Toronto real estate broker Andrew Ipekian was advising friends and family on real estate deals even before he entered the business. A gift for sales from the very beginning, rapidly propelled him to the top of the Keller Williams brokerage, allowing him to build a team and tour the globe imparting his knack for negotiation on other realtors. This is his story.
A Second Set of Eyes
Before I ever began in real estate, friends and family would ask me to give them advice on their home sales and purchases. I'd coach them through the negotiations, telling them what to ask and giving them general advice about what to look for in the valuation.
When I was in my mid-twenties, a friend asked me to help him purchase a pre-construction condo with money his parents gave him. I helped with the negotiation.
READ: 7 Tips To Help You Choose The Right Real Estate Agent
He trusted me because I was a top salesman at Pitney Bowes for 13 years. I won Rookie of the Year and became their number one sales manager and sales representative in Canada. I could sell anything that wasn't nailed down. During that time, I was put in the lowest performing sales region and I turned them into the number one sales region within a year.
So, people knew I could help them. I knew sales and was a great negotiator.
I gave so much advice that it didn't take long before I started to hear "You're really good at this, you should do this for a living," so I did.
Sweet Victory
I am passionate about real estate and I have a genuine interest in it, but what I really love is winning and all the victories that come from the negotiation process itself.
It's not the money. If you are successful, the money follows anyway. What I'm talking about is being able to get my clients a home they thought they would never be able to afford or making sure that my clients are able to sell their homes for way above asking. It's the victory in helping them sell their home much quicker than they thought. I also ensure my clients never has to lower their price.
READ: 6 Home Staging Mistakes That Could Sink Your Selling Price
These are the victories I was winning for my clients and these are the victories that distinguish me from the countless other agents in Toronto. It's my tenacity and drive to win that garnered me the Rookie of the Year Award across 32 countries as part of Keller Williams Worldwide. I've been consistently ranked among the brokerage's top five brokers in Canada several years in a row.
No Secret Formula
My success means I am sent to speak to other Keller Williams agents around the world about what works for me. But really, there's no secret formula. You just have to put your head down and do the work. Have an open house.
Problem is, they don't have open houses some places in Europe. I spoke in Algarve, Portugal in 2018 to over 1000 agents about sales and marketing and I heard, "What do you mean, strangers, walking through the house?" They also can't imagine having multiple showings in a day.
But I think, so what? Have an open house, they work. You just have to change your mindset.
READ: Confessions Of An Open House Voyeur (And You May Just Relate To This)
The Ipekian Real Estate Group has open houses all the time, but they don't always have to be the cookie-cutter open houses you're used to. We have a Sunday Brunch and say, "Come over for Sunday Brunch." No one can refuse free food and you just happen to see a house you might want to buy while you're at it.
Anatomy Of An Ipekian Agent
Building a team for me actually began when I hired an assistant. It was probably something I should've done much earlier, but I wanted to have my hand in everything for as long as I could.
It expanded out from that one assistant into what our team has become now.
READ: 20 Questions To Consider At Your Next Open House
If you want to be an Ipekian Real Estate Group agent, you have to keep your head down and put your nose to the grindstone. Our agents never stop they provide every kind of service you can imagine to our clients.
At the end of the day, they need to have impeccable attention to detail and they need to be able to extract every ounce of value from the negotiation for their clients at all times. This is how we win.
