Riezl Baker
REALTOR®, Co-Founder
Luxury Lake Oconee Real Estate Group, a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®
Greensboro, Georgia
https://luxurylakeoconee.com
Region served: Lake Oconee, Greensboro
Years in real estate: 21
Number of offices: 1
Number of agents: 6
What are some of the current trends you see in your market right now?
The digitalization of real estate, which will lead to more technology tools for our consumers to use. We’ll be seeing more of the 3D tours, virtual staging and specialized drone tours we’re using today—and we’ll continue to leverage these tools.
The pandemic fueled the migration of people from cities to the suburbs, and I believe that will continue this year. Quality of life has become more important, and the emphasis on lifestyle will continue. People will relocate by choice, especially those in the luxury market.
What is one of the challenges your market faces today, and how will you overcome it?
The demographics of our market have changed. In the past year, there have been more retirees moving out this way, and we’re now seeing a lot more of the millennial and Gen Z demographic. Social media will become even more important as the younger generations are notorious for using social media and rely on it heavily.
Tell us what it means to be part of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE).
As part of the LeadingRE network, we’re connected to 500-plus brokerages and over 100,000 REALTORS®. The national and global exposure that our boutique luxury brokerage gets is very important for us.
What ultimately attracted you to LeadingRE?
The quality of brokers and agents in the network, most of whom are the most renowned experts in their local area(s). Many of them are very experienced dealing with our clients because they have dealt with high-end luxury clients and high-end luxury markets before. It gives us a lot of confidence when we refer our clients to somebody in another area because we know they will be taken care of in the same way we take care of our clients.
What services, resources and support has LeadingRE provided that have helped your business grow?
The referral network is vital for our brokerage. Having the expert in that local area and being able to refer our clients to someone we can trust to provide quality service is a big deal for us.
Jennifer Harding, vice president of business solutions at LeadingRE, is very involved with our company as both our partner and our ally. She has come to our office to train our agents on the benefits of being a member of LeadingRE as well as the tools we can use to elevate ourselves when working with clients. She keeps us updated on what’s happening in addition to the events we can take advantage of.
What is your best advice for new agents?
You must be resilient and adaptable to changes in the market. You also have to be patient because there’s no such thing as overnight success. Real estate is a very demanding profession. You must put in the time and effort to develop the skills, learn your market and become a local expert. Lastly, always put your client’s interests first. When you set both yourself and your business up that way, you’ll become successful, and you’ll be in the real estate profession for a lot of years.
For more information, please visit https://www.leadingre.com.
