Today we’d like to introduce you to Vickey Wachtel.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Vickey. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Briefly about me! After living out of the country for 12 years in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Dubai, my husband and I returned to Houston. I opened a retail store in Old Town Katy “Imagine That Creations” a one-stop decorating accessories center. I worked with clients and Realtors, decorating and consulting for 5 years before deciding to close the doors and get my license.
In 2006 I jumped into the Real estate with both feet like I do most things in my life, I closed 47 transactions in my first full year. The next year I decided to cut back and start working on getting my brokers license in the process I achieved 11 designations, I decided that if I needed 900 hours to qualify I might just as well get some of the letters after my name. That was one of the best decision I could have made it lead me to being in the first HAR Leadership group of graduates, chairing the Education committee at HAR and meeting leaders in the Real Estate community that I would not have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.
3 years into this madness in 2009 I started Imagine Realty International and worked by myself for 3 years until one day in 2012 when I was showing a house I fell on a wet sidewalk and broker my elbow…I toughed it up and kept showing the house and then drove myself home so my husband could take me to the hospital, 2 weeks later I had surgery and had pins put the ball of my elbow to put it back together. I was in a soft cast for 6 weeks and then 9 weeks of physical therapy to get the use of my arm back. I took that as a sign that maybe I should think about recruiting agents. I asked for help from a dear friend who was also a broker and started building the brokerage. Proof that what we think is negative can be a huge positive in our lives.
We leased our first office a few months later for 2 years then 2014 we bought our own building. I have continued to recruit new and active agents to join us in this journey. I have found that I enjoy teaching and have written 16 classes to qualify for a GDA designation (Graduate of Dream Academy) I have the outline and questions ready to submit to TREC for CE credit of 40 hours and will be submitting this month.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As smooth as a brick road… There are many frustrations that go along with running a brokerage, trusting others to follow through as you would and having no idea if that is happening or not unless someone complains. It’s easy to do everything yourself, so much easier than getting someone else to do it.
My first few years I would be heartbroken when an agent would decide to leave our office and go somewhere else. I took it so personal, what could I have done different, what could I have added, I, I, I, never thinking that it had nothing to do with me. I listen to coaching cd’s and I know that 10% is a guideline of success when recruiting, training and retaining. That didn’t make it any easier to accept.
In 2015 I went to a certification class to become an Infinite Possibilities Trainer held by Mike Dooley and after 3 days of intense training Mike was on stage when he said something that changed everything for me and my business “You cannot expect others to live up to your expectations of them” From that day forward I took a different perspective to what was happening with our agents.
You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make them drink. Imagine Realty offers everything for an agent to succeed but it matters not what tools you have in front of you if you are not ready to pick them up and go to work.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Imagine Realty International – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Imagine Realty International was from the onset designed to make dreams come true. I wanted a brokerage that not only provided the very best service and advantages for our clients but one that made it possible for agents to thrive. Too many brokerages are set up with profit for the brokerage first in mind and too few actually have the agents well-being the front-runner of goals to achieve.
I had a mentor back in the 90’s, Petra Hanafee who owned a moving company in Jakarta Indonesia. I worked for him for 2 years. I learned much from this soft-spoken man who came up from a packer to building the #3 company at the time in Jakarta. He told me that while the other companies were paying for expats to sell to the husbands at the office he hired the wives at a much cheaper rate and went in through the kitchen. Who really makes the decisions when it comes to packing up the house, the wife.
By saving that money he was able to give me an almost unlimited budget for marketing and within one year I took it to the #1 spot… I try to use what I learned here at Imagine Realty, the brokerage pays for the marketing on the listings in order to keep it at a higher quality and consistent. We have a full department and video studio dedicated to marketing our properties and agents to the latest and highest standards for the industry.
I am a none compete broker which allows me the time to keep up with all the changes and trends used to sell real estate like 3-D video’s the latest and greatest when it comes to marketing a home to those that do not live close by. When I first saw this I knew it was something we had to do. The cost for a listing can run $300 to $500 paid for by the listing agent in most cases.
This is a real gamble on the agents part because if it doesn’t sell the agent is just out the cost. So we bought our own camera and hired someone to do the filming (usually 3-4 hours per listing) and we do not pass on the cost to the agents. This keeps us consistent on our listings be it a $150,000 or a $1,000,000 listing they both get marketed equally.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Some big changes for sure. This year we leased a satellite office in Rice Village and I am looking for a location to open an office in Galveston in 2018, setting our sights on San Antonio and Austin not long after that.
We in the planning stages of Franchising Imagine Realty International, we have applied for our trademark and hope to have that worked out by the end of February. Getting the systems in place has taken a bit longer than I thought it would but the goal is to have everything ready by the end of 2018.
My husband will be joining us to head up the Corporate side, with his 40+ years of experience in contracts both national and International he is the perfect one to lead us on that adventure.
Contact Info:
- Address: 22210 Highland Knolls Katy, TX 77450
- Website: www.ImagineRealtyInternational.com
- Phone: 832-444-2363
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ImagineRealtyInternational/
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