Coldwell Banker Village Green Realty’s Regional Sales Manager Returns To The Fold

At Coldwell Banker Village Green Realty we strive to be the best company out there, a company where employees, agents, and our clients feel valued and excited by what we’re all about. It’s moments like these when we know that our core values of, “Home, History, Ethics, and Excellence,” are hitting a real estate sweet-spot!

 

Amy Wallace: Amy! I want to personally welcome you back. I'm so happy to be working with you again. I feel like we’re getting the gang back together!

 

Amy Forste: Thank you, Amy. I'm so happy to be working with you too! I'm thrilled to be back to CBVGR and part of the family again!

 

Amy Wallace: I know you liked the position you were in right before you returned to us, but there must have been one or two things that made you want to come back "home" to CBVGR. What was the one thing you missed most about being at Coldwell Banker Village Green?

 

Amy Forste: Oh my gosh! The thing I missed most was absolutely the relationships that I had here, not only with the staff - Candida, Guy, Dylan, you, Alexandra, Jenna, everyone, but also with all the agents I worked with. I didn't realize how much those relationships meant to me until after I'd left.

 

Amy Wallace: I know, we all feel the same! And I imagine it couldn't have been just one thing you missed, so, like a pushy little kid (you know I can be that way) I'm going to ask you what the second thing you missed the most was?

 

Amy Forste: (laughs) I would have to say the fulfillment that I got from my position. I've been in this field for a really long time, 20 plus years. I've found that I am absolutely a person that thrives on sharing my knowledge and teaching. That was something that’s a part of this job that just really made my day on a regular basis; when I could just help somebody solve a problem – helping a dozen people a day is even better! Every time I help an agent, it helps our clients too. I loved being in training classes with agents, and not only new agents but seasoned agents who would pop in just to see what was going on, and the agents that had been doing this for 10 or 15 years would walk out of those classes and say, "Oh my GOSH, I never knew that.", about some small detail. You know, just that feeling of helping them be the best they can be was phenomenal.

I love a culture of learning, and I think that’s one of the things that sets CBVGR apart – we focus on learning something every day. We offer so many ways to do it -  weekly classes with Coldwell Banker trainers, group and one-on-one trainings with Candida (Ellis – Principal Broker/Owner), and trainings with Kyle (Woerner – the company’s Training Specialist) on all the tools the agents have at their disposal. Agents at CBVGR have the expectation that their fellow CBVGR agents will know the business and understand the market on a really high level; they trust each other to know their stuff. That always made me proud to wear my CBVGR swag to the supermarket, I trust my agents to offer the best service to anyone I meet while I’m wearing the logo.

 

Amy Wallace: That's great! I don't know if there's a better way to work than to have that kind of relationship with your co-workers; you give them something and the giving itself brings you fulfillment; you trust them and they trust you; you all feel proud of who you are as a group and of what you do. That's absolutely how I feel too. Here's a non sequitur, I suspect that many people don’t know the job description of a Sales Manager in a Real Estate company. And I also know that the title means different things at different brokerages. Can you talk a little bit about the specifics of your position, what your duties are at Coldwell Banker Village Green?

 

 

 

Amy Forste: Sure! I am here, or I am back, as a resource for our agents; a resource for success in their business. I'm here to help them with their business planning. One of the hardest things about being an agent is making sure that you've always got business coming in. That takes planning - marketing planning, planning for sphere of influence cultivation, planning for lead follow up. I mean, in real estate you hear stories of an agents saying, "Can you believe my neighbor listed with such and such?!" My question for those agents would be, "Well, did your neighbor even know you were a real estate agent?" I'm here to make sure those situations don’t happen to our agents. I meet with our agents several times a year, or more if they want, and I help them plan to achieve their goals. It's really important to have that kind of support, somebody to help them track what they’re doing throughout the year, and also be their backup when they need it. Some agents want to sell just a couple properties a year and some want to be a top producer or have their own team. Whatever their goals are, I'm there to help them pursue them. We go through what marketing they should be doing for themselves, talk about how they might reach out to their sphere to make sure they're at the top of mind for past clients and family and friends when it comes to real estate. We find ways that work for them to create a constant flow of income - and it's not always the same for every person. Some agents are great at social media - others don't want to do it but do like prospecting in more old fashioned ways. I love hearing all the ideas and providing strategies based on what I've seen work in the past. As a Coldwell Banker affiliate, we have great resources at our disposal - incredible trainings and networking opportunities, social media tools, client relationship management tools - I help agents plug those resources in where it makes the most sense for them. I'm also here support them in their transactions. No agent should be an island, things come up in real estate sales that sometimes require shared consideration and problem solving - I'm here for that - serving as a sounding board and contributing my experience.

Finally, I also point our agents in the right direction in terms of the resources that are available to them. We have great tools for our agents – tons of training, a really cool CRM, market reports, listing presentations, self-promotional pieces, social media advertising tools, digital advertising tools - I help our agents discern where they can best employ them all to meet their goals.

 

Amy Wallace: You’re on top of all that!

I’m curious about something. In my own life, I always find that taking a break from something gives me great perspective - it can be so illuminating to get out of the thick of things for a few minutes. Did you experience that in your time away? Do you have any thoughts about what you might do a little differently than you did before now that you’re back?

 

Amy Forste: You know that old saying, "You don't realize what you have until you lose it?" I have a whole new perspective coming back in. I know a lot of new agents have come since I left and I'm just super excited to meet them and help them find their way in the business and in the company. When I left, we'd just gone through pandemic chaos and real estate, while real estate “stayed open” it was stressful during that time, the state made changes to the rules of how we could show properties and contact clients with each change in our understanding of the virus. I think I, like perhaps everyone else in the country and maybe the world found that my day-to-day work had become reacting to the issues and changes that day brought instead of working as a proactive guide. My agents were meeting their goals, but we were all so busy we lost a little of the connection that's so important. When you're helping agents whose business requires them to be out-and-about communication and connection need to be cultivated. Touching base with one another before there's some reason to react to a specific set of circumstances leads to achieving goals. My goal is to be connected to our agents, whether they need me right then or not.

 

Amy Wallace: Next question. As part of the real estate obsessed millions, I may be a little too focused on decor, I've got to know what is the one change you're going to make to your office space? New art, a new desk set? You’re a planner, so what are you planning?

 

Amy Forste: That's a funny question! You must have notice that I don't keep much in my office. My space isn't that important to me. But I did actually have a plan for plants. I've got two awesome windows in my office in Kingston and I'm going to get some plants in there and get to work!

 

 

Amy Wallace: Plants sound great. No need to mix it up too much. When we were on zoom the other day and you were sitting in your office I felt like we were just back to normal. Here’s to “back to normal” CBVGR style.

 

Amy Forste: Cheers!

 

 

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