Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
A story about Connecticut's Century 21® AllPoints Realty's recent expansion has peaked the interest of a lot of our readers. So, we took the opportunity to speak with PJ Louis, who's the Vice President and General Manager, the firm about the move to partner with one of the Florida panhandle's most successful agencies, CENTURY 21® Blue Marlin Pelican. Here's the Q&A with the industry veteran.
RealtyBiz: CENTURY 21® AllPoints Realty recently expanded into Florida. What was the business reason for expanding into the Sunshine State? Also, why did you decide to align with CENTURY 21® Blue Marlin Pelican in the Panhandle?
PJ Louis: For decades residents of the northeast have constantly moved part-time or full-time to Florida so there is a synergy that we knew we needed to be a part of. We continue to strategically look for companies or teams with similar cultures. Over many years of recruiting, acquiring and merging with agents and companies, we have learned that culture is the most important part of any deal. I have known Jerry and Leslie for years and they have a great company with a phenomenal culture. I have always looked at the agents as my clients and what can we do to make the experience better for every agent. Ryan and Kelly Peterson at AllPoints have always been an agent-centric, family-owned company so as we talk more this just made sense for the companies to work together since so many things aligned.
RealtyBiz: What are the benefits to real estate professionals, home buyers, and sellers of the newly combined company serving both Connecticut and Florida?
PJ Louis: More and more people are moving to Florida and the Emerald Coast is poised for extraordinary growth. The region has amazing beaches and water, phenomenal food, and terrific hospitality. The region is expected to grow by 6% in population over the next few years. The Destin/Ft. Walton Airport broke a record in visitors this year and are looking to expand with more direct flights. From Panama City Beach to Pensacola this area is truly amazing and a special place to visit. This market is ready to explode. As we continue to look and grow throughout Florida the benefits remain the same. Consumers may work with the same companies or even the same REALTOR® they know in either state. Our team can facilitate a smooth transaction in either market to ensure our clients have the best experience. CENTURY 21 AllPoints Realty creates a one-stop company for our clients no matter what their needs may be including mortgage, title, inspections, and home warranties.
RealtyBiz: How are CENTURY 21® AllPoints Realty professionals positioned to take advantage of today's housing market?
PJ Louis: Today’s market or even the past couple of years has created a constantly changing, exciting, and challenging market depending on who you are. We work with our agents daily by providing in-person and online skills and education classes, weekly coaching sessions, and sessions on how to get business today. We coach our agents on how to succeed and win in this market while always doing the best for our clients. No matter what the market, agents need the skills to succeed so we strive to teach those skills daily.
RealtyBiz: What are some of the core value propositions of working with CENTURY 21® AllPoints Realty?
PJ Louis: AllPoints really is a unique company. Agents have their own marketing coordinators who will do CMA’s, set-up drip campaigns, do monthly newsletters, Make social media posts, do digital marketing and we send postcards out for all our agents for free on new listings and sales. We also do transactional support, contract support and lead generation for our agents. The idea is we want to not only help them get the deal to the finish line but support them, help our clients, and create new business while they can spend more time with family.
RealtyBiz: As a family-owned company, how are you able to maintain the qualities that have made CENTURY® 21 AllPoints Realty so successful over the last 30 years?
PJ Louis: From Beverly Peterson to her daughter Kelly and son Ryan, we have never lost sight of the core values that Beverly instilled in the company. The agent is our client, and we want to strive to make sure every agent in our company hits their personal goals whether that represents 10 deals a year or 200. We are here for them to hit their goals. We constantly push these core values and are always talking about how to improve and what we can do to help our agents. I know we will continue to have weekly conversations internally and strive to be better. Every week we discuss ways to continuously improve because we want to constantly enhance our value proposition to our agents and the consumer.
