4 QUESTIONS FOR A PRO: Managing broker Bob Stanley

Published: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 5:23 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 5:23 p.m.

For nearly three-quarters of his 40 years in the real estate business, Bob Stanley worked in Miami. He also ran the offices for Coldwell Banker in Cincinnati for a decade.

When he got tired of the cold weather, her returned to the Sunshine State with the intent of working as a listing and selling agent. But in 2006, he was offered the job of running Coldwell Banker Previews International's office on Longboat Key, and he's been its managing broker ever since.

Stanley oversees a team of about 50 agents, including some of the most successful Realtors in the area. Over the past five years, three of them have been the top Realtors in the Sarasota-Manatee market and No. 1 in sales among all Coldwell Banker agents in Florida. This year the office will exceed $300 million in gross volume.

Correspondent Chris Angermann spoke with Stanley at his office on Longboat Key.

Q:What's it like to work with such a cadre of highly driven, successful people?

A:I love it. It's very invigorating to be work in such a stimulating environment. It would be easy to get stale after 40 years in the business, but I can't afford to be.

This office is filled with business people, not real estate people. That's what I find so intriguing.

They think like business people, they run their office like business people, and they get the results they're getting because of that.

Many of them sold the Arvida products when they started out more than 25 years ago. They were new-home sales people then, and when you look at the changes in the marketplace and the way they have responded to the needs and wants of our consumers over that period, it's just an incredible achievement.

Q:Are the challenges of working with such heavy hitters?

A:When you have a small market like ours, there is bound to be overlap. What I've found, though, is that they have figured through the years how to deal with that in professional ways, so there is esprit de corps when it happens.

There are cases where a seller will change from one person to another, and everyone understands that they've had their shot, and that it's good to keep the listing in the office and put a different perspective on how we market that property.

There are disappointments once in a while, but when you think of the amount of businesses these folks do, it's minuscule in the overall scheme of things.

Q:What do you see as the challenges for the market?

A:This summer was the first indicator that the market is changing. It was a lot more robust than it has been in the past, and the line of demarcation between summer and winter selling seasons is grayer now.

We've got 11 waterfront property transactions over $1 million on the board this month. I think some of it is driven by the uncertainty where taxes are going in this political climate.

Wealthy buyers want to be in on the market they understand rather than on something that may be changing down the road. So I think we're going to have a good year.

My concern looking at 2013 is to make sure that if this flurry of activity is real, to make it sustainable; and if it's merely an adjustment, that we have a way to maintain the momentum of the new market as it emerges.

Q:What about the impact of the Internet?

A:It's huge. We used to be the gatekeepers of information, but we have to recognize that the buyers are much more educated than ever before.

They understand value and neighborhoods. That puts a lot of pressure on agents to be more astute and knowledgeable about the marketplace than what the consumers can find online.

On the sellers' side, it gets down to marketing and how we present a property to the world.

It's not just how many people can you physically bring to the property. People look at virtual tours and Google Earth, etc. They either eliminate your property or decide to move forward from their living rooms, dens and home offices. So as an agent, the copy you write and the pictures you put up are all about finding the hooks in the offering that will capture those buyers.

It's critical to stay in front of these developments, and it takes study, effort and being involved. You can't just be on the periphery of this business and expect to write orders.


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