Take It from the Top

The red-hot housing market a few years ago had people from all fields hopping careers. While some came in as investors, hoping for quick and profitable flips, many others earned real estate licenses to cash in on the market, working either part- or full-time. Now that the tide has turned, many of those realtors are drowning in the glut of homes that aren’t selling.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 17 percent of the 256,000 realtors and licensed real estate agents in Florida earn an unimpressive gross income of less than $10,000. The median figure is just $47,700.

Yet a number of realtors in Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties—those who are standing firm in the flood—regularly pull in as much as seven figures annually. Do they know something their competition doesn’t? Obviously, yes.

In the following pages, five agents, whose colleagues consider them at the top of their game, share strategies for success—in any real estate market.

Thomas L. Campbell Jr.
Why he’s thriving:
Niche focus, spends on marketing
After practicing law in Naples for 17 years, Campbell turned to real estate and has been in the business for the past 17 years. He’s worked at Premier Properties of Southwest Florida since 1998.
Campbell is in an enviable position. He sells real estate in perhaps the highest end of the Naples market, concentrating on the multimillion-dollar Port Royal area. He has called it home for 30 years—and business is better than ever, in spite of gloomy sales reports from other parts of Southwest Florida.
“You can’t paint the entire real estate market with a broad brush,” he contends.
According to Campbell, 32 properties sold in the Port Royal area by the end of July this year. In all of 2006, 46 properties sold. The total in 2005 was 60 and in 2004 it was 75.
It’s not just the number of properties that are selling that counters the dark cloud hanging over the industry. Record-setting prices add to the luster of the area’s luxury market. He’s obviously in the right place at the right time—because people with money want the best properties. But Campbell says his personal rules of success apply to realtors selling at all levels of the business, whether spectacular beachfront mansions or cozy condos.
“First of all, you cannot be current in every market area. You have to specialize, and it takes years to gain the knowledge you need. To get started, I’d suggest working with somebody who has been doing what you want to do for a long time.”
The realtor also points out that getting a license is not a get-rich-quick plan. Hiring a competent assistant is a must. “And people must spend a lot of money on their business.” (Campbell has spent more than $50,000 promoting one property.)
Finally, the realtor must put the best interest of the buyer or seller ahead of his or her commission and understand the importance of camaraderie among the ranks.
“To be successful, you must get along with others in your field and gain their respect.”
Bill Earls
Why he’s thriving:
Experience, tweaks buyer mentality
John R. Wood’s top-producing realtor has been with the real estate firm in Naples for 18 years. He previously spent six years with another organization.
Experience counts, Earls points out, and National Association of Realtors’ stats back him up. According to the organization, the median income of realtors with 16 or more years experience is about five times greater than the median income of those who have only been in the business for two or three years.
Earls, who has been John R. Wood’s top agent for 17 of the past 18 years, says, “We learn by our mistakes and experiences. You get better.”
To be successful in today’s market, he adds, it’s the realtor’s business to let buyers know they have to switch gears. “The focus used to be ‘location, location, location.’ Now it’s ‘location, location, price.’ Buyers must be willing to price their property based on an accurate quantitative analysis of value rather than coming up with a number based on market frenzy. They need to know that if they truly price their property using the comparable sales approach, it will sell within a reasonable period of time,” Earls says.
Despite gloomy real estate reports, he believes the market is soft but not disastrous.
“We just got carried away for a couple of years. Everyone was playing with Monopoly money and a lot of people were buying on spec,” Earls says. “Now it’s back to basics and people are buying based on reasonable quantitative analysis.”

