Elevating Professionalism and Service — RISMedia – Tech Journal

Above, Chris Trapani

VITALS:
Christie’s Worldwide Actual Property Sereno
Years in enterprise: 34
Dimension: 19 workplaces, 650-plus brokers
Areas Served: San Francisco Bay Space, Silicon Valley, Wine
Nation, Lake Tahoe, Sierra Foothills
2023 Gross sales Quantity: $5B-plus
2023 Transactions: 2,965
https://www.sereno.com

Actual property is in Chris Trapani’s blood. Within the Nineteen Forties, his grandfather ran a brokerage—Trapani Realty—alongside “The Avenue” within the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose, California.

The Trapani household spent many weekends viewing properties collectively, whereas younger Chris realized the worth in buying, enhancing and holding actual property for the long term.

So, after graduating from Cal Poly in 1990, Trapani adopted in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. He began at Contempo Realty in 1990, switching to CENTURY 21 when the corporate merged in 1997. One other merger, this time with Coldwell Banker/NRT in 2001, noticed Trapani rise to gross sales supervisor for a pair of Coldwell Banker Los Gatos workplaces, managing a workforce of 200 and seeing greater than $1 billion in gross sales.

Right this moment, Trapani is CEO and co-founder of Christie’s Worldwide Actual Property Sereno, one of many Bay Space’s largest and most efficient domestically owned and operated actual property companies.

As we attain the tip of 2024, how would you characterize your market this previous yr?
Chris Trapani: Quite a lot of purchaser capability in Silicon Valley with too little high quality provide. The Silicon Valley ASP (common gross sales worth) has mirrored the NASDAQ for the previous 25 years resulting from the truth that workers of tech firms make up a big phase of the client inhabitants and have a tendency to transform their rising inventory values into residential actual property. Now we have been in a unit-constrained dynamic resulting from comparatively brief provide, which is why actual property values continued to climb regardless of excessive rates of interest.

How do you foresee 2025 unfolding?
CT: I consider there are pent-up sellers who’ve waited for a wide range of causes—equivalent to low rates of interest on their present properties—however who can not indefinitely droop life choices. Over the long term, actual property cycles are inclined to comply with the regulation that for each motion, there’s an reverse and equal response. Due to this fact, gross sales models will are inclined to normalize over the long term, and I anticipate this to essentially start to take form in 2025 within the San Francisco Bay Space with rising provide assembly up with robust purchaser demand and capability.

How do you keep knowledgeable about present actual property market tendencies to information your corporation technique?
CT: I’ve been a scholar of market dynamics for over 25 years, significantly monitoring month’s provide of stock, % of accessible properties beneath contract and days on market, to call just a few. I scan a number of information feeds a number of occasions day by day (Bloomberg, WSJ, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch) to get a cross part of reports, tendencies and opinions. I’ve additionally develop into hooked on the Acquired Podcast, which covers a large span of subjects. I converse to lots of our brokers day by day who present me with real-time info and anecdotes, and I discover this extremely useful to get a real sense of the market.

How do you present an distinctive buyer expertise to your shoppers?
CT: We continually emphasize “the Sereno manner”—{that a} for-profit firm could make a revenue and never lose its soul. That it does so by striving for the best skilled requirements, together with respectful coping with shoppers, different brokers and giving again to our native communities.

What’s your coaching philosophy?
CT: We offer totally different types of coaching, all with agent growth and programs in thoughts. Lorna Hines, Ninja Promoting and Speed up are all examples of various types however related ideologies. We increase the extent of service with every agent to supply a luxurious gross sales expertise.

How would you describe your management fashion?
CT: I’ve all the time aspired to be a servant chief. My philosophy is that I work for our brokers and other people. Just a few key issues I’ve realized about management—principally by struggling over time—are: Asking others for assist will not be an indication of weak point; incomes respect is extra essential than being appreciated; and there are all the time going to be people who find themselves smarter than you and from whom you’ll be able to be taught. If and if you do discover success, don’t fall into the lure of considering that you simply did all of it by yourself.

How do you keep engaged with the communities the place you use, and why is that this essential for your corporation?
CT: By means of our 1% for Good Charitable Basis, now we have a pulse on the wants of every group we serve. We’ve had greater than $6 million donated to 400-plus native charities chosen by our brokers, and we encourage our brokers to get engaged domestically with volunteerism and management in varied group organizations. Now we have a spirit of volunteerism within the group that additionally extends to organized actual property. Now we have a number of affiliation leaders in our group, together with two presidents of the bigger native associations and incoming presidents, so we’re seen as leaders in our native actual property communities.