New Brokers Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Baird & Warner Lincoln Park

August 2, 2021August 2, 2021

Agent Spotlight: Kate O’Neill

Though she is still early in her real estate career, broker Kate O’Neill has already learned a lot of valuable lessons — and earned some impressive successes in less than one full year in the business.

For one thing, Kate has yet to have a buyer of hers pay above list price, “which is pretty big in the current market that we’re in,” she says. “I’m pretty proud of that!”

For another, Kate has quickly earned a glowing reputation around the Baird & Warner – Lincoln Park office for her social media savvy, particularly using Instagram as a channel to speak to her sphere, sow the seeds for long-term referral relationships, and reach her ideal millennial buyers.

“One thing with my social media that I always keep in the back of my mind is to treat it like my business card and my social proof,” Kate says. “That way, when people look me up, any potential new clients or friends of mine who know I just got started in this can see that I’m busy and that I’m actively working. That I’m constantly hosting open houses, or selling a property, or teaching them something that they didn’t know.”

July 15, 2021July 15, 2021

Ask Yourself These 3 Questions to Crush the Second Half of 2021

As a real estate broker, it’s important to regularly check in on your most important goals, and make sure that you’re executing a strategy that will help drive your success. Ongoing monitoring, self-evaluation, and targeted training are critical to implementing a sound business plan that will help you get where you want to go.

As we head into the second half of our incredibly strong 2021 real estate market, this moment is an excellent opportunity for real estate brokers to evaluate their performance through the first half of the year. Here are three important questions to ask yourself:

Are you doing everything you need to be doing right now to reach your business goals for 2021? If not, what needs to change?
What are you doing really well right now, and in what areas can you improve?
What are you doing in the second half of the year to invest in the single most important asset to your business — YOU?

May 10, 2021May 10, 2021

Did You Know That Baird & Warner Offers Agents National and Global Reach?

Baird & Warner is synonymous with Chicagoland — but did you know that our brokerage also offers agents national and global reach?

Here at Baird & Warner, all of us take fierce pride in being a part of Chicagoland’s largest independent and locally-owned real estate company. We just celebrated our 166th birthday; that’s more than a century and a half of making real estate easier for buyers and sellers across Chicagoland.

From helping to lead the rebuilding after the Great Chicago Fire, to expanding the L, to fighting for Fair Housing, to strengthening our communities through our Good Will Works charitable arm, our story is the story of Chicago. Our long history has provided us with deep roots in our community, giving us the kind of local experience and expertise that no other brokerage can offer. We know these communities better than anyone else, and we’re always committed to finding new ways to adapt, innovate, and meet our clients’ changing needs.

That means we’re committed to the idea of making real estate easier for everyone — even if you’re buying or selling outside of Chicagoland. We like to say that our agents are local experts with a global reach, with the strategic partnerships and connections it takes to provide our clients with unmatched service whether they’re buying or selling across the state, the country, or the world.

April 28, 2021May 6, 2021

Did You Know That Baird & Warner Can Put More of Your Money Back Into Your Pocket?

How Baird & Warner Puts More Of Your Money Back Into Your Pocket

Baird & Warner offers very competitive commissions as well as impactful support, training, and business planning that empower our agents to develop more sustainable long-term businesses that will be able to grow, scale, and support their goals for many years to come.

And did you know that on top of all that, Baird & Warner can also help put more money back into your pocket each and every year? Here’s how we do it:

April 14, 2021May 6, 2021

Did You Know That Baird & Warner Can Give You a Team on Demand?

At Baird & Warner, we’re known for our unparalleled training opportunities that make it easier for new brokers to accelerate their success. But did you know that we also offer a wide variety of tools and resources designed to help experienced brokers increase their efficiency and generate more business — including the ability to assemble the team that you need, whenever you need it?

Agents at Baird & Warner don’t just have a few tools lying around to pick up and experiment with from time to time; they have entire workshops and a workforce of support staff that serve as the engine for their real estate businesses. This behind-the-scenes machinery is all designed to increase efficiency and drive production so that agents can focus on what’s most important – building their businesses.

For experienced real estate brokers, being able to have a team on-demand is an incredibly valuable service. Experienced agents are busy enough as it is; having to go through the process of staffing up a support team can be an enormous amount to take on. You have to figure out the job descriptions; post and manage listings on job boards; screen and interview candidates; go through onboarding; figure out payroll and scheduling. This can all become tedious and time-intensive, especially when you’re also trying to stay focused on generating new leads and servicing your existing clients.