Carol Lockett
Why she’s thriving:
Resales, rentals, 24/7 availability
A broker-owner of Gasparilla Properties in Boca Grande since 1999, Lockett has been in the business for 28 years.
After selling real estate in Maryland and around Washington, D.C., Lockett relocated to Charlotte County, where she was employed for four years as an on-site sales associate for the upscale community of Boca Bay until it sold out. Today, she primarily handles listings, but she also serves as a rental manager on Gasparilla Island and the Cape Haze Peninsula.
Recently, resales at her former stomping grounds, Boca Bay, have accounted for a huge part of her bread-and-butter, Lockett says, although business has slowed down a bit.
“This year our first quarter was probably the slowest first quarter I’ve seen since I’ve been in Boca Grande,” she admits. “However, since April to [late July]—and we’re in the off-season—we’ve had 11 resales [from slightly less than $1 million to $3 million], so things are looking up. In addition, we’ve had a record-breaking year for rentals—and renters can turn into buyers.”
Service, she adds, is the key to success for today’s realtors. “The heyday is gone. We are no longer taking orders. Now every phone call is critical. I’m accessible, almost to a fault. You can’t pick and choose your hours. You may get a call on Christmas Eve, late evening or Sunday afternoon. And if you’re not available, someone else will be. Success definitely hinges on the type of service you provide.”
Lockett also cites the advantages of longevity in the field. In her case, referrals and repeat business make up the bulk of her business.

Susan Ball
Why she’s thriving:
Takes courses, educates clients
A 20-year Florida resident, Ball has been with Coldwell Banker in Cape Coral for five years.
Ball is relatively new to the real estate field but credits the breadth of exposure and variety of challenges she faced during her previous career in marketing to her rapid rise in her new profession.
However, it wasn’t just sales techniques she honed working for 3M and several airlines that have stood her in good stead, she says. Rather, it was her strong commitment to continuing education.
“Don’t try to get by with the minimum required by the licensing board,” she advises. “In my case, I’ve taken selected programs to help me specialize in the type of clientele I want. That’s one of the reasons I went with Coldwell Banker. I got a month of additional training, which I think was critical to my success.”
Since then, Ball, a member of Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in speech communications and Spanish, has taken a raft of courses, leading to certification as an e-marketing and negotiating specialist. She also graduated from a comprehensive productivity course for top-producing listing real estate agents called Leader’s Choice.
Her education has paid off. Ten of her listings have sold in the past six months.
Ball also credits her rise in the real estate world to the motivated sellers with whom she deals—people willing to follow professional advice.
“This is a fluctuating market and requires my repeated studies on a weekly basis. I pass this on to my clients. My job is to get ahead of the curve and not follow the market down.”

Lauren Fowlkes
Why she’s thriving:
Ace negotiator, cautiously optimistic
A Naples realtor since 1991, Fowlkes joined Downing-Frye Realty in 1999.
Fowlkes specializes in selling homes in one of Naples’ prime beachfront communities, Pelican Bay. Like other successful realtors, she sinks a lot of money into marketing and touts longevity as a key to her success. Her greatest strength, however, may be negotiations.
“We start the negotiating process before we get the contract. Every time we show a [seller’s] property, we are trying to condition the perspective, the outlook, on this property,” she says. Fowlkes or one of her staff is at every showing to ensure that no questions go unanswered. “We are right there with our finger on the pulse of what that buyer is sensing about the property.”
Fowlkes also negotiates with buyers she represents, especially those who want to pay far below list price simply because of the weak market. Though by law a realtor must submit any offer, Fowlkes does her best to keep clients reasonable before putting a low-ball figure in writing.
“I try to get them in touch with their feelings [and ask]: ‘Do you really want to end up with the property? Because if you do, this kind of offer will make the seller totally infuriated, and the seller will dig his heels in,” Fowlkes says.
Helping buyers and sellers feel positive at the negotiating table is no small feat; she says the real estate market in Naples has been “an 18-month ordeal that hasn’t even reached a plateau,” and predicts a foreclosure-filled first and second quarter in 2008—when the three-year adjustable rate mortgages mature for many investor-purchased homes.
Despite the frank forecast, she is optimistic about real estate for those who didn’t try to get in as investors during the boom. “If you bought a property before 2004 and you went to sell it today, you’re still going to do well,” Fowlkes says. “And in this marketplace any seller can work with the very best agents out there.”