A Healthy Way To Buy a Home in NYC and Westchester
With hesitation, I did my first podcast (and this one has video in addition to audio!!). I was a bit unsure of what the process would be like, but I figured, why not try it? I was a little uncomfortable in front of the camera (cut me some slack, I’ve never done this before), as you can see from my wandering eyes. But, I think I held my own.
The Podcast Content
In Dr. Josh Handt’s Healthy Life NYC Podcast, I discussed how and why Dan (my husband) and I started Digs Realty, how it has grown organically since 2014, and why we are unique in a sea full of New York City real estate agents.
We are ecstatic to be where we are today with a little bit of luck and a lot of happy clients. My dad always says “it’s better to be lucky than good.” I agree, but it’s even better to be lucky AND good!
Luck
When we started our commission sharing model in 2014, we had very few competitors in New York. We built a basic website ourselves (which we seem to redo – professionally now – every year or so), I taught myself what SEO is and how to maximize it, and the leads started coming in! In the beginning, I would say about half our leads came from the web and half came from friends and their referrals. Dan is a real estate attorney, always obsessed with NYC and its real estate, so it was quite an easy transition for him into brokerage, with a small learning curve. He was able to fulfill his clients needs right from the start.
By the time I was ready to join Digs full time, I had spent years shadowing Dan, keeping up with his email and to-dos and filling in for showings, helping on board packages, and reviewing proposals and analyses. Thankfully, my learning curve was quite small as well.
Skill (Good)
As someone said to me recently, “Dan is special.” It’s true. While many clients initially came to us because of the huge rebate we offer at closing, they stayed with us because Dan is one of the best there is. Everyone on the team is lucky to have him as a mentor, so we can all learn from him and emulate why people love working with him. We have multiple clients who have bought and sold with us three times. One family is working on their fifth transaction with us.
Over time, our client base has completely changed. 90% of our leads come from referrals (mostly from current and former clients) and 10% come from the web. Now, we have a number of competitors in NYC, and they do A LOT of advertising. In fact, if you google Digs Realty, you will pretty much always see an ad for one of them. Thankfully, we have never needed to advertise, and we started early enough that we now have a strong, loyal customer base that keeps our business thriving. We are able to keep offering such large rebates and discounts because we keep our overhead low. Our competitors may have funding behind them, but if they aren’t GOOD, they will not succeed.
Referrals are everything in this business. We work hard, do our best, and never forget our clients’ interests. This is why our clients tell their friends about us and why we have succeeded.
