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Lauren Bowen’s shift from healthcare to actual property will not be unprecedented, however her process-oriented mindset has fueled her success in each fields. As a pure chief, Bowen sought a profession that supplied independence, finally discovering her calling in actual property.
Bowen joined Robert Slack, LLC, in 2014, rapidly rising to crew chief in Ocala, Florida, the place she expanded the agent roster and led the crew to high efficiency in conversion, transactions and quantity. Now, as Chief Working Officer, she oversees 12 crew leaders and holds actual property licenses throughout 5 states, with 10 years of business expertise.
At present, Bowen is targeted on adapting to NAR rule modifications, which she describes as “the most pressing issue” her crew faces. By way of devoted coaching and clear communication, Bowen has ensured her crew’s easy transition.
In a dialog with Inman, edited for size and readability, Bowen mentioned these challenges, the actual property business’s latest shift within the wake of fee lawsuits and what she’s trying ahead to at Join Austin subsequent week.
Inman: Have you ever narrowed down the instruments that you simply’re planning to debate throughout your Inman Join Austin session?
Is there anything that you simply look ahead to on the convention? Is there anybody specifically that you simply’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 powerful level.
I haven’t seen Tracy Tutor converse in individual, and I’m trying ahead to seeing her converse. Ryan Rodenbeck from Spyglass Realty will probably be there. I do know what he and his crew do, and we’ve been capable of choose his mind a bit. I’m excited for a few of these audio system who won’t 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 simply used to work within the healthcare business, so I used to be very interested by how that transition from healthcare to actual property occurred.
I don’t suppose it’s that unprecedented that individuals know that I got here out of the healthcare business, however you’re really the primary one which has requested what that transition seemed 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 received married and had a child. Once I had my son, my coronary heart really stopped, so I wanted the pacemaker, and at the moment, we weren’t positive if I might 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 received my license and went from there. I assume I’ve been doing operations my total life, whether or not it’s working area or operations for the corporate.
Are there any abilities that you simply realized within the healthcare business that you simply discover helpful in actual property?
I do. I used to be skilled to be very process-oriented. Workplace surgical procedures are all distinctive, with totally different variations of what happens, however they’re process-oriented. I labored usually OBGYN, podiatry and main cardiovascular. From begin to end, you’ve gotten a process that you want to observe and a technique you want to observe, 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 folks, so it was straightforward for me to construct that relationship with the shopper, get them to showings, get them by means of a deal and assist them of their largest monetary choice they’ll ever make. It actually remains to be a course of, and it’s a must to study it.
You need to discover what you’re good at doing, and it’s a must to discover what you’re dangerous at doing as nicely and tweak that. The method is behind each fields. I do suppose that studying that within the healthcare area did assist me achieve the actual 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 must always have been. So actually needing signed agreements previous to taking purchasers 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 purchasers to belief them, as a result of this wasn’t one thing purchasers had ever been used to.
Whereas there have been loads of brokers who wanted training on what was occurring, we needed to educate the purchasers as nicely, so we’ve actually put an immense period of time into all of our coaching, our purchaser shows and our Robert Slack Info. Now we have scripting, we have now role-playing and we opened up Zoom rooms each day the week it went reside to ensure we may reply any questions.
To verify, 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 have now to ensure we’re getting them signed previous to showings now. Generally, it was the second, third, or I hate to say, I feel we had some occurring when the affords did, which was not what we must always have been doing.
How have you ever helped crew leaders that you simply 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 crew leaders, as a result of every state was so totally different, even within the paperwork that they’d. We needed to break this down into state-specific programs, state-specific classes. Texas and Florida have been most likely two of the most important teams that we had as a result of Florida gave us our types very late. Texas modified the types the day earlier than.
What’s our stance on among the gadgets that got here ahead? A number of it comes all the way down to dealer stage. What’s our stance in relation to listings? How is the fee being paid?
With the ability to be very clear to our brokers and our crew leads, being constant within the data we’re giving them, was most likely one among our greatest strengths we had. When the time got here to launch this, I’m assured to say, it was a little bit bit smoother crusing than what I anticipated as a result of we have now been engaged on it for therefore lengthy with all of our crew members.
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