When John Curri had the idea to open a brokerage in 2003 in Central Florida, there were only large real estate companies and mom-and-pop shops with not much in-between. He started with a team of 5 on a mission to create a high-end luxury firm rooted in community to fill that void. In his ocean front town, home to NASA, he knew early on he needed to put a focus on real estate technology, like web and a mobile real estate app to attract high end clients and successfully market their listings. Today they are a thriving boutique real estate brokerage with a team of 30+ real estate agents and over a billion dollars in sales volume.
John shares with us, how to get ahead when starting out in the real estate industry, how high-end buyers and sellers became his forte and how embracing technology allows him to continue to scale his real estate brokerage.
“Our Realty World App, built by HomeStack, offers a level of seamless communication between the real estate agent and the consumer that can’t be found in other apps. We see exactly what properties our clients are viewing, favoriting, and saving, which takes the guesswork out because we have a tool we can use to collaborate together saving us both time and effort.”
With so many "shiny objects" pushed on real estate agents daily, John was actually skeptical when he first heard Realty World was offering his brokerage a "Mobile Real Estate App" but once he started to use it, he was hooked. “The word “Mobile App” has been floating around the real estate industry for a while so I was skeptical, but once we started to use it, I realized a HomeStack App takes the same habits people already have and segways it into a white-label mobile app, branded to us. It gave people a search experience where they felt they were using an app that was very familiar, which gave both the agent and consumer very little learning curve because their habits were already formed.”
John feels that communication is one of the most important things in life, especially in Business and his Realty World App helps hime and his real estate team to get clear streamlined client communication - which saves time. “Our custom real estate app offers a level of seamless communication between the real estate agent and the consumer that can’t be found in other apps. We see exactly what properties our clients are viewing, favoriting, and saving and we can even share listings directly with them. It takes the guesswork out because we have a tool we can use to collaborate together saving us both time and effort.”
Even in 2003 John focused on a website, when many competitors stayed away from real estate technology, which left them behind. Now in 2023, he says it's more important than ever, to keep a hi-touch, system. "Utilizing real estate technology in 2023 is one of the most important components of a real estate agents business. People move so fast and things happen so quickly and on the fly. Don't think of tech as replacing the personal interactions, but it aids in the process and moves it along quicker. People want to do things on their own time, so allowing them to learn in our custom real estate app, allows them to go at their own pace and then we jump in when we are needed. It allows us to provide a constant touch, so our customer feels like we are with them all of the time, guiding them.”
When he was just starting our knowing his market and offering something more than "just opening the door" was a key ingredient to standing out from competitors. "When you are new to the real estate industry, working with buyers is an essential part of your business, but take it a step further. Be a good listener, do your research, pull reports, become an expert in your area and don't wait for people to come to you. Get comfortable with all of the real estate tools and real estate software your brokerage provides to you. You need to bring something more to the table than just opening the door. If you treat your first two years in real estate like college degree, year 3 will be magical.”
“We are so glad that HomeStack developed this real estate mobile app for the real estate agents at Realty World, it has been a game-changer, we love it and we will continue to leverage it to make even more sales using this technology in our business this year”
Make sure to follow along with John on Instagram @curripropertiesrealestate and his team. Learn more about building a white-label app for your real estate team or brokerage.
