My Journey to Real Estate and Working with Coldwell Banker.

I absolutely love writing! I love the excitement of finding a topic that intrigues me, the research in educating myself on said topic and the writing process itself.  My hope is that if you’re able to take away one thing from any blog you read and use or adapt it in your own life… Enjoy!

How I came into Real Estate and working for Coldwell Banker?

Like many people, I’m still searching for a job I love…. And I think I’ve found it.  I’ve had several careers all of which I enjoyed for different reasons.  And I know many people who absolutely love their chosen profession and just as many that loathe going to work. This brings me to the famous words written by Harvey Mackay:

“Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

Truer words have never been spoken.

Some time ago I made a decision to make yet another career change and had no idea what that would be.  Afterall, there are countless options out there so many it’s overwhelming.  I read books on finding your path, spent hours upon hours searching the Internet and talked with many of my friends.  I came to the conclusion that my next profession needed to incorporate a few things:

Flexibility: The ability to seamlessly weave my various volunteer efforts into my day-to-day schedule as community involvement and volunteerism are very important to me.

Detail-oriented: A career where I can utilize my love of spreadsheets and detail.  I’m highly detail-oriented to the point of OCD and for those of you that have the same skillset recognize it as both a superpower and a curse (my kryptonite).

Socialization:  I love meeting new people, getting to know them and immersing myself in different communities.

Challenge: I still love to be challenged on a daily basis and the mental and emotional discipline required to take on a large task by breaking it down into smaller steps and accomplishing said task.

Personal Fulfillment: I enjoy volunteering so much that as silly as it seems if I could get paid to be a volunteer (yes, I know that’s an oxymoron) I would do so tomorrow.  That being said, providing a service that truly brings happiness would bring me joy.  I remember how long I searched for my home as I was looking for very specific things.  My agent was the most patient person on the planet.  And I love going home, being in my home and it has every feature I want in a home and a neighborhood.

After months of self-reflection and a little prayer, I decided a career in real estate was a great next step!  If I can help people buy their first home, find their dream home, sell a home and accomplish their real estate goals while giving an exceptional experience and helping them feel the way I did when I bought my home… I AM ALL IN!

So now what?

Figuring out how to get a real estate license was easy i.e. pre-licensing course, lots of studying and passing the state exam.  By the way, I’ve got some great suggestions on vetting real estate schools as well as studying and passing the 63-hour sales associate course (and state exam) that I’ll share in another blog.  The more important task at hand was to identify which brokerages I wanted to interview.  Sure, I could have just picked the closest brokerage, the broker I’ve seen on a billboard or a targeted online ad.  However, I’m not one to jump around a lot from company to company and I wanted to work in an office that included certain aspects:

• I want to like and enjoy the company of my co-workers.
• A team environment where employees help one another.
• A social component where people socialize outside of work.
• Challenging employees to better themselves in achieving company goals.
• Being rewarded appropriately for my efforts and commitment.
• A space of respect, morals and professional couth.
• And any company that embraces volunteerism and community involvement gets high marks in my book.

Culture is the most important thing to me in an office environment.  Let’s face it… most people quit their jobs due to a bad boss, feeling undervalued or recognized, non-competitive benefits, nature of the work, mismatched culture fit or being overworked.  So I did what made sense to me and asked all of my friends who I know are well-engrained in the community if they know a realtor or broker they like and if that agent enjoys their brokerage.  I developed a very long list of companies supplemented by names I’ve heard and those in the Orlando Business Journal.  Then I spent countless hours on the Internet researching different aspects of each company including culture, brand recognition, training, local reputation and some hard metrics as well as talking to agents that I knew worked for brokers.

The hard work was done then I proceeded to conduct a dozen or so first interviews and narrowed that list to three potential brokerages and conducted second interviews to get answers to the questions that meant the most to me.  I wasn’t looking for the broker that was closest to me… I was looking for the best fit for my preferences and needs as a new agent.

Enter Coldwell Banker…

Coldwell Banker (CB) is one of the oldest real estate brokers on the planet having been founded in 1906.  They are continuously recognized for growth and market presence offering a culture emphasizing Home, Awesomeness, Ingenuity and Excellence on a local, regional, national and global level.  Having been in business for over a century they’ve developed education, marketing systems and transaction support (in my opinion) second to none including ancillary services with titles, lending, luxury homes, rental homes, property management and commercial real estate.

One of my favorite aspects of Coldwell Banker is Coldwell Banker Cares, their philanthropic arm of the company.  My brokerage, Southwest Orlando, has its own CB Cares Committee.  They are located in the heart of Dr. Phillips just a few minutes from my home (so I can look after my dog throughout the day).  AND it’s a stone’s throw away from two other places I spend a great deal of time – The Dr. P. Phillips YMCA and Holy Family Catholic Church.  Big bonus… I even like the corporate color… blue.  It’s the same color as my scuba gear!

That being said…

Now you know the journey that led me to real estate and Coldwell banker.  My goal of being a local market expert in my community, Dr. Phillips, and that of being a resource for all things real estate to my friends and neighbors I well under way.  And I have to say I am very excited about the many opportunities available in real estate and a career path at Coldwell Banker where I’m empowered to help both my customers, clients and fellow agents in any way I can to achieve personal and professional success.  I’m going to love it here!

Cory Prado

REALTOR®