estate in a way that serves your business and clients in the long run.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• It’s important to be be flexible and open to change in the real estate industry
• It might be time to have those tough conversations with sellers about offering concessions and compensation to buyer’s brokers
• Building authentic relationships with other Realtors is key to a success business
• Get involved with the association’s events and initiatives to cement yourself as an invaluable community resource

Here’s a small preview of today’s interview. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt: The DOJ is throwing things out that are surprising people, such as like them taking a look at the California Association’s forms and deciding those are not what they want. There’s not a ton of sure guidance right now for all of the changes.

How are you even navigating it yourself? Do you work with lot of buyers or do you generally work with listings? If you’re working with a lot of buyers, do you have a new buyer consultation or any specific practices you’re changing?

Chandra Etienne: I’m seeing that there are a lot of people who want to sell but also need to buy, right? So they need to sell in order for them to buy. I find that the conversation is not necessarily different. I think I had one person mention that they saw that they don’t have to pay anymore. Just like before, these are things that were always negotiable, right?

I provided the pros, provided the cons, and then also reminded them that they’re going to be a buyer, right? They also need to buy. Put them in the buyer’s shoes and how still offering compensation, it just increases the potential buyers that they would have for their property, essentially, getting them more money for it. I really think that as agents and as realtors, I think that the noise is a lot louder for us. I think it’s a lot louder for us than it is for the actual buyers and sellers in the market.

The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every week, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.