And on the flip side of the coin, if you ever hit a stretch when you’re not so busy, you might find yourself paying for professional services that you don’t actually need at that time.

At Baird & Warner – Lincoln Park, our agents have the ability to build a team on-demand — getting the qualified assistance they need, when they need it, without having to jump through hoops. It’s all about giving busy agents time back to focus on the activities that matter most.

March 31, 2021May 6, 2021

Agent Spotlight: Virgil Jones

Virgil Jones Baird & Warner Lincoln Park Agent Spotlight

After years in the not-for-profit space, Virgil Jones made the leap into residential real estate — and his growing business is a testament to the power of hard work, building relationships, and continuous learning and growth.

Before transitioning into real estate, Virgil spent 16 years leading educational not-for-profit organizations. In his previous position as CEO of LINK Unlimited Scholars, a scholarship and mentoring organization, Virgil had the opportunity to search for, develop, and build a new headquarters for the organization.

“This experience drew me into real estate,” Virgil explains. “And although I continued to lead LINK for several years after we built this new facility, it piqued my interest in real estate. I learned so much from this experience, and was fortunate to work with top leaders and professionals in the market.”

Seeking a change and knowing that he wanted to pursue an entrepreneurial path, Virgil moved into the real estate space — and interviewed with many different brokerages before finding the right fit.

“I looked at probably five or six different brokerages. I went from small to some of the big-name ones,” Virgil says. “I heard of Baird & Warner, and I knew that it was a very professionally run organization.”

And once he interviewed with the management team at Baird & Warner – Lincoln Park, he was “pretty much sold,” he remembers.

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021

The Importance of Building a Relationship Business

The Importance of Building a Relationship-Based Real Estate Business

If you’ve been following the news lately, you know that there are some pretty substantial changes in the competitive structure of the real estate business going on right now. On a market-wide level, for instance, the real estate services site Zillow has recently been active in making acquisitions of smaller companies; by and large, Wall Street is having a bigger impact on what brokers do on a daily basis here in Chicago and around the country.

As experienced brokers know, the real estate landscape is ever-changing. But the more things shift and evolve, the more convinced I am of the incredible importance of building a relationship-based business that is not reliant on leads from third party companies.

March 9, 2021March 10, 2021

5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Getting Started In Real Estate

Pitfalls to Avoid When Starting a Real Estate Career

Residential real estate is a career field that is exciting, dynamic, and incredibly rewarding — with nearly unlimited earning potential and endless opportunities for learning and growth.

It is also a career path that exemplifies the old adage, “you get out of it what you put into it.” Many of the decisions you make early in your career can have an enormous impact on your future — either setting you up to create the sustainable, lucrative, and flexible business you’ve dreamed about, or limiting your capacity to grow and earn over time.

Want to put yourself in the best position possible for success? Let’s explore five pitfalls or missteps to avoid when getting started in real estate:

February 1, 2021May 6, 2021

How to Choose the Right Brokerage for Your Chicago Real Estate Career

How to Choose the Right Real Estate Brokerage

As you get started in real estate, joining the right brokerage is one of the most important steps you will take on your journey. The support of your brokerage is one of the biggest contributing factors to getting your new real estate business off the ground quickly and successfully. But with so many choices out there, how will you find the brokerage that will be the right fit for you — and for where you want to take your career next?

I encourage new-to-the-business brokers to look at seven factors when researching real estate brokerages. From most important to least important, those criteria are:

Access to management and support
Training and coaching
Office culture
Technology
Broker services
Business opportunities
Commission structure

December 28, 2020December 28, 2020

Chicago 2021 Market Forecast

2020 was an unusual year, to say the least. In the real estate industry, this past year really reinforced the importance of being able to adapt and pivot to new challenges, in order to keep business moving forward.

As we wind down the year, now is the time to look ahead — and start setting down goals and plans for 2021 and beyond.

Whether you’re an experienced agent doing some yearly business planning, or you’re considering whether or not now is a good time to start pursuing a Chicago real estate career, it’s important to know what’s going on in the market, and what we might expect to happen throughout 2021.

Like any marketplace, Chicago’s housing market is driven by two primary forces — supply and demand. Let’s take a look at where we expect those factors to be as we head into 2021: