Lauren Bowen Is Leveraging Her Medical Expertise To Prepare Brokers
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Lauren Bowen’s shift from healthcare to actual property is probably not extraordinary, however her process-oriented mindset has fueled her success in each fields. As a pure chief, Bowen sought a profession that provided independence, in the end discovering her calling in actual property.
Bowen joined Robert Slack, LLC, in 2014, shortly rising to workforce chief in Ocala, Florida, the place she expanded the agent roster and led the workforce to prime efficiency in conversion, transactions and quantity. Now, as Chief Working Officer, she oversees 12 workforce leaders and holds actual property licenses throughout 5 states, with 10 years of trade expertise.
At present, Bowen is concentrated on adapting to NAR rule modifications, which she describes as “probably the most urgent difficulty” her workforce faces. By means of devoted coaching and clear communication, Bowen has ensured her workforce’s clean transition.
In a dialog with Inman, edited for size and readability, Bowen mentioned these challenges, the true property trade’s latest shift within the wake of fee lawsuits and what she’s trying ahead to at Connect Austin subsequent week.
Inman: Have you ever narrowed down the instruments that you simply’re planning to debate throughout your Inman Join Austin session?
Lauren Bowen: We’re going over just a few totally different tech instruments that we make the most of. Now we have a large database, and we shall be going over Observe Up Boss for our CRM. We’re additionally going to be referring to RealScout, Fello and CallAction. We’ll additionally throw out some others that we use like Digital Maverick and Ylopo.
Is tright here the rest that you simply look ahead to on the convention? Is there anybody specifically that you simply’re excited to see?
I all the time love the worth and the audio system that Inman brings collectively. We have been at Inman New York, Las Vegas, and Miami, and we’ll be going to Austin. They cater to the world fairly nicely by bringing related audio system to every of the areas. Now we have brokerages in Miami and in Austin, so bringing audio system and what’s relative to that market has all the time been a powerful level.
I haven’t seen Tracy Tutor communicate in particular person, and I’m trying ahead to seeing her communicate. Ryan Rodenbeck from Spyglass Realty shall be there. I do know what he and his workforce do, and we’ve been capable of decide his mind a bit. I’m excited for a few of these audio system who won’t be as heard-of on the market with the ability to present the worth that they’ve been capable of assist us with.
I noticed that you simply used to work within the healthcare trade, so I used to be very interested in how that transition from healthcare to actual property occurred.
I don’t assume it’s that extraordinary that folks know that I got here out of the healthcare trade, however you’re truly the primary one which has requested what that transition appeared like, and why it occurred.
I labored within the working rooms for 10 years [as a certified surgical technologist and first assist], after which I received married and had a child. After I had my son, my coronary heart truly stopped, so I wanted the pacemaker, and at the moment, we weren’t certain if I might be ever capable of resume working within the place I used to be in.
I began taking a look at different careers the place I could possibly be my very own boss and dictate whether or not I used to be working or not. I discovered actual property and received my license and went from there. I assume I’ve been doing operations my whole life, whether or not it’s working discipline or operations for the corporate.
Are there any abilities that you simply realized within the healthcare trade that you simply discover helpful in actual property?
I do. I used to be educated to be very process-oriented. Workplace surgical procedures are all distinctive, with totally different variations of what happens, however they’re process-oriented. I labored on the whole OBGYN, podiatry and main cardiovascular. From begin to end, you’ve got a process that you must comply with and a technique you must comply with, and that helped me with actual property.
I used to be very methodical and really process-oriented once I got here into actual property. I like individuals, so it was simple for me to construct that relationship with the consumer, get them to showings, get them by means of a deal and assist them of their largest monetary resolution they’ll ever make. It actually continues to be a course of, and you must study it.
It’s a must to discover what you’re good at doing, and you must discover what you’re unhealthy at doing as nicely and tweak that. The method is behind each fields. I do assume that studying that within the healthcare discipline did assist me reach the true property discipline as nicely.
What’s been probably the most urgent to you latterly available in the market?
Essentially the most urgent factor that we’ve needed to give attention to is the lawsuit — the modifications and challenges of the NAR lawsuit that happened, and the procedures that we needed to put in place. 4 out of the 5 states [that we operate in] have been totally operational and already utilized BBAs, however our largest state, Florida, didn’t have BBAs.
Within the states that we did have them in, I can’t say we have been all the time doing them earlier than the exhibiting like we should always have been. So actually needing signed agreements previous to taking purchasers out to the home was probably the most urgent factor that we’ve actually been specializing in for in all probability the previous three or 4 months. Our brokers wanted to have the ability to articulate the worth of what they’re doing, why purchaser’s brokers have been wanted, in addition to with the ability to get the purchasers to belief them, as a result of this wasn’t one thing purchasers had ever been used to.
Whereas there have been loads of brokers who wanted schooling on what was occurring, we needed to educate the purchasers as nicely, so we’ve actually put an immense period of time into all of our coaching, our purchaser displays and our Robert Slack Information. Now we have scripting, we now have role-playing and we opened up Zoom rooms daily the week it went reside to ensure we might reply any questions.
To verify, you mentioned that 4 of the states already had BBA’s?
Florida didn’t make the most of BBAs previous to this. Idaho, Colorado, Texas and Georgia did make the most of them, so we have been fairly fortunate in that occasion, however we now have to ensure we’re getting them signed previous to showings now. Generally, it was the second, third, or I hate to say, I believe we had some occurring when the presents did, which was not what we should always have been doing.
How have you ever helped workforce leaders that you simply oversee navigate the modifications, and is there the rest that has been working rather well for you for the reason that modifications took impact?
We realized fairly early on that we couldn’t do it as a generic or basic session between all of our workforce leaders, as a result of every state was so totally different, even within the paperwork that they’d. We needed to break this down into state-specific programs, state-specific classes. Texas and Florida have been in all probability two of the most important teams that we had as a result of Florida gave us our kinds very late. Texas modified the kinds the day earlier than.
The largest worth that we’ve had is consistency, and that’s within the coaching we’ve held. Now we have a NAR Version, Slack Information is what we name it, that goes out each Thursday which incorporates: state-specific kinds, clean kinds that the brokers can print out and stuffed out copies so that they know what info to place the place with descriptions subsequent to them. We do that for the entire states we’re in in addition to the scripting and position enjoying.
What’s our stance on a number of the objects that got here ahead? Plenty of it comes all the way down to dealer stage. What’s our stance with regards to listings? How is the fee being paid?
Having the ability to be very clear to our brokers and our workforce leads, being constant within the info we’re giving them, was in all probability one in all our largest strengths we had. When the time got here to launch this, I’m assured to say, it was a bit bit smoother crusing than what I anticipated as a result of we now have been engaged on it for therefore lengthy with all of our workforce members.